Saturday 16th June

The last 24 hours have been amazing! Yesterday the end of year tests finished which I am so glad about and all day I have been really excited about our adventure. After school I tried to go to sleep so that I wouldn’t be tired but I was too excited to sleep. I packed my bag and Mr Wang picked me up at 10pm. Mr Wang was very concerned as he said that it was dangerous to be climbing the Great Wall at night and he wanted to make sure that we were not climbing until the sun had come up. We then went to pick up Raena, Doreenda and Amanda and then we were on our way to Jinshanling Great Wall. We had brought pillows to sleep in the car but we were all too excited and singing songs which Mr Wang thought was funny, then we finally arrived at Jinshanling Great wall at 1am.

1am showing our driver Mr Wang the map of our route 

It was pitch black but we had all brought torches and Raena and Doreenda went to investigate how to get past the gate while Amanda and I tried to reassure Mr Wang. He kept saying that we were far too early as the ticket office didn’t open until 8am, he didn’t understand that we were planning on jumping the fence and not waiting for the ticket office to open. Mr Wang was obviously very worried about us as he was smoking quite a few cigarettes while we waited for Raena and Doreenda to come back and he never smokes in front of us. A little while later Doreenda and Raena came back to say that they had found the way and we got our things together. The gate was made up of a few turning style gates which we were surprised to see were open so we could just walk right in. There was a huge map on the wall which showed the route we were taking and we showed this to Mr Wang and asked him to pick us up from Simatai Great Wall at 8am which he reluctantly agreed to after we promised to text him to say we were safe on a regular basis. I thought this was extremely sweet as what other drivers would be that concerned?

1.30am climbing the staircase up the mountain to the Great Wall 

2.30am finally made it onto the great wall and are at the first watch tower 

walking along the Great wall 

At 1.30am and at 18 degrees C, we started the hike up the stairs that would take us onto the great wall up the side of a mountain and it was one of the hardest and steepest things I think I have done. It was pitch black and the only light we had was from our torches and head lamps, but halfway up my torch batteries died (new batteries as well!) I was annoyed but there wasn’t anything that I could do, apart from stay in the light of the other girls torches. We were constantly being attacked by bugs attracted to the light of our torches and even though we had sprayed mosquito repellent, they were everywhere! It was quite creepy going up those steep stairs in the dark on our own, I couldn’t help thinking that this was like the set of a horror film where a group of girls go off into the woods alone to be tracked down one by one by a serial killer! I was all ready to say that once we had gotten to the first watch tower I was going to watch the sunrise and turn back to go to the car as it was so hard I didn’t think that I could do it as my back was already hurting. I took some painkillers and at 2.30am we reached the first watch tower. We were in the middle of a victory dance when we saw a sign saying that this was the end of the wall and we had to go back to the car park. We hadn’t come all of this way to do that so we investigated the watch tower further. Where the exit of the watch tower onto where the wall began we found that the wall had crumbled away and it was a big 4 metre drop down to a path which then led back onto the wall. To get there we would have to lower ourselves down out of the doorway as far as we could and then drop the final 2 metres onto a steep slope down the side of the mountain. If any of us lost our balance we would slide right down the cliff edge! I dropped down first to see how far it was and luckily it looked further than it actually was. It took some coaxing but then the other girls followed me and I caught them at the bottom, then we were finally on our way. Just getting past that first hurdle felt like a huge achievement and I was so proud of everyone for doing it.

Can barely see the way

The watch tower we had to lower ourselves out of and jump down 

The wall itself really was a “wild” wall. It was not restored anywhere and in some places there were no side walls and just drops straight down the cliff. It was overgrown and crumbly everywhere you looked, but it was beautiful. We got to the second watch tower after clambering along downhill using our torches to guide our footing and found that this watch tower also had no adjoining wall, it had crumbled away. The drop was much further this time and I wasn’t sure if we could make it down, but I noticed that there were foot holes that we could climb down with and I gave it a go. I made it down safely and the others followed. This part of the wall had crumbled away so badly that we could only walk single file clutching onto the side wall with the cliff edge on the other side of us, it was a little bit scary in parts but we made it. By the time we had reached the third watch tower we were dreading what condition it would be in, but there was the Great Wall attached to the watch tower and we could easily move on. The wall was still crumbling and you had to be careful where you stood as there were a lot of loose stones and it was very overgrown in parts but it was much easier to navigate.

3.20am the sun starting to rise

 sunrise 

 sunrise 

At 3.15am we noticed that the sun was starting to rise and we were able to take better photos and could see a bit further in front of us without relying solely on our headlamps. The wall was absolutely stunning and we could see for miles as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We had been taking photos at each watch tower using our hands to show the Chinese numbers so we could keep track of how many watch towers we had passed. As the sun rose higher we didn’t need our headlamps anymore and could cover more ground quicker and appreciate the stunning scenery around us.

The Great wall at dawn

the view to the west of the Great wall during sunrise 

the view to the east during sunrise 

celebrating the full sunrise

taking a break

celebrating the full sunrise

This was the 8th watchtower, we hiked all the way to the watchtower in the top left of this photo! 

What we had already hiked

5.30am It really was a "wild wall" 

By 4.45am the sun had completely risen and we stopped to do Tai Chi on the Great wall. By 5am it was now 22 degrees C so we decided to carry on before it got any hotter, we breezed through the next 13 watch towers, each in different stages of disrepair before reaching a suspension bridge over a river which we had to climb down a steep staircase to reach. There was a sign saying that we had to pay to cross or face a penalty, but with no one around at 6am we decided to cross anyway. The bridge was very creaky and swung from side to side as we crossed but it was a beautiful sight. At every watch tower we had stopped for a quick water break but by watch tower 14 we were getting tired as we had all been awake for 24 hours by this stage with only adrenaline keeping us going. We stopped for a snack break as we had been continuously hiking for 5 hours now and needed to keep our energy up as the next stage looked quite hair raising. So far we had climbed up a mountain to reach the first watch tower, then climbed down it to the suspension bridge. We now had to climb up the second watch tower and it looked steep!

the suspension bridge

6.30am taking a break at watchtower 20. 

6.30am taking a break at watchtower 20. 

Watch towers 14-21 were by far the hardest thing I think I have ever done. Our legs were aching and at stages we were on all fours climbing up the steep stairs of the Great wall.  It seemed never ending and instead of stopping at every watch tower for a water break, we were now stopping 1 or 2 times in between watch towers as it was so steep. The whole time we had been climbing the wall Raena had had her Ipod playing upbeat music to motivate us and it really worked. There were parts that I just wanted to sit down and stay there as it was so steep I was convinced that I couldn’t do it, we were all aching so much, were sweating like crazy and were starting to get tired every time we stopped, so we never stopped for long. We each supported each other and whenever anyone started to feel jelly legs we stopped and ate an energy bar and drank more water. This also helped as we each had started the trip with 4.5 litres of water in our backpacks and every time we stopped, our backpacks got lighter. I couldn’t of wished for better friends to share this experience with.

oops!

By 7am we were at watchtower 21 and we saw a sign for the cablecar down, which meant that we were almost at Simatai! His gave us an extra boost of energy and we kept climbing in that direction. We knew that the cablecar didn’t open until 8am so we felt that we had time to rest until it opened. At 7.30am we were almost at the cablecar, climbing down the last steep steps to it when my phone started ringing. It was a friend of Mr Wang’s (his English is quite low so he quite often gets his friends to translate for him) This woman told us that Mr Wang was at Simatai waiting for us, but it was closed because it was under construction and the workers would not let Mr Wang in or let us through so we would have to go back to Jinshanling and he would pick us up from there. It had just taken us 6 hours to get to Simatai. We were exhausted and I knew there was no way I would be able to go back and do those watch towers again so I said that we would climb down the mountain and meet Mr Wang at Simatai. The woman was quite insistent that this was not possible and that we should go back to Jinshanling but I was just as stubborn saying that that was not going to happen. We got to the cablecar and it looked like it had not been used in a while so we started to search for an alternative way down the mountain. In the meantime the woman phoned me back again to say that we had to go back to Jinshangling but I was adamant that that was not going to happen. I was a bit annoyed at this as we had come all this way and we did not want to have to go back and we also felt that we were so close to the end, there had to be a way.

 7.30am the trail down the mountain because the cable cars were closed 

I found a dirt trail down the mountain and we followed that through the overgrowth for a while, it turned to small stones which were quite steep in parts and we were constantly skidding on loose stones. At one point I slipped and twisted my ankle and grazed my arms but I was determined to get to the bottom even though it was quite painful to walk on. We walked along this trail down the side of the mountain for 40 minutes before coming across a campsite. There was a construction man there and he pointed the way to Simatai after questioning us about where we were from. We were worried that we would be in trouble and be made to pay a fine if they knew we had been climbing the Great wall overnight (which is forbidden) so we pretended that we didnt understand and he didn’t speak English so we carried on. We turned the corner and two more construction workers waved to us and showed us the way, shouting in Chinese that we were from Canada, America and England, which is what we had told the first worker. He had obviously gotten straight on his phone to tell his friends! We carried on walking until we reached the ticket office for Simatai, which was a full blown construction site. We were stopped by security here and told we could not go further in Chinese. The security man spoke no English so I phoned Mr Wang to explain that we just needed to cross the building site to meet our driver and get home. The security man the escorted us across part of the construction site to another man who was extremely friendly but also spoke no English but kept repeating Canadian, American and English and pointing to us. We were then escorted across the building site by this friendly man and taken to a car park. We were then told to get into a car with a driver and we started protesting that we had our own driver. I phoned Mr Wang again and he spoke to this security man and then we were told to get into the car. By this point there was a big crowd of construction workers all taking photos of us on their phones, they obviously don’t see many white people in Simatai. We got into the car and this driver took us through the rest of the building site to the security gate about 5 minutes drive away where Mr Wang was waiting for us. Now if we were Chinese I think we would have been made to go back the way we came, but luckily for us we could play the foreigner card of “we don’t understand” I think that it definitely helped that we were white females. Especially to then get the VIP treatment of escorting us through the site and then have a driver take us to our driver. Not that I am complaining, my ankle was throbbing by now, I don’t think I would have been able to walk all of that way.

following the trail of the cable cars 

When we got out of the car and saw Mr Wang, I wanted to run over and hug him, I was so relieved to see him. We had done it! We had hiked the Great wall from Jinshanling to Simatai! Mr Wang looked equally relieved to see us and kept saying how worried he had been about us. We slept in the car on the way back to Houshayu and then went for breakfast as it was now 10am and we were starving! We asked Mr Wang how much we owed him and he said nothing, not to worry about it as he was just happy that we were safe! Now driving is Mr Wangs job and he was telling us that he was not going to charge us as he was so relieved we were all safe, it just goes to show that he is as fond of us as we are of him which is nice to know. We tried to take him for breakfast but he wouldn’t accept, so we put some money together for him and left it where he would find it as we knew that he would not accept it otherwise. Over breakfast we all talked about what a lovely caring man he is and how guilty we felt that he had obviously been worrying himself silly over us climbing the Great wall throughout the night. It just made us like him even more.

At 11am I finally got home to my apartment and had a nap. I woke up again at 1.30pm and felt like I had been hit by a bus, my legs were agony every time I moved them and my ankle was throbbing like crazy! It was worth it though, it was the perfect trip to end my time in China, made even more special experiencing it with my three best friends in China!

I spent the rest of the afternoon tidying up and getting ready for mine and Amanda’s joint leaving party that evening. At 6pm Amanda, Doreenda, Shanna and Raena came round and we ordered pizza and swapped photos from each others cameras before everyone else arrived at 7.30pm.

I had made a Family fortunes game for us to play, during the week I had asked people who were not coming to the party questions like the family fortunes survey and I had also asked classes questions such as I asked Doreendas class what they liked the most about being in grade 3 and I asked Amandas class “If Miss Amanda had a superpower, what would it be?”. Then the people at the party split into two teams and had to guess the answers, like on family fortunes. It was a lot of fun and then a few people started to leave. When there 6 of us left we started a game of poker and it was 2.30am before everyone left. By this point I had had an hours sleep in 44 hours and I was dead on my feet! This has definitely been a day to remember!

All pics and videos to be uploaded next week!