THE HORDES ARE BACK!
Great Wall of China Over-Run With... Gaping Tourists

Story and Photos by Vivienne Mackie

This great engineering marvel, constructed to keep out the hordes, those wild Mongols from the steppes in the north, is now being invaded again, but this time by peace-loving hordes. The Great Wall, a wonder of the world (whether visible from space or not), is a magnet for visitors to Beijing. The new wave of invaders is friendly and a spirit of camaraderie prevails as they jostle along, huff and puff up the steep steps and perspire profusely in the humid heat. Everyone’s in this together, all experiencing one of the world’s “must-sees”.

The Great Wall of China winds across the country’s northern periphery for more than 7,000km (longer than the width of the USA), spiraling over green mountains, rugged peaks, and desert plains. Kingdoms of the Warring States Period (5th century BC) built the first sections of the wall but Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (of Xian fame), linked the sections together to create the Great Wall in 221BC. For thousands of years, the wall protected China from barbarian attacks and facilitated communications between the central part of the country and its distant frontiers. The skeleton of the wall is more than 2,000 years old, but much of what you see today dates from the late Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, when the emperors, threatened by Mongol invasion, mobilized to extend and fortify it. The most famous “barbarians” were Genghis Khan, who stormed Eurasia in the early 1200s, and his grandson Kublai Khan, who defeated the Song in 1279.

One Saturday in July we joined the throngs on a visit to the Badaling section of the wall. The Chinese government has opened three sections of the wall to tourists, all easily accessible from Beijing, but Badaling is the closest and apparently the one most closely restored to its ‘original’ condition: Every tower and turret stands as it did when the Mongols overran the country 700 years ago. But, because of this, it is also the most crowded section.

Our first view of the wall had been from the air---a concrete snake coiling up and down the mountains. We surmised that, if visible from the plane then it must be huge, but just how huge, how monumental, was a surprise. What was also a surprise was the size of the crowds. We had been prepared by the university students who accompanied us---it’s summer season, it’s school holidays, it’s a Saturday---but still, we were taken aback at the sheer numbers. Tour bus after tour bus rolled in, car after car, van after van, creating an impenetrable traffic jam. (Luckily we arrived very early, before 9 am, at which time the traffic was still moving). A sea of people poured out of vehicles and flowed into the site, past well-stocked food stalls and souvenir shops.

Various stairways lead to the entrance gate, then more stairs up to the actual wall. My first reaction was one of disbelief, not at the wall, but at the number of people on it! From the initial entry point, the wall rises steeply both sides, so you can see it marching up left and right. All I could register at first was a seething, moving mass of people, a colorful body that pulsed up and down, like an army of small gnomes. After a few minutes I was able to shift my focus off the people and notice what was holding all this humanity, this modern army of tourists, which may well be as big as any former Imperial army moving along it.

We turned left to go up on that section of the wall, as it seemed marginally less crowded than the section on the right. It’s a very wide structure, like a walled road in the hills, following the contours and ridges, some of the ups and downs very steep, with steps or a ramp. At intervals there are open lookout posts, or closed guard towers, now the preserve of very persistent souvenir hawkers. Some are so dogged that they follow, trying to get you to look at their wares. The students told us everything is probably more expensive here, so we tried to ignore the vendors, but it was a little difficult when, for example, one woman followed us with the “I climbed the Great Wall T-shirts”. They began at more than 100 yuan each, and as we walked on, saying ‘no’, then trying to ignore her, the price rapidly dropped until we could have bought one for 25, or 3 for 60, a ridiculously cheap price. Are these people so desperate that they would actually sell the shirts for so little? These tenacious sellers were a less attractive part of the experience.

And it was an amazing experience, in the true sense of the word. I huffed and puffed up the steep parts, stopping to catch my breath, wondering how those soldiers marched along here with heavy artillery. The marvel and sheer scale of the construction began to impact us more than the number and noise of the visitors.

We wondered how those early builders hauled all those huge stones up the mountains and then erected this structure that has stood for so many centuries. Obviously, (forced) labor was cheap and plentiful but, still, somebody had to DO the work (with limited tools and equipment).

Can you find a little peace and a contemplative moment, to really appreciate this wonder? Walk west to the end point of the renovated section open to the public and be patient. The hawkers will eventually leave you, and the crowds ebb and flow---most people don’t bother to go all this way. In the quiet moments in between you can imagine you are alone and a guard is patrolling. We sat relatively quietly and gazed in wonder, beginning to get a better feel for this place. The hills march along in all directions, today so misty that we could only see the closer ones; so misty that they seem soft, white-bluish; so misty that we all seemed to be floating, the horizon and other contours indefinite. It was misty and magical, and as we sat a while we could tune out the noisy crowds. We could try to imagine what it was like to build such a structure, what it was like to be a soldier on it, guarding an empire against the savage hordes.

Some parts of the wall are surprisingly steep---up, down---so we got a renewed appreciation, first for the builders, and then for the soldiers and guards who manned it and marched along, and then, grudgingly, for the persistent hawkers, who run along it day after day. In a way, the hawkers today are just as deadly as the soldiers must have been!

The creamy stones form a creamy-brown barrier that snakes along the green ridges. Looking out in the opposite direction from the parking lot and curio shops way below, we saw that the hills are still wild, still mostly without habitation, so this relic of civilization seems even more surprising. Large stones we might expect, even a group of stones forming a partial barrier, but this mammoth man-made wall is surprising. We looked down on the unrenovated part, twisting away up and down, and it’s magnificent. It makes one think big thoughts, philosophical thoughts about human achievement, which makes a lasting impression on the future.

Many visitors wanted to take their pictures with us and we were happy to oblige. The friendliness was palpable at that soaring height. Everyone who comes to China wants to visit the Great Wall, although the role of this great historical structure has changed rather---uniting people briefly, instead of trying to separate them.

We went down in the cable car, which wasn’t heavily used at that time (40 yuan one way, 60 yuan round-trip). As we hung suspended over the hill, it was really peaceful, all the hordes left behind and shut out.

Would I have missed the visit? Definitely not.

Should you go? Without a doubt. It’s one of the world’s wonders, so celebrate the durability of human creation.

GETTING TO THE GREAT WALL

Official tourist buses leave daily for Badaling from bus #1 station at Tianamen Square, or from Beijing Train Station at the 103 bus station.

Many hotels also arrange tours to the wall, often combined with a trip to the Ming Tombs.

If you have a host in China, they are very likely to arrange a taxi for the return trip.

Note: Whichever way you go, try to get there early.

It takes about 2 hours on the Badaling Highway (depending on traffic). It’s a very good highway and, soon after leaving the outskirts of Beijing, it begins to climb into the hills, and you get tantalizing glimpses of the wall.

Hours: Open daily summer 7:30am-5pm; winter 8am-5pm.

Entrance to the site: 45 yuan. Students and seniors 25 yuan. This includes admission to a small museum and watching a movie. We gave up trying to do this, as it was too crowded.