Towering views stretch for miles
My third visit to the Great Wall came in October 2016. I was headed to a convention in China, so I came a few days early to explore Beijing.
This time I booked a day trip with another tour company, Great Wall Hiking.
Gary Lee, the company’s founder, told me in an email that he was running a trip to Jinshanling the morning after my arrival in Beijing.
“It was restored in the 1980s, but it’s still spectacular,” Lee said. “It’s my favorite part of the wall, and if you go during clear weather you can see 10 to 15 miles in either direction.”
Jinshanling is also known for its high density of watchtowers, and each is unique, he said.
Beijing had been cloaked in smog the week leading up to my trip, but a day of rain had cleared the air just before landing, and intermittent sunshine was forecast.
I met a guide, Robert Luo, at a subway station along with four other hikers — three Australians and an Englishman visiting Beijing on business — and we headed through the traffic to Jinshanling.
Owing to a longer, two-hour drive, Jinshanling was less crowded than other developed areas of the wall, Robert said.
He assured us that we would start our hike not at the main entrance but a trail from the east gate that would take us to an unrestored part of the wall, on the west side of a closed section called Simatai.
Changing visions
After just a few minutes on the trail, winding through a canopy of oak and chestnut trees, the wall came into view, topping a ridge that climbed up and east.
It was a not-insignificant climb to get to the structure. We arrived at the first watchtower 30 minutes later, panting — and awestruck.
From one side of the tower we could see the Great Wall rollercoastering to the west across hills and ridges, finally ascending a mountain miles away. To the east, the wall fell away in ruin — the unrestored bit — with rubble and brush confined between the bricks and then to a rapid climb to where ridges were crowned by watchtowers.
Robert encouraged us to clamber east and negotiate some of the crumbling wall. We then circled back to make our way west on the ramparts toward Jinshanling’s main entrance, four miles away.
The view was a succession of continuously evolving vistas — one moment the path before us would be a series of undulations topped by the towers, the next we would be staring down an impossibly steep, sloped staircase.
Although stretches of the wall have succumbed to the elements naturally, Robert said the Chinese government has also played a role.
“In the 1960s and ’70s the government’s official policy was ‘let the past serve the present.’ Villagers were encouraged to build houses using bricks from the wall.”
Curiously, I could see how the quality of the restoration evolved as well. A short stretch at Jinshanling that was rebuilt by a Japanese crew felt authentic and real.
But Robert said a five-mile section of the wall in Suizhong county, 200 miles east of Beijing, was repaired by the local government in 2014 with unlovely results.
Photos show the edifice almost devoid of character, its ramparts looking like little more than an elevated concrete walkway.
“A lot of people are very unhappy about this,” he added.
Lately there are reports that other, formerly “wild” sections of the wall are being tamed — with cement, insensitive or sloppy rebuilding, and ticket booths. Wall-lovers say areas are being ruined through modernization.
The debate on ideal preservation methods for the wall will continue, probably beyond our lifetimes. But with sites such as Badaling receiving as many as 30,000 visitors a day, the pressure to make this UNESCO World Heritage site accessible to more visitors will only increase.
Not over the wall
Although our group was almost alone when we began our traverse at the Eastern Tower with Five Eyes, as we continued west we started to meet more walkers. The mood was festive and joyous, and multiple school groups passed us on this crisp fall day.
After three hours of hiking and exploring 16 watchtowers, we arrived at a trail leading down to the main entrance. I wasn’t ready to go. I could see the spine of the Great Wall coiling over the hillsides toward steeper mountains — I longed to explore more. Robert saw me gazing wistfully. “You know,” he said, “we offer overnight camping trips on the wall, right?”