Great Wall of China, 2024

April 7, 2024

John and I visited The Great Wall in fall of 2019, with colorful leaves changing, giving a lovely contrast to the grey and brown stones. We did not relish the thought of spending 6+ hours on a bus from Tianjin, but seeing the wall in spring would be different enough to return.

We loaded onto our vehicle in the three-bus convoy, filled with fellow world cruisers at 9 AM (some chose the longer Forbidden City + Wall tour that left at 8AM and scheduled for 16 hours). A planned three-hour ride with one bathroom stop (only 2 western toilets – good thing I’ve spent quite a bit of time in SE Asia) to the restaurant for the luncheon. Just after the break, I nodded off until my leg hit the outside of one of the floor vents and woke, yanking my leg away – it was scorching hot. John told our guide, who informed the driver. A few minutes later it seemed to be better. As we ascended into the hills, beginning to see some sections of the wall, cars and other buses passed us, honking horns. We continued upward at a slower and slower rate, hearing gears grinding and lurching. Our bus limped along the highway for about 4 miles at approximately 10mph, took our exit, continuing to lurch down a small road, and onto a driveway, when the bus gasped and died. After a couple of failed resuscitation attempts, the guide told us the restaurant was only “about 50 meters away” (more like 250, but not far for the more able-bodied of us), and that someone would be coming to either fix or replace the bus.

The passengers from the other two buses were seated at the tables, served their appetizers but the mains were awaiting our arrival. The meal was very good, with a variety of dishes served family style on a large Lazy-Suzan.

At the end, we had a new bus, the water pump had died on the first one. The new bus even had that “new bus smell”. 

The Badaling section has a funicular added to help with access (or just laziness). Although still early in the season, there were cherry blossoms and other flowering trees beginning to bloom.

We wandered our section of wall for the allotted hour, then back down.

John and I indulged in an ice cream bar while waiting for the group to reassemble.

The last funicular of the day was 4:30 – we took the 4:15 – the escalators going up to the funicular platform were shutting down as our guide tried to round up the last of the passengers. 

We relaxed into the “3 hour” trip back to the ship through some of downtown Beijing, and continued on to Tianjin, entered the giant port area 30 minutes out from Tianjin – and kept driving. Our bus and one other got lost and arrived about 45 minutes later than expected. We returned to the ship only 2 hours before the people doing the “16 hour” tour that included the Forbidden City. 

John took a quick trip into Tianjin the next day, I stayed aboard and did laundry.

Great Wall Info:

Construction: Early stretches were constructed in 7^th Century BC, then connected by Emperor Qin Shi Huang around 215 BC. Over the centuries, many sections fell and were rebuilt with completion of the current wall by the Ming Dynasty in the 1400’s AD. 

Length: 13,170.70 miles (21,196.18km)

No, you can’t see it from space (though it is from low earth orbit if you know where to look)

The presence of dead bodies in the Great Wall is still debated – it is generally accepted that yes, workers on the wall that died were buried within it, but no human remains have been identified in the wall in areas of reconstruction.