For most of us we learned about the Great wall through history lessons and textbooks - and it only seems fair for us to make a pilgrimage to one of the - if not the - greatest wonder of the world.
Bring running shoes, and sunscreen and water. And don't forget the sunscreen the sun here in Badalong is intense.
It's the freaking great wall of China. How else do you prepare - except bring every piece of recording tech possible. DSLR camera, 30 foot selfie stick, iPhone, Gimbal Stabilizer, regular selfie stick, ultrawide Galaxy S10, everything you have on the planet. And then trek it up the wall!
A Big Stick
Climbing the wall is surreal. By the time you've taken you're train, walked miles to the locals entrance that only accepts Wechat pay (good luck if you don't have any local friends) and enter the wall - It's like you're not actually in the moment, but watching yourself do it. There's so many tourists there - so you have to go on a weekday - I can't imagine what it's like to go on the weekend. It felt like Disneyland - you're trying to have your kids experience the happiest place on earth but so is everyone else.
And yet riding through the train and seeing a glimpse of the span of the 1500mile plus wall is something to behold.
The TRAIN
Now onto the fun part - there are secret rail cars that will take you down the wall. The mainstream tourist way is to take the Gondola ride down the wall. Look closely at minor signs and you'll see "pulley cars" or "cable cars". You can walk, Gondola, or cable car. If you're in for the road less taken - and willing to pay 80 yuan, try it out.
By the forces of gravity, disgruntled old men - and a strange lack of other tourists willing to take the train, get ready to board your seat to the understudy of the wall like never seen before. It's a little bit gritty, run down, like an abandoned theme park, and yet thrilling to know that this is the locals way down. I think. Or they just walk.
I loved the different colored seats - spotting the other non-filled trains, it reminded me of a mini-ride at mini-grand prix or local peter piper pizza that you long since outgrown. And yet here you are taking questionable way down the Great Wall of China. The workers have long since grown numb, but there's something so pure about the attraction. I can't nail why it meant so much.
Probably because with China's growing wealth this is the abandoned way of the old.
New growth is everywhere, with a new speed train yet to be built a few years that can take you to Beijing to the wall in 30 mins instead of an hour and a half, Beijing hosting the 2020 games, the shiny new gondola, hosting the Beijing 2019 world expo, it feels as if China is doing everything it can to shed it's gritty roots.
There were very scarce if any street vendors in Beijing or Shanghai for that matter.
And yet here this bright colored empty gravity pulley train run by an old man still existed. For 4 minutes I felt like this was how simple things were.
Until you land at the destination and the cover up of old china continues.
The bottom of the train tracks leads you to the most unexpected - and anbanded city center… an abandoned theme park? Something didn’t' feel right. As the vendors sold us fruit and souvenirs - in a pathway that only those from the train must get to - there were more empty and abandoned buildings. Like the back entrance of your state fair.
Something was here before - and now… nothing.
And out of nowhere - as we bought souvenirs for 35 yuan for a magnet, to 3 yuan for the very same magnet (what a scam! Or how unfair to the last vendor!)… out of nowhere we found 3 lovely playing brown bears.
And then it all made sense. This was abandoned theme park that featured Bears - to complement the Great Wall.
I don't know what happened, but I wish I knew the history of the park. The great park that homed bears in it's hey dey.. Hustling and bustling.
Until the guests stop coming. Until the Wall became the priority. Until China focused on it's shiny new toys… hosting the world expo on the new stage. Suddenly a bear park doesn't stand a chance against a new railway or being the world cultural center for the Olympics & more.
And so the bear park became a last ditch souvenir sell stand for vendors. And so the train runs in the undertow in the confines of the trees below the wall.
And so I wonder about the Greatest wonder of the world, speed trains and gondolas at all. Before I realize I've sunburned my arms taking a 1000 pictures of a place I barely experienced at all.
The wall will stand the testament of time, but Old china is fading away.
But I'll remember the bears.
