Saturday morning I woke up early, went for a run, and got ready to go to the Summer Palace. Molly, my roommate, had taken her parents there last weekend while I was in Hohhot, and assured Georgette and I that the Summer Palace was absolutely beautiful, and we were not disappointed.
The Summer Palace consists of Longevity Hill, which has the Cloud-Dispelling Hall, the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, and the Sea of Wisdom Temple, and Kunming Lake, which is entirely man-made, has an island in the middle, and is surrounded by peace gardens and walkways with willow trees, plum, orange, apricot, and cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, the cloud-dispelling Hall was not in service that day, because it was cloudy, but the air was nice and it wasn't too hot. The walkways all have strips of mosaic-form stones, and you're supposed to take your shoes off and walk along them for a lovely foot massage on your stroll. After I saw a few Chinese people spit in that direction though, I decided that my shoes should probably stay on.
The first order of business was to walk along the Long Corridor, which is a covered walkway and the longest corridor in the country. The Summer Palace was ridiculously crowded, but it was a Saturday, and we are no strangers to feeling crowded in China, so we didn't feel so crowded that we weren't able to get anywhere.
Next we headed to Longevity Hill, and explored the temples and buildings there. Most of them are restricted, and we were only able to look in through the windows at some of the old furniture, and others had Buddhas and religious icons in them, and we were not allowed to take pictures. But the hill is beautiful, and the architecture is at its best. The view from the top temple was amazing, and we could see all the gardens and the lake. I hopped a fence and passed some no climbing signs to get a picture of me in front of the lake and the temples.
Several events occurred on Saturday that indicated this would not be a serious sight seeing experience. On the way down the hill, Georgette and I were feeling so peaceful that we decided to do Taiji in a clearing on the hill. As we started, Damien, who has never taken Taiji before and doesn't know any of the moves, decided that he would join us. As we went through the moves slowly, Damien followed, and did a pretty good job keeping up with us. However, our peaceful Taiji practice turned into a performance, and we amassed a large crowd of curious Chinese tourists, who all clapped for us when we finished.
Then, just our luck, a woman was selling goofy masks that we put on over our eyes and nose. We could blow into a mouthpiece and a piece of wrapped paper shot out on both sides. They were for children (obviously) so I had to scrunch up my face in order to accomplish the purpose of the mask. One Chinese woman thought we were just hilarious, and was killing herself laughing. I decided she should be in a picture with us, and she put on her best weird face to fit in.
We finally got to the bottom of the hill, and we went over to the Stone Boat, or the product of the funds for the Imperial Navy in the late 19th Century. In fact, the British and the French destroyed the whole Summer Palace in the mid-19th century, and the Empress Dowager Cixi decided it would be a good idea, despite oncoming naval wars with Japan to use the Chinese Navy's budget to rebuild the whole Summer Palace, and put all the excess money not into a ship that floats, but into a beautifully hand-crafted marble boat that certainly does not float. It is famous as the symbol of Imperial excess and irresponsibility in China.
After visiting the boat, Georgette, Molly, and I decided that we would like to be concubines for the day, and we purchased the headresses that concubines wore in the 19th century and wore them around the Summer Palace for the duration of our trip. I thought that having some Chinese soldiers on our arms would complete the ensemble, so I asked three soldiers walking through the park to take a picture with us, and though a little confused, they obliged.
Once we accosted the soldiers, we got onto a dragon boat, one of the many boats that cross Kunming Lake. There are paddle boats, speed boats, and these ferry boats in the shape of dragons that took us to the island in the middle of the lake. It was a pleasant ride and we had a picnic while sitting on the boat and enjoying all the scenery. People standing on top of a bridge were flying kites on top of the lake, people were paddling around in boats, and the gardens were far away from the sounds of the city. The whole experience was so peaceful, despite our goofy concubine and Taiji antics. I really enjoyed having a day of relaxation at the Summer Palace before my adventures the next day.
The Great Wall is called 长城, or Chang Cheng, in Chinese. Many people mistake this to mean the Long Wall, but it actually means the Long City. All of China's cities were once walled, and when the Great Wall was built it encouraged merchants, vendors, families to move close to the inside of the wall and support the soldiers. There was also a vision for a unified China, a city state created within the boundaries of the wall. As the wall expanded and was rebuilt over time, it began to serve more as a barrier to the Huns and the Mongols, and less as the walls of the imagined city state. Although I had been to see it once before, I decided I hadn't had my fill of the Great Wall yet, so I signed up for a huge hike on Sunday. The hikers met at Lido Holiday Inn, and we climbed onto a bus for a two hour bus ride north towards the border of Beijing province and Hebei province, where the Gubeikou, Jinshanling, and Simatai sections of the wall are located.
The nice thing about Gubeikou is that it is very ruined. The sides of the wall are still in place, but the stones of the walkway have eroded away and all that is left is rubble and stamped earth to walk on. This part of the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1368, though defensive walls of stamped earth were built as early as 555 A.D. This part of the wall required intense concentration, because in many places slipping on some rubble meant falling off the wall and down the mountain. The Chinese call the parts of the wall, like Gubeikou, that have not been renovated "wild wall."
At one point we had to get off of Gubeikou and walk along side it and down into Spider Valley, because on the other side of Gubeikou there is a military training ground. We could hear guns going off as we walked through the valley, before climbing back up for lunch after safely passing the training ground to a point where we would not be able to see in anymore. After lunch we continued on along Gubeikou until we reached Jinshanling.
I have been to Jinshanling in the wintertime, and upon returning to it I was amazed again at how beautiful the area is. Apricot blossoms were in full bloom along the mountains, and Jinshanling, a newly renovated part of the wall, stretched over the mountains. After walking for three hours along Gubeikou, completing the steep steps of Jinshanling was a daunting task. Here vendors who make their living off of selling food and souvenirs to the few tourists who come here offered us cokes and "I Climbed the Great Wall" tee shirts. But the nice thing about Jinshanling is that, while it's been renovated, it is far enough away from Beijing that tourists don't really come out to this part of the wall. In my opinion though, it is the most beautiful spots on the wall.
We walked on Jinshanling for another three hours, our knees getting a little bit wobbly from all the stair climbing. At some parts of the wall all there is to walk on is one side of the wall, with about a foot and half for you to balance on, and the steep ridges on either side. I'm lucky that I'm not afraid of heights, because even some of the regular hikers were getting a little nervous.
If you click on some of the pictures you can see the Great Wall snaking up over the mountain ridge. What is amazing about the wall is not its size or the fact that even the most ruined parts of the wall built in the 13th and 14th centuries are still here, it is that the wall continues on forever across the landscape. If you wanted to you could walk on it for days and days. About eight hours was quite enough for me. It is overwhelming to imagine how many soldiers and workers constructed the wall over the treacherous mountains and how long it took them to complete it.
After the three hour journey over Jinshanling, we finally reached Simatai, the last part of the wall we would walk on. While Jinshanling is, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of the wall, Simatai is definitely the coolest. A little bit more ruined than Jinshanling, Simatai stretches over the very tops of mountains and across Mandarin Duck Lake, recently renamed Simatai Reservoir. This part of the wall has become popular with trekkers for its near vertical climbs from watchtower to watchtower. You also can take a zip line down from the wall, and across the reservoir to the other side. I ended up not doing that, but it looked like a lot of fun.
At this point of the hike our feet were dragging and we were all sweaty and sunburned (especially me). We trudged down to a small town at the foot of the mountains and all ate a late lunch together at 4pm, drinking tons of water and scarfing down chicken, beef, eggplant, rice, and potatoes. After the long ride home, I cleaned my self off and nursed my red shoulders with aloe. It was a great day, and I think I really got to see a lot of the wall that is worth seeing.
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