Not all of the great wall is in great shape. Exploring a section of the great wall, we only had to walk a short distance on it to get away from the tourists, and see a section that lay in ruins.
The section we visited is quite the tourist zoo. To get to this section of the great wall, one takes a gondola
lift to the wall. The lift is essentially the same lift as used on ski hills.
Once on the wall, there was lots and lots of people, and one had to almost get in line to
make it through some of the narrower arches. There was also some sort of thrill ride one could take
to get to the bottom. Enterprise trumps authenticity in China.
Other sections of the wall could be seen that had some plants growing on them, without any tourists
walking on them. I thought that would be much more interesting, but I imagine that section of the
wall was not open to tourists. It was also hard to imagine how these sections at some point
formed a continuous part. Or perhaps this is where different parts of the wall once met.
After walking what didn't seem like much of a distance - 3 kilometers at most, I noticed that
the density of tourists dropped substantially. In fact, there were sections of the wall where
we were quite alone. Being alone in China is quite the novelty, especially at a tourist site!
As we went on, we eventually hit the end of this particular tourist section of the wall. There was
a spiked fence, barbed wire, and a watchtower with only windows facing further west. The wall beyond
this pint was very fallen down, certainly not particularly 'safe'.
Fortunately, Jimmy has was more audacious than I am. Also, being at home in China, he wasn't afraid. So we found a good spot to climb over the spiked fence, and ventured onwards a little further.
The crumbly section of the wall was a fair bit narrower than the part we had just been on, which
made me suspicious of the authenticity of what we just explored. But then I noticed the construction
style was also different. The bottom part of it was made from what looked like field stones, rather
than large square blocks. So more likely, this section was constructed using different construction
techniques and materials that just didn't hold up to time as well. And so it would have been
more effort to fix. But seeing that most tourists don't venture that far, I guess there was no need
to bother.
Although it was perhaps a bit disappointing that this part of the wall was blocked off. Had this been in North America or Europe, there would have been a hiking trail along the wall. But I think the Chinese have much less of a desire to go and explore the wild as we western types do, so there was no need for that.
