My first visit to Great Wall consisted of pain and gain

I didn’t sleep very well on the night of Oct 18.

I was anticipating my first visit to the Great Wall of China the following morning. My friend and I were set to make the 90-minute or so drive to the Mutianyu section of the wall, and I was filled with excitement, along with a twinge of nervousness, wondering if I would be able to endure what was sure to be quite a trek for us.

I think I managed to doze for a couple of hours before I woke up and realized that I had overslept. I had to rush to meet my friend, who would be waiting for me with his car at Longze station.

We managed to evade the brunt of the daily morning traffic and arrived at Mutianyu at about 10:15 am.

We each paid 180 yuan ($25), which covered the entrance fee and a round trip on the shuttle bus (from the ticketing area to the base of the wall and back) and a ride on the chairlift to the top of the wall to the No 6 watchtower and then back down again.

Our plan was to walk to the No 15 tower before returning.

I’m actually quite afraid of heights, and the idea of a large man like me sitting on a chair suspended from a wire high off the ground was terrifying.

But it was the best option, so I gritted my teeth, held onto the chair with a death grip and did my best not to look straight down. The views were stunning, but I didn’t take out my phone to snap photos because I was too busy praying that the wire wouldn’t break.

Having survived the trip to the top, we began our journey up and down slopes and steps that were either very short or gigantic. It’s almost as if the ancient architects built the wall to obstruct not only enemies but also any soldiers working on it.

All the while, I huffed and puffed past people of various races and nationalities, listening to them chatter breathlessly in several languages (in fact, Mutianyu is the first place I’ve visited in China where foreigners outnumbered the Chinese). It wasn’t overly crowded, but there were a good number of people on the wall that day, each of them enjoying the beauty that I also admired during our walking breaks.

We eventually made it to the No 15, and I was strongly tempted to fork over more money and take the nearby cable car to the bottom, rather than face the prospect of hiking all the way back up and down the steps to the chairlift.

Fortunately, my desire to save money, coupled with sheer

Jamal Branford willpower, propelled me back to No 6, though my legs strongly protested.

I took note of the time spent on our wall journey once we made it back to the base.

We got to the top of the wall at about 11 am, and it was just after 2:30 pm when we got off the chairlift at the end.

So in all, we spent about three hours and 30 minutes walking around.

Not a big deal for people who are in pretty good shape, but a huge deal for me. I felt like a champion!

Overall, it was a great day. The weather was great, the views were spectacular, and though I was barely able to drag myself around my apartment the next day, I consider my visit to the Great Wall to be one of the greatest things I’ve ever done in my life.