A man (part 2)

This weekend, I decided to take up Chairman Mao’s challenge to my manlyhood and get up on the wall. The great wall of China, that is. The wall is actually broken and there are many sections scattered around Beijing. The section called Badaling is the most popular destination, and one of the best places to pick up a Starbuck’s coffee. However, the section much further away called Simatai is known to be a more rewarding. Snaking over a mountain-range, it’s both steeper and more visually impressive. When I arrived, I was very happy to see that it is true how they describe the sight: “a dragon in the sky descending into a lake”. Indeed.

On the way there, we stopped at a road-side restaurant. Not only was the food excellent, but so was the whole experience of sitting in the middle of a forest, eating fish we’d just seen captured out of a pool and a cucumber I had picked myself. Not to mention chatting with my party of co-weekenders who included such incumbents as Satomi and Nick, as well as friends and colleagues of Nick’s. If we’d decided to just stay there the whole day and never see the wall, I would have been very happy.

I’m glad we did do the trek across the wall. as now i can say that I’m feeling not only happy, but also quite moved by the whole experience. At one point at a particularly high section of the wall, the view was particularly awesome. It gave me a deep experience of awe. The mountains seemed to go on forever, hidden in mist (pollution?) in the very distance, but green and lush. And across this view spans the great wall in a way that defies any prior conception I’ve had of man-made buildings.

And of course, since walking this bit of wall was more similar to climbing a mountain than strolling across a crowdy square, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm glad I could now look Mao in the eyes if I ever met him.

(Warning: what follows is a self-indulgent piece of half-baked philosphy and/or flow-0f-consciousness amateur psychology. Here be dragons)

Speaking of pre-conceptions… I’m surprised to learn how empty my head is of pre-conceptions when it comes to nature and life outside of a medium-sized city. As a kid I had the amazing privilege of seeing the grand nature of Iceland with my grand-parents. But it seems I was much more interested in the comics I brought with me on these trips and my strange stories me and my uncle used to tell each other. Sitting in the middle of a forest and watching a newly caught fish splatter around on the ground is an entirely new experience to me. I have no internal language to describe what’s going on.

END OF DRAGON TERRITORY

The way down was way easier than the way up. Although much scarier. We took the cable cars down, flying over rather high altitudes but getting some really cool views of the landscape and a different perspective of the wall.