Grand China and the Yangtze
Day Two – Monday 18 October 2010
Weather: Cloud, mist, rain, cool. 12 C
I managed five hours of solid sleep, but woke at 2:30 am (four in the afternoon at home) and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t move till five then got up. This makes coming a day early worth its weight in gold.
So, I did some surfing, wrote up this part of the tale and did my laundry then went down to breakfast. The selection was everything a westerner needed to have a great start to the day. Crepes and eggs were made to order. A whole ham was sitting there ready to be sliced.
A long line of heated items – bacon, hash browns, beans, French toast, fried rice and about ten other things that I can’t remember – including Chinese dumplings. Breads, pastries, melons, juice. All delicious.
As I sat down with my tourmate, the waitress served us tea and coffee and left the “bill.”
Almost 500 RMD! (About $100).
<gulp>
Turned out we just had to give them our room number as the breakfast was included.
We met up with the Concierge and our driver was waiting. He jumped out of the taxi and opened the doors for us and off we went. He didn’t speak English so I chatted with my tourmate all the way.
At least I hope he didn’t speak English – given the “underwear” conversation.
The drive was the usual white knuckle affair through Beijing. Nice part was that they don’t speed.
As I said, Russia was about speed. China was about avoiding obstacles.
The roads to Mutianyu was primarily two lane rural roads, but the road was in great shape. One road ran along a canal for the longest time with trees lining both sides. It was beautiful. After about an hour and a quarter, he pulled into the parking lot which was full of tour buses (not a large parking lot). I asked him how much time and he said three hours.
OMG! He speaks English.
Well, enough to say three hours. I showed him my watch and made a circular motion three times and he smiled and nodded.
I had to make sure he didn’t mean 3 pm.
He led us by the shopping stalls where everyone was “my friend” and brought us up a very steep street to the ticket counter. We had to buy tickets to gain entrance and for the cable car. When I researched the cable car service on Google, I read that I should only buy a one way ticket.
Good call, as you shall see.
The driver pointed up the hill and watched us leave. We followed a tall guy dressed in an old Highlander uniform, bagpipes and all, and found the cable car. It was a steep climb and our legs were starting to get that jelly feeling. I was breathing very hard and had to haul out my mask as I could feel some restriction in my lungs with the really deep breaths.
The gondola was a small six seater and no different than a ski gondola. The ride up was smooth and about ten minutes long. Unfortunately, the hills were shrouded in fog.
At least I think it was fog. My lungs said differently while climbing that hill.
Which was too bad as the trees were starting to change colour and the hills around that area of the wall are forested. The gondola dropped us off and we went looking for a bathroom. We found a line of porto-potties.
Or rather, porto-squatties.
Yup. My first Chinese squat toilet.
Thankfully, I brought along some Charmin. And hand sanitizer.
Then we followed the Highlander and his bagpipes to the staircase, where he was accosted by a little dog who took offense to the animal on the soldier’s head.
Bear skin, I imagine. The dog followed the bagpiper onto the wall, yapping at him all the way. I hauled out my point and shoot to take video when the dog chose that moment to turn around and leave.
Then I look around and think, “I’m standing on the Great Wall!”
Wow.
We walked a short distance to the first guard tower when we heard the bagpipes. I turned around and the bagpipers were leading a crowd along the wall. The bagpipe show on the Great Wall lasted a couple minutes.
Not something you see everyday.
We proceeded through the guard tower and as we exited, it became apparent that we were not coming back that way. It was a long way down.
The nice part about Mutianyu is that you can start at the top and finish at the bottom. People who bought return tickets would have had an easier time climbing Everest.
Granted, just getting down was as much a challenge.
Remember the “jelly legs.”
Well.
The staircases must have all been original. They varied from a tread of one inch to a tread of two feet. The builders were obviously not concerned about tourists.
The varying treads would have really messed up the Mongols, though.
We walked for about an hour and a half, passing through a number of guard towers. There were only a couple of vendors on the wall – selling food, drinks and postcards. In one guard tower, the vendor even had his donkey there.
He let us take a picture, so I bought a set of postcards to show me what the place looked like without the fog.
We continued down through level sections and very steep steps. It started to rain as we approached the bottom where we stood and stared at a section of the Wall that went up.
And I mean “up.”
With a pair of jelly legs under me, I didn’t think I could do it, then I noticed people walking up a staircase off to the side. They told us it was the path down to the parking lot.
And I mean “down.”
We asked about the slide and they said it was closed because of the rain.
Bummer.
But taking the slide would have meant climbing that steep section. So we probably would have elected to go “down.”
The last time I’d had jelly legs like this was climbing to the hill that gives you an amazing view of Mt. St. Helens (before the interpretation centre was built).
That was nothing compared to the Wall.
I’d never had legs shaking like I did going down the modern concrete staircase. It took us at least a half hour to make it all the way down and I honestly was not sure I could make it those last twenty steps to the turnstile. We sat down and ‘bummed’ our way to the bottom of the steps and then we crawled through the turnstiles and faced the steep hill that had freaked our legs out to start with.
Climbing it was easy. Going down, it gave us an excuse to take a break and shop.
All the shirts said, “I climbed the Great Wall.”
I wanted one to say “I climbed DOWN the Great Wall.”
And survived.
We picked up a sub at subway and walked back to our taxi. The moment the driver saw us, he pulled across the parking lot to meet us. I’d never been so happy to sit in a cab for an hour and a half. He took the same route back, and again, the traffic wasn’t that bad.
I returned to my room and took the opportunity to acquaint myself with the bath. As I got in, I thought “too bad I can’t sit the other way and see the TV.”
Then I noticed a TV remote next to the towel.
Yup. There was a TV at the head of the bath.
So, I sat there in a steaming hot bath and watched a show on the construction of the Olympic Water Cube.
Guess where I would be going the day after tomorrow?
(I’ve had this happen before. In Jordan, I turned on the TV one night to catch the start of a documentary on Petra. Guess where I was going the next day?)
The bath was the perfect treatment for jelly legs. But I guessed one wouldn’t be enough.
I also nicknamed my room as the Button Room. Everything has a button.
And I mean everything like this console from the hotel in Shanghai.
Including the Do Not Disturb sign. Yup. Flip that switch and a red sign lights up outside your door. There’s a button to bring down a curtain between the bathroom and bedroom. Even a button to open and close the main curtains next to the bed. Very convenient.
I met up with my tourmate at four to go for a walk to the Silk Market. While waiting for the Concierge, three women were also waiting and one woman started giving me the bargaining hints. Most were familiar from my time in Egypt but she noted that when the vendor grabs me, to grab them back. Apparently, they don’t like to be touched either.
She also mentioned the bit about walking away if I didn’t like the price. If they were at their lowest, they wouldn’t follow. If they could go lower, they would run after me.
The walk to the Silk Market was about fifteen minutes and not hard to find. Crossing the streets meant walking with Chinese pedestrians no matter what the walk sign said.
Either that or a red man standing still means walk. And the green one means run like hell.
The Silk Market was a very clean establishment with hundreds of stalls selling everything from battery chargers (which my tourmate needed) to t-shirts.
There was even some silk.
Every vendor had a calculator which made it easy to bargain. They’d enter a number and you’d enter a number then they would enter another until you both agreed on a price. Not a word needs to be exchanged except thank you (shea-shea) when you’re done.
I picked up a t-shirt and it was dark by the time we left. On the walk there and back, I could feel the restrictions in my lungs again and had to wear my mask. It made a difference. My tourmate mentioned the smell a couple times and I couldn’t smell it through the carbon filter of the mask – and that meant it was working.
We got back to the hotel by six and I went to the ATM in the building next to the hotel. It dished out 100 RMB notes but the front desk could break them down into smaller denominations which was better to use with vendors.
Back up at the room, I was ready to lapse into a coma. I managed to download my photos and type this up, but eventually, the toothpicks holding my eyes open gave out and I dropped like a rock at ten.
Go to Day Two
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