The Great Haul

You can somehow grasp the concept of how many people there are in China by visiting the Great Wall. On any given day, tens upon tens of thousands come to the most popular section of it in Badaling, about 70 km from Beijing. Clearly 99% of the visitors up there are the Chinese themselves, making a pilgrimage to one of their country's icons. I don't think they'll ever run out of customers either.

Although it is probably China's biggest tourist draw, getting there is convoluted if you do not join a pricey private tour group. I wanted to do it the Chinese way so I followed instructions to get to a place where I could take a bus out there and it was a nightmare as I discovered there were at least eight buses with the same number but did not go to the same place. I met two Canadian girls who became so overwhelmed they gave up trying and probably went back in search of a tour group. I finally found the right bus stop way out on the other side from where I thought it would be, and lo and behold, the line up snaked for about a hundred metres. I kid not. Luckily the line was moving fast as they were being borded somewhat systemetically onto buses and one was leaving every 5 minutes as soon as it was filled. I had set out before 7 am to get an early start, it was after 9 by the time I was on the bus. So much time in China is wasted on lineups.

top shows the start of the line (took this when I got on the bus)

bottom shows the line when I was in it, went up over the bridge, 

the bus stop is off the bottom picture to the left of the bridge.

Technology is a bit of a dilemma in China. It could solve some problems but it could also take jobs away. Everything here is amnost meant to be labour intensive: to get a major intersection smoothly running there are sometimes eight policemen manning it; every metro station entrance has two military sentinels; street cleaners work in possies sweeping wide sidewalks manually. The cheap labour does come with advantages, though, as many of the city parks are meticulously manicured and even the some of freeways have flower boxes.

Heading towards Badaling, the mountains rise abruptly from the flat plain. At first they seem like a mirage -- not from some notions of fantasy but because of the hazy smog that veils them until they are suddenly close. The mountains already seem steep and forbidding, which makes one wonder why a continuous wall was so necessary.

I should have visited a quieter and less commercial section of the wall, but Badaling being the most accessible was already confusing to get to. It is really hard to get off the beaten path without much knowledge of Chinese. When we arrived, the public bus crowd was joined by people coming by train and private buses. Fortunately, the wall here snakes along a pass, and they've rally turned it into a cash cow as it is divided into different sections. I joined the hardier majority who preferred to climb up from the lowest section from which you could pick two opposite directions. The lazier/wealthier people took cable cars and funiculars to other sections farther away. The wall top was filled with people, and to ease traffic flow, the climb down was along a pathway beside the wall.

Climbing the Great Wall is one of those experiences that is hard to digest while you are on it. At first it feels like I'm just checking off one of those travel lists like seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty, but then again, in all those things there is the indellible power of context. The Wall would really not be as spectacular without the jagged mountains trailing off into the hazy distance like dragon's teeth.

I blindly follow the crowd to get home, not really understanding any of the signs or the yammering of megaphone announcements in Putonghua (common speech). I've found out what it truly feels like to be a lemming.