Camping on the Great Wall

Finally it’s the weekend again and a much anticipated weekend at that!

Friday was Sports Day for the Chinese students at Beida, so none of them had class. While we were in Chinese, we could hear the students cheering at different events. When I got out of class, I went down to the track to watch Olivia run in the 1,500 meter race that she has been training for.

When I arrived at the track, I should have known to expect something crazy. The men’s races were still underway. It’s a good thing I was sitting in the bleachers alone, because I had to try to keep my giggles to myself. There were some competitors in the races wearing appropriate gym attire, but most were bizarrely dressed. Some competitors were decked in all out matching sweat suits and sweatbands, while others wore jeans and dress shoes, and some were even wearing full suits with their racing numbers pinned on. What was funny was that in most of the races, the runners in suits and dress shoes did not only win, but lapped the last place runner by the end of each race. Also, each runner seemed to have a cheerleading team following them on the turf, cheering and motivating them, of course to the sounds of cheesy music crackling over the PA system.

Olivia did really well in her race, although she was very nervous! She sent me a text message the day before the race, expressing her worry that if she did not do well in the race, that she would “lose face.” This is a common expression and a common concern in China, as many Chinese people worry about their reputations and their family honor. Olivia, however, has nothing to worry about, as she finished fifth out of about 20 other girls in her race.

Later in the afternoon, Olivia came over to Shaoyuan to hang out and watch the Princess Diaries. Last week, Olivia watched The Devil Wears Prada and loved it, so I decided to show her another great Anne Hathaway movie! I was also able to share some of my dwindling supply of American snacks with her. Olivia tried a Rice Krispies treat and absolutely loved it!

Later Friday night, Richie invited a few of us to go out for Sichuan food with his tutor, Hua Si, whose English name is Grace. I had met Grace once before at Propaganda. She is really outgoing and fun to be around. She works for a company right now, but wants to travel and teach Chinese to foreigners.

The Sichuan restaurant we went to was really nice. Sichuan food is typically known as being incredibly spicy and exotic. At this restaurant, the food certainly lived up to its expectations. I also tried new things to eat, including frog and blood. Although spicy is not generally my preference, I have certainly built up a high tolerance to spice since living in China. Dad, you must try Sichuan food, you would love it!

After dinner, we went to Pyro’s for happy hour and then Richie, Cara, Grace, and I ended the classic Wudaokou night at Propaganda.

On Saturday morning, I woke up early to work on final papers. After a delicious lunch at West Gate, we left around 2PM for the Huanghuacheng Great wall. After about two hours on the bus, we arrived at a local farmer’s house. We still had some time before the farmer served dinner, so we decided to go for a walk and do a bit of hiking.

The area was beautiful. This part of the Great Wall is known for the beautiful yellow flowers on the mountainsides. The wall in this area is also divided across a river, with a beautiful waterfall. We were able to walk across the waterfall to the other side of the mountain and hike a bit more near some ruins of the wall.

After walking around for a bit, we went back to the farmer’s house for dinner. The food was actually really good. It was really nice too because we were all able to eat together, including everyone in the program who made the trip, our Chinese friends from Beida, and Dr. Sun, Hong Li, and Joyce Li.

After dinner, we built a campfire in the farmer’s yard and played some games. Joyce Li asked me to host the games with Ben, which was a lot of fun. The games included Chinese telephone, a song and lyrics game with both Chinese and American songs, a Chinese trivia game, a balloon popping game, and best of all, a game called “who’s the drunk,” which involved drinking baijiu, Chinese rice alcohol that tastes like fire water.

After the campfire, the farmer led those of us wanting to camp up the side of the mountain to the Great Wall. Some members of our group chose to stay at the farmer’s house, where they would be warmer and much more comfortable.

The hike was much harder than I thought it would be. When I saw the trail the next morning, I had no idea how we made it up the mountain at night. First of all, it was so dark. The only light we had was the stars, of which I have never seen so many, and maybe five or six flashlights divided between about thirty of us. After hiking up a steep trail in complete darkness for about an hour, we could finally see the Great Wall in front of us.

When we climbed up the wall, we were so hot from the hike and from carrying our backpacks and sleeping bags. Most of us stripped down to just tank tops, which in retrospect seems crazy because it was so cold. We used the flashlights on the wall to scope out the area and find the best place to camp out.

Jay, Gill, Nick, Wang Qian (my Chinese teacher who now refuses to let me call her Wang Laoshi because we are such good friends) and I chose to sleep in the highest tower on our section of the wall. The top of the tower was completely open, so we were able to set up our sleeping bags so we could literally sleep under the stars.

We were able to build a campfire in our tower on the Great Wall, which definitely helped with the cold. Some of our friends who slept in lower towers told us they could see the glow and smoke from our tower on lower parts of the wall and were jealous. Wang Qian also brought a ton of snacks and we were actually able to heat some sushi over the campfire. I don’t usually like sushi, but this kind was delicious!

I had brought my Ipod and my speaker and Jay had brought a deck of cards, so we were able to hang out in the tower, listen to music, and play cards. At one point, fireworks were set off from the farming town below the Great wall. It was amazing standing in the pitch black, open air, on the Great Wall and watching these huge fireworks explode below us.

Our fire went out around 1AM and we decided to try to go to sleep. The embers from the fire kept us warm for about an hour and I think we all slept just a bit. However, about an hour later, we were all freezing! I was wearing three pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, four shirts, and was snuggled in a thermal sleeping bag and I was still freezing. I had my hat on, but it was so cold that I had to pull my sleeping bag completely over my head. It was so cold that I don’t think any of us slept!

Around 4:30AM, we decided to stop trying to sleep. It was so cold that we couldn’t get out of our sleeping bags, so we literally potato sack hopped outside of our tower in our sleeping bags to watch the sunrise. It was impressive that we were able to hop over the ghost doors of the tower, which have an extra step because Chinese legends claim that ghosts cannot bend their knees. Because we had the highest tower on the wall, we had the best spot to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely amazing. I honestly don’t know how many people can say that they have see a 4:30AM sunrise from the Great Wall of China.

Shortly after the sunrise, we packed up to hike back down the wall and back down the mountain to the farmer’s house. I have no idea how we made the climb in the darkness. The side of the mountain near the wall was so steep. I actually fell several times and ended up sliding down the mountain on my butt in the firt for most of the steep parts. I was so dirty by the time I reached the bottom of the mountain. However, the hike down was pretty cool, since we couldn’t see anything the night before. We were actually walking through a farming village. The houses were scattered and we walked by farmer’s houses and farmers in the fields wearing pointed hats and tending to their crops.

When we got back to the farmer’s house, we were all still pretty tired and pretty cold. Once we got back on the bus to head back to Beida, I think everyone fell asleep right away because I don’t think anyone was able to sleep on the wall. However, it was totally worth it and something I will remember for the rest of my life!