The Secret Wall

For my birthday, I chose to spend it on the Great Wall, that is the Secret Wall part. There are many sections of the Wall to see and most people go to Badaling, the very touristy and restored part of the Wall. Since it is always flooded with tourists, I chose to go to a secluded part that no one else goes to and I was able to haggle the price down by $3. Everything in China is negotiable and I am getting better at haggling.


To get to the Secret Wall, we drove for 2 ¼ hours until we came upon some Olympic volunteers. We passed their road stop. We drove for another 10 min and then came upon an army guard stop. Again we passed their road stop. Then, 5 min later, we came upon some locals with their own road stop and we could not get through. I came to realize just how secret this secret wall really is. We listened to our driver speak in Chinese to the locals and we jokingly thought they must have been bartering cigarettes to get us through since our driver spoke no English and looked desperate for another cigarette. After 20 min, we made it through. We picked up our guide who also spoke no English and off we went.



We hiked for an hour before coming upon a large section of unrestored wall. Hundred of thousands of workers built the 5000km Great Wall over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty, and their remains became a part of the Wall. The Chinese built it to create an impenetrable line of defense from invading territories, but it more served as a transportation highway through the land since the guards were easily bribed and bought. The wall also provided a means to smoke signal, using wolf dung, the impending arrival of invaders back to the city. Today, it reminds us of the magnificent and long history of the Chinese.




True to their word, the 8 of us were in fact the only tourists around plus the guide. I absolutely adored my guide and could not help but take a ton of photos of him. He just made my pictures cooler despite the haze and smog. We traversed the Wall for a couple hours and thankfully, did not have to backtrack. We then ate lunch in the village and later that evening, Thomas and I went out and dined on the famous Peking Duck at Liquon Roast Duck Restaurant. Delicious. Heaven found me and I fell asleep quite happy after that. A memorable birthday, indeed.