Xizhazicun

So it's the morning of the hike and I made the decision to miss the sunrise at Zhengbeilou tower. From what I read on the net I was already worried about doing this hike by myself (it's unrestored, slippery, steep, falling apart, doesn't have many visitors so should the worse happen it could take forever for someone to help and then it's difficult to say where you are if you do find help). Then there was the 2 days of rain so I didn't want to make things worse by not having breakfast and not having the energy to hike to the other end or go without snacks to keep me going. So I had breakfast and the lovely lady at the hostel made me some savoury pancakes for the road. I left for the wall at 7:30 and without me asking one of the guys at the guesthouse was happy to take me as far as he could in his van to the beginning of the path. For once I did some research and it paid off as I chose the right path everytime to the tower. If I went the wrong way I would have ended up at Jiankou which is much harder to climb and hike. On the way up I passed loads of people coming down from the tower. These were tours that only went to the tower to see the sunrise. I was a bit gutted as the skies were clear and it would have been amazing to see the sunrise come from behind the mountains. One guy I met was Thomas who was a Spanish guy running down the path chasing after his dog. Like many foreigners I've stopped to talk to he was a student taking a year out to learn Chinese. Should we be doing the same? I also passed the lady that spoke little English at the guesthouse and her group. It didn't click until I passed her otherwise I would have stopped to chat, probably to reel off some more landmarks.

Anyway the hike was tiring and it was a hot day. I was knackered and hadn't even reached the hardest bit yet. I took a few stops to catch my breath and eat the delicious pancakes the lady at the guesthouse rustled up for me. There was no point charging to the tower then not having the energy to hike the wall.

I was doing well and within 40mins like the forum I read said made it to Zhengbeilou tower. This is supposed to be the best place to take pictures anywhere on the wall and it was pretty spectacular. I really did strike it lucky with the weather. There were clear blue skies illuminating the green peaks with the odd cloud that casted a shadow below that reminded me of the black smoke in Lost (I'll post a short video later).

The only other people at the tower were a group of Chinese that had camped in the tower. It was so quite and peaceful up there and I took a while just to relax and take it all in. I'm not the best photographer so my pictures probably don't reflect how amazing it was up there.

Anyway I decided to make a move and begin my hike on the actual wild wall to the restored section of Mutianyu.

The wall is heavily overgrown with bushes and trees but there was a clear path to follow most of the way. Now considering this section is unrestored since it was built it was in much better condition than I imagined. I made good progress but could see the famous Ox Horn section ahead of me which would be the hardest part of my trek. As I reached this section I took a breather and looked back to see the group that camped at the tower were now on top of the tower. Now I didn't see any ladder to climb on top which I can only think they concealed it from me so they had the place to themselves. Cheeky bastards. The view from there would have been even better!

Oh well it was time to tackle the Ox Horn. I found it quite easy to climb up and my new hiking boots were working a treat. There were enough footholds and branches to cling to to hurl myself up.

I did however have one moment where I was crawling on the very edge of the wall and my heavy bag slid off to the left and the weight nearly took me over the edge. This was a bit of a wake up call about how dangerous this hike was and I was a lot more cautious the rest of the way.

I made it to the top of the Ox Horn and thought it was fairly easy so far and I had assumed I'd tackled all the hard bits as it was all downhill from here. Oh how wrong was I.

Going downhill was so much harder. My boots had served me well up until now but they had no grip for the slippery stone below me and I had to cling on to the side of the wall as I scaled downhill. My feet kept coming away from under me and I nearly fell backwards a few times and I don't think the stone would have been to forgiving on my head.

I sat still for a second and the sheer drop was disorientating. The problem with holding onto the wall was there were many loose bricks so every now and again you would just pull one out and not be holding onto anything. So I decided to come off the path and walk through the shrubs as there was more rubble and things to grip and hold on to.

I took my time but I made it down alive though I could hear voices near by. It was the group at the tower. But how did they catch up so quickly? They were in their late 40's and didn't look like athletes and I was miles ahead of them when I started the Ox Horn. I only found out when I got back that there was a shortcut to cut out the steep section. Where is the fun in that?

The rest of the way was easy from here and then I encountered and souvenir shop. Hmmm I take it this is where the restored section starts. It was over far too quickly.

Again I thought the hardest part was done but the Mutianyu section was much steeper than I thought and although I was going downhill my feet were far too big for the steps so I nearly fell to my death a few times on the way down.

This section of the wall was swarming with Chinese tourists and not enjoyable in the slightest. I was so glad I did the wild section where it was peaceful and the views were so much better.

There were two options to get off the wall, cable car and toboggan. Well it had to be the toboggan. This was so painful. It's obviously been made for smaller people so I was cramped up on this tiny tray and I was agony the whole way down. But it beat walking trying to get past the thousands of tourists that walked around like lemmings.

In summary the Wild Wall was amazing and easier than I thought after reading some stories on the Internet. I'd definitely recommend staying away from the restored sections.

So I survived the wall so unfortunately there will be more blogs from moi. I'll try to keep them shorter ?Read more