Daniel's Roads Travelled: Goodness Gracious

I am having breakfast at a small stall in the touristic alley that leads to the great wall. The woman pours a thin batter on the hot skillet and uses a spatula to quickly spread it into a circular crepe. As it rapidly cooks she cracks an egg on to it, spreads it out with the skillet and adds some fresh green herbs. She flips the lot over and brushes the other side with a spicy paste. She is about to add a thicker paste but I indicate not to bother. She wraps up the pancake and hands it to me. It is nice and tasty and I am grateful. A great breakfast. A great start to a great day with a great wall.

We walk past all the small shops, up the path, up the hill. The trees are thin and spindly with small leaves offering little shade. The sky is bright and blue and there is still a cool freshness in the morning air. We reach a stone wall - a great wall - perhaps twelve to fifteen feet high. We ascend stone steps and there we are on top of the great wall of China.

How exciting to stand in this famous place, this ancient wonder of history and legends. As I gaze out over the sparse wild land stretching out to the distant hills I feel like I am gazing over a thousand years. I look carefully to the north for any sign of Mongol invaders. The top of the wall is about as wide as a single lane road. On either side is a stone parapet which alternates height between three and five feet every few feet along.

Chinese currency has pictures of the great wall drawn on their notes. The wall on these pictures snakes ludicrously backwards and forwards. This looks like it has been done for artistic reasons - to show the wall in the limited space available on the paper. In real life the path of the wall looks just as ludicrous.

The Great Wall of China.

In modern times we would bulldoze hill tops and fill in gaps as needed to straighten construction. This ancient wall assiduously follows the contours of the land to stay at the highest point. They didn't make the wall any higher where the land sinks in order to keep the top of the wall level. Instead, when the land descends the wall descends and where a hill has a steep side the wall climbs steeply. It dips and turns up and down small hills hopping all over the place. On the hill tops are battlement towers an extra ten feet or so high.

We walk along the top of the wall. There are plenty of tourists about. Like a not-too-busy city street. "Oh my Lady Gaga!" exclaims a nearby Chinese teenage girl as we climb steep steps.

On top of one of the battlements it is unusually windy. A group of teens have been camping up there. There are two tents set up and they are sitting around chatting.

We follow the wall for about a kilometre and a half. There's not much variety to the magnificent view. We come to a sign telling us not to proceed. The path ahead is closed for renovations. Although the wall is over a thousand years old it has undergone repair and renovation many times. The section we are currently on is only a few hundred years old.

We return the way we came. We pass by a chair lift that many people use to ascend or descend from the wall. We pass by the stairs we came up by. We come to a bobsled.

The bobsled run doesn't start directly from the wall. We walk down some stairs and down a small path to wait in line. The sled is a simple construction with a stick brake as the only control. The brake is on by default. You have to hold the stick up to release the brake. Just as I get to the front of the line there is a delay caused by a shortage of sleds. We have to wait a bit for the sleds to be returned from the end of the run. This suits me fine as by the time I get on my sled the track is cleared for a long way ahead of me.

I lift up the brake and I am off. I start off slowly but then I pick up speed and I am racing down the silvery metal chute. It's a hoot. The track zigzags down the hill through the woods, past rocky outcrops and on bridges over streams. I use the brakes a bit on some of the sharper corners but mostly I just go for it. After about a kilometre and a half I catch up to the other sledders that are starting to bank up and then we all slow down but that's when the ride comes to an end.

Unfortunately taking photographs while on the run is strictly and sensibly forbidden. If I had taken a video it would have looked pretty much just like this one (except minus a couple of people standing by the track) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX7pQNDCf-U

We return to Beijing and in the evening we gather for a meeting to find out if our permits have been approved for Tibet. The tour company manager is there to meet us. We wait anxiously as he reiterates the difficulties involved in trying to obtain the permits and how much effort he and his team have expended. A woman is on the verge of tears convinced that it is bad news. Finally the manager announces with pride and drama that our permits have been approved. We are going to Tibet.