If the Badaling and Mitianyu sections of the Great Wall of China are Beijing’s equivalent of “Disney World,” with their people movers, toboggan runs, lift operations, and endless shops, the Gubeikou to Jinshanling section of the Wall is a real gem for hikers and Great Wall enthusiasts looking for a moderately challenged day hike along one of the Wall’s most stunning neighborhoods. Chairman Mao was reputed to have said to his countrymen that they must hike the Great Wall to be “a true Chinese hero.” Somehow I don’t think he had tobogganing in mind. Today, for China Mojo, is the real deal.
China Mojo hikes the Great Wall of China.
China Mojo hooked up with Lily early, and left the Jade Garden at 8:30 am in our Champ bus. By 11, we had met our hiking guide at the Gubeikou trailhead and started up the ridge towards the Wall. The day dawned clear and sunny, though fairly cold, even without much wind, and we were well-layered up for our ascent. The day proved epic – the light cast on the wall and the surrounding high desert landscape made for phenomenal views and photo opps, and Mojo took full advantage of both. We made some time to shoot our “We Are Champlain” video, with the help of “Ryan Sheetz – International Man of Media Mystery” Productions,” who had recovered nicely from his bout with food poisoning (we think) the day before. (It is always good to have some digital video majors on a trip like this – Ryan has proved an endless source of photographic wisdom for everyone.)
Katrina and Melanie atop the Great Wall of China.
China Mojo up on top of the Great Wall of China.
One of the highlights of the hike, oddly, was a detour we took off the Wall (to avoid a Chinese military outpost – top secret) and down into a working farm landscape, featuring terraced irrigation hills, corn fields that had been stripped for the winter, water cisterns, and sheep flocks grazing in the distance – a good reminder for our students that the high rolling Beijing mojo, particularly in downtown, is not the way most (800 million, give or take) rural Chinese live. We ended our hike by 2:30, in time for a delicious Chinese food lunch of dumplings, beef, pork and veggie plates, heaping bowls of white rice, cold beer, and hot tea (particularly nice, given the chill of the day). Back on the bus for our obligatory post-hike nap, and back to Beijing by 6:30.
Our post-hike lunch - Chinese food never tasted better.
My friend Steve Wilmarth, an educational visionary from New England who has set up the first iPad classroom program in China at a prestigious public high school in the city of Wuhan (our Champlain students spent 2 days in Wuhan with Steve and Chinese host families during our China Mojo trip last March), had just flown in to Beijing on his way back to Hubei province. We was gracious enough to hoof his way out to our hotel during his layover, and we all sat in the bar together over drinks and dinner while Steve explained the nature of his educational project and shared his many insights on China with our group. After spending a magical day on the Great Wall, it was good for our China Mojo posse to get grounded again in the realities and complexities of this rapidly-evolving and influential country, and few are better at painting this picture than Steve.
Tomorrow is our last full day – and we are seeking to shop at the Dirt and Pearl Markets, and enjoy a Peking Duck dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving. And, oh yes, the sheep penis – that’s also on the agenda.
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