The Greatest Wall of All
The following morning all six of us set off for the Great Wall. We head for a slightly older section of the wall (Mitianyu), hoping to avoid the throngs of tourists at the busier hotspots. When we arrive, the views are simply breathtaking.
Whenever I reach a place of immense natural beauty, time seems to stop. As I stare out over this never-ending landscape, I consider feelings of something so violent and gentile. Like a monster, the wall is something so incredible in grandeur and complex in nature, yet it appears somehow quiet, calm and simple close-up. Thankully, today the beast sleeps.
Coming from Chinese cities that never rest; the silence is wonderful there. Forrest covered lands spread out in every direction, only ever broken by the windy trail of the wall. I wish I was an artist capable of capturing these moments to last a lifetime.
Never did I imagine we’d all be so wildly impressed by a wall. After we’d hiked up thousands of steps for hours, we rewarded ourselves with a cold beer being sold by a local trader. His sign read: “Last chance to buy drinks for 10 km” and that was enough to make me decide I’d already gone far enough.
Then, like the after-effects of a drug-fuelled high, we had to come down - literally and painstakingly, step-by-step. The five o’clock start with a few ropey hours of sleep, were starting to catch up on us. Hiking all day in the summer sun and drinking a cool beer might not have been the best of move either.
We were all agreed that the Great Wall’s views were mesmerising and ones we hope never to forget. The cramped three hour bus ride home was, however, just the opposite.
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