seekingmygreaterperhaps

*cue Rocky theme song* I made it to the top of the Great Wall of China! I finally got to see one of the wonder’s of the world, and it was awesome and surreal. I was finally feeling like a champion again and was ready to take on the hike of a lifetime.

But first, let me back up. My group went on May 1st, which happens to be a national holiday in China. Thankfully, not as many people were at the section of the wall we chose, because it was open only to private tour groups (or so they say…). But that does mean that traffic was even worse than it normally is. We basically just sat in a parking lot on the highway for a few hours while there was nonstop honking. What is supposed to be an hour outside of Beijing took us 3.5 hours there… and 3.5 hours back. Also, the driver of the van we were in was a complete asshole. I don’t say that lightly. To start, the van is not made for tall Americans with long legs, as I could barely fit into the seat, making it extremely uncomforable. Not that the driver could help that. But it only fueled my impatience. What the driver did do was turn the ride into a shuttle from Hades. It was super hot on this day, and he refused to turn the AC on, and the only window that was open was the driver’s side window. Things steamed up really quickly. If you remember from my last post, I had bought a lovely Chinese fan the day before, which ended up making Michaella a slightly less hot camper, and the envy of everyone around me. I did share… sometimes.

Dr. Ting said that the driver was flexing what little power he has by making us all miserable and turning the van into a literal hot box. Chinese culture is big on authority, and it turns out people of all shapes and sizes will use it to be mean to foreigners at will. I’m not saying this of all Chinese people, but this was definitely true of this bus driver. I just kept chanting to myself- I’m going to the Great Wall. It’s going to be awesome.

And it was.

We went to the Mutianyu section, and to get up to the great wall, we rode a ski lift! This is Melissa, who is slightly scared of heights and was happy when the ski lift was over. When we approached the lift, the two men looked at me and yelled things in Chinese and then mimed squatting. With a look of terror, I realized they thought I was too tall and something would happen to me on the lift. They pushed down on my head and kept yelling when the chair was coming, and in a panic, I was almost curled into a standing ball waiting for the chair. I probably made myself smaller than even the shortest Chinese woman. Lo and behold, I made it on the chair… but in the flurry that was me trying not to get decapitated, my leg missed the middle mark, and I ended up taking half of Melissa’s foot space. So she had to fit her feet on a tiny inch, and I’m accidentally hogging the entire chair. Oops. China.

And then we were up and on the wall. I stuck with Jill (pictured), Melissa, Laysha, and Josh. We are the fun group, and we ended up with all 3 of the local volunteers hanging with us. It was a blast! The weather was muggy and the air was thick, and you can bet that I was a sweaty mess while conquering the beast of the Great Wall. One of the volunteers kept trying to hand me tissue to wipe my sweat and I was like, this is not a long term solution to this problem. Haha. But it was kind all the same.

It was mind boggling-ly steep at certain points, and I had to use my hands to climb up like how I used to climb up the stairs when I was a child.

It’s a pretty Great Wall if I do say so myself.

We ended up climing to the top, where my finger is. That was the ending segment of this section of the Great Wall, and I felt super accomplished. I was wiped out before I reached the top and one of the other students came down and was like, you’re so close!… so naturally we had to keep climbing. It was well worth it, and I felt like a sweaty rockstar making it all the way.

The post picture. My legs were burning and shaking, but I felt very blessed. I bought a t-shirt that says, “I have climbed up the great wall.” The grammar is really what makes it, and the fact that it’s just a great wall, not The Great Wall. Haha. I am happy with it, and it’s nice and cozy.

My favorite part was the tobaggon ride down the Great Wall. Who wants to walk when you can whiz down the wall on a sled, feeling the breeze in your hair? I got caught behind a mom and her child, who were going really slow, but I gave them some space and then zipped through tight corners and had a blast. I would go up just to come down again if I could.

When we got back, we all treated ourselves to some pizza and tasted the sweet taste of victory.