Great Wall part one

I hiked a portion of the Great Wall that few dare attempt. The drive to get there from Beijing takes 4 hours. Since so few people go, the souvenir hawkers can zero in on you and follow you for many miles. The inclines are dizzying, the descents are loose rock slip-n-slides. The total mileage is 10K (6 miles), but it took me 3 hours, 15 minutes. The only other tourists in the area were from the two buses of youth hostellers (twentysomethings) that I went up there with.

Oddly, the only injury I sustained on the Great Wall occurred when I squeezed out of my seat on the bus, scraping my leg on something sharp and probably rusty. It left a huge gash that bled for 10 minutes. Luckily I brought a small First Aid kit. Ironically, 3 other bus-riders disembarked from bus-related injuries as well.

The hike was as scenic as they come. Horizon to horizon, endless Wall stretching over ridgelines and down into valleys all the way into the hazy distance. A few raindrops fell, but went unnoticed. The curious thing about this hike were the hawkers. There were two types:

- the type that sat in the doorways to the watchtowers, yelling out "Water, Beer, Coka." These were the most annoying because they were in EVERY watchtower, so just when I wanted to take a seat and rest, I couldn't. If I stopped at a watchtower, these hawkers badgered you senseless.

- the other type was a "stalker" type. they zeroed in on you, for some reason deciding you were the target market for their picture books, postcards, and/or t-shirts. There were enough of these types (most all of them were middle-aged woman) to have one "stalker" to every tourist on the wall.

I picked up my "stalker" about 100 meters along the wall. At first she just asked me my name, pointed out some sights, and reminded me to "be careful" when navigating a steep slope. About 2 miles into it, she started hawking her wares. I persisted with my No's and my ignoring her products. At one point she told me "I'm Mongolie farmer. We eat corn." and I think that the intention was sympathy.

Well, I finally got rid of her by "outpacing" her. I knew she would give up once she said, "Buy a t-shirt and I go home." So I kept walking. She gave up.

I felt an air of accomplishment.

More on the Great Wall later....