Exploring the Great Wall

On Tuesday, Zoe picked us up at the hotel for our Great Wall of China adventure. She informed us that the Danaling section of the wall to which she had planned to take us was closed! Apparently the section closest to Beijing was being reserved for foreign dignitaries and VIPs. This meant that the entire area had to be secured and no tourists were allowed to visit. So Zoe explained that we would see the Mutianyu section of the wall instead. This section was a little further from Beijing she explained, but it is usually less busy and you can get some amazing shots away from the crowds. With the Danaling section closed, however, all the tourists would come to Mutianyu.

En route to the Great Wall, we visited The Ming Tombs, burial sites of various Chinese Emperors, their empresses and their concubines. The Ming Tombs are situated 20-30 miles away from the Forbidden City where the emperors lived. Upon their deaths, Emperors were brought to the Ming Tombs for proper burial. Their bodies, however, were not allowed to touch the ground. Back in the day, this trek from the Forbidden City to the Tombs would take about 3 days and many groups of strong men.

Each tomb is made up of a burial site, many memorial halls and a tower. Each of these is separated by an elaborate courtyard. We explored one of the towers. Atop the tower was a column dedicated to the emperor. During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s followers had it painted red and out in graffiti, “Long Live Mao”. Curators not wanting to damage the column with harmful chemicals have tried to scrub off the red paint, but it still remains in the shade of pink. After seeing one of the tombs, we decided to make the trek to Mutianyu.

The drive to Mutianyu was another 45 minutes and thankfully we arrived to bus loads of tourist departing. The trip up to the Great Wall took less than five minutes and the scenery was gorgeous. The mountain setting reminded me of Appalachia. The mountains were a couple of thousand feet high and rounded like that of the Blue Ridge. The wall climbs along the mountains and has towers roughly every tenth of a mile. We wandered about a mile and a half until the restored section of the wall met the unrestored section. The more steep the wall, the thinner the crowd. We were able to get some great shots of the wall, and this one is my favorite: