After sampling the firearms of the People’s Liberation Army, I was off to climb the Great Wall of China.
I visited the Juyong Pass section which was first built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Located approximately 60 kilometers from Beijing, it played a vital role in the city’s defenses. I would have liked to have visited a remote, unrenovated section of the wall, but unfortunately my time in Beijing was limited.
When we arrived at Juyongguan, my guide asked me if I wanted to walk the easy part of the wall, or climb the “hard” part that snakes up Jinju Mountain. Still jet-lagged and stuffed full of greasy Chinese food from lunch, I of course chose the “hard” climb. It did not disappoint. There are 1,700 uneven, slippery steps to the top of the mountain – nearly twice the amount contained in the Washington Monument. Thankfully, the unbearable heat and smog from the previous day had been replaced by cool temperatures and a slight drizzle. I’m not sure where my sudden burst of energy came from (the greasy lunch, perhaps?) but I climbed the wall rather quickly. In fact, I totally smoked by guide (it didn’t help that she was wearing completely impractical shoes). At one point I stopped to wait for her, and when she caught up she was incredulous.
“Lindsay, I climb this several times a week, and yet you are much faster. Do you have many mountains where you live?”
“Well, not where I live now, but where I grew up, yeah.”
The start of the climb. This stone is inscribed with the famous quote by Mao Zedong: “If we fail to reach the Great Wall we are not men.”
Getting higher
View from a watchtower
American pose at the top of the Great Wall
Locks of love on the Great Wall
From Erik Bennett:
Hi Lindsay,
My wife Denise and I just returned from a 19 day tour of China and climbed the Great Wall at Juyong Pass (on April 11) – as you describe.
We were the only couple on our tour that made it to the top and we were flabbergasted to see our tour guide there – as he had not passed us on the way up.
He said he came up another way and pointed to where he had come up from.
So I was looking at Google Maps to see if the other way was easier, but it’s too uncertain to tell.
So I Googled and came across your account where you mention an “easy” way. Do you know if the easy way you refer to leads from the other end of the car park and arrives at the top, joining the hard way just below the final turret?
Regards,
Erik Bennett
Sydney
From Lindsay:
Hi Erik,
The easy way I was referring to was just the less steep part of the wall that you probably saw off in the distance while you were climbing (across from the parking lot, snaking along the mountain ridge). Your guide probably came up the the turret using the path that also leads from the parking lot (it is a loop) but I don’t think it would be easier going up that way, because you would still have a relatively steep ascent.
From Kelly French:
What is the distance to make the full loop?