Climbing the Great Wall is as Amazing as it Sounds

On Sunday morning, I got up long before Feng and Mark, grabbed the elevator key, and sneaked out of the apartment. I was a woman with a mission—I had to buy a tank top, any tank top without random misspelled English on it.

I hate shopping and getting up early but I didn’t have a choice since apparently, my backpack was still somewhere between France and China.

The airport had called on Saturday morning—our delayed luggage had arrived, and we could pick them up at 6 p.m. Hurrah!

We spent our first full day in China wandering around Beijing, trying to figure out China once again. At 6 p.m., Feng and I took the subway and the Airport Express. We showed our passports and did the reverse arrival process, walking through customs and the baggage reclaim area. An employee led us to another backroom full of suitcases. “Find your own!”

Feng won the game, locating his suitcase five minutes later.

I lost. My backpack was nowhere to be found.

I was livid.

“This is not fair!” I said with the voice of a five-year-old kid.

I was glad Feng’s suitcase had been delivered but now I was worried my bag was lost. Everybody’s luggage is delayed? Sucks but we’re all in the same boat, and they will all come with the next plane. Everybody’s luggage arrived but mine? Fuck.

“Come back on Monday,” an employee said after entering my backpack’s tag number on his computer.

“Two more days without my clothes, undies, sandals…? I just… can’t.”

“It’s okay, Juliette,” Feng said. “You can have some of my shampoo… my soap. Whatever you need.”

“Do you even have tweezers?”

“I… maybe.”

And this is why on Sunday morning I was buying a small hairbrush, tweezers and a black tank top at the nearest mall—the tank top was the most important item, or else I’d fry on top of the Great Wall.

Going to the Great Wall is quite an adventure. Bādálǐng (八达岭), the most accessible section, is about 80 kilometres from Beijing. The only way to get there used to be by bus and the trip sucked—you had to sign up with a local travel agency, leave at dawn, and make several mandatory stops at various “typical” shops selling tea, souvenirs or whatever. This is why we skipped the Great Wall in 2014 with baby Mark.

But now, there’s a direct train from Beijing to Bādálǐng, so the trip only takes about 20 minutes if you’re lucky enough to get tickets (book two weeks ahead!).

We took the subway across Beijing to Qīnghé zhàn (清河站), a very impressive bus station rebuilt in 2019. Twenty minutes later, we were at Bādálǐng, the deepest high-speed railway station in the world.

It took a while for all of us to get out, and even longer to figure out how to get to the bottom of the Great Wall. Most people took the cable cart. We decided to walk and climb.

And the hike started. We had the choice between the South or the North section. We explored the North section in 2008 so this time, we went South.

The wall averages 7.8 metres tall and 6 metres wide. It winds up and down the mountains like a sleeping dragon and offers amazing views. What the pictures don’t tell you is how steep the climb is between the watchtowers… and how hot it was.

The crowds died down around 3 p.m. and we had the last section almost to ourselves. It was magical… and quite a workout!