The Great Wall and North Korea

2009 09 17 – Day 83 – Dandong

Not far from Dandong is the most northern and eastern section of The Great Wall. Dandong is about sixteen hours by train from Beijing and I found it mind boggling to reflect on the size of The Great Wall given that it runs not only to Beijing, but further west at least another twenty four hours of train journey! The question arises – Does the word 'Great' do it justice?

Rising quickly, The Wall provides a Great vantage point to survey the juncture of China and North Korea. The hills of the former falling to meet the flat farmlands of the latter, separated by the silver ribbon of the Yalu River.

The only North Korean settlement in sight was a small farming village and, at the crest of the wall, a local entrepreneur provided an old, possibly military, telescope to satisfy the inevitable curiosity of tourists. For a small fee of course. Though it felt a little wrong, I couldn't resist a peek and paid the 3 RMB to spy on the unsuspecting villagers below. It felt like I was looking back in time. The way the people dressed, the tools they used, no evidence of basic modern improvements like road surfacing or telegraph or power lines. I tried to capture an image using the telescope to assist my camera and though I didn't manage to photograph exactly what I'd just been looking at, I managed to get something:

Before I could take any more shots, the telescope owner spotted what I was doing and made a noisy display of disapproval, shooing me off his prize asset.

Sometimes even the ambitious engineers of The Great Wall can't improve on nature's natural barriers:

Walking back around the base of the hill takes you literally within a stones throw of North Korea. About as close as you can get without actually trying to cross the border.

I don't know what the sign says, but I could swim it from here.

Teasing those who might be tempted to try and cross, this boats bottom was so holy it would be about as buoyant as a colander!

At busier times, these small boats would be offering tourists a slightly closer view of their neighbours, but without some pretty good yarns to go with it, I doubt if the few feet of proximity gained would be worth it.

I See No Sea

2009 09 14 – Day 80 – Shanhaiguan

I rose early with ambition to climb the nearby section of The Great Wall, hopeful of a grand view over Shanhaiguan and out to sea, before checking out some of the touristy stuff in town and a visit to the shore before heading on to my next destination at the end of the afternoon. Seemed feasible.
A short but wobbly ride in a three wheel red Reliant Robbin wannabe got me to the Great Wall park before anyone else, including, it seemed, the park staff! At first, I was being told by my driver and others hanging around outside, that it wasn't open yet and I couldn't enter, but the gates were wide open and my persistence eventually revealed that actually it was just the chairlift that wasn't operational yet and if I was crazy enough to walk up, then of course I could enter! Which I did. At that point, of course some staff did materialise from round some corner or other to make sure I paid my entrance fee.

Didn't look too bad a climb.
Before I knew it I had my own personal Great Wall climbing coach:

Waddling up to my side and then bouncing on ahead, then pausing to grin back at me – come on Martin! It's enthusiasm was infectious. I'm not quite sure how it managed to bound up stairs twice the height of it's legs, but it was inspirational!

As the climb got progressively steeper I started to worry for my little chum, who now needed more regular breaks, lungs clearly working overtime, visibly heaving. But the panting pooch would not give it up... Until the onward path was a ladder into a tower:

Or so I thought! Down the other side of the tower and re-joining the wall, there was pooch, waiting for me! Clearly the little bounder had been this way before.

Entering the wooded crest of the hill I began to encounter beasties:

Spiders with leg spans of about 15cm, and possibly the hairiest caterpillar ever:

Good thing the temple at the peak had some guardians:

Over the other side, the scenery was quite different and the sun began to power its way through the smog, giving me hope of a fine view:

But time wore on and sun and smog seemed to reach a stalemate and I had to return to the town if I wanted to fit everything in.
By the time I was most of the way down, the smog had won and, though I had a reasonable view of the plain between mountains and sea that Shanhaiguan protected, I would not have the view to the sea that I'd hoped for.

But a wedding or two is not a bad substitute!

One of the two couples enjoying a photoshoot with the greatest of walls on their special day.

Back in town, visiting the First Pass Under Heaven, I got a consolation prize:

At last! A view of the sea!
Ok, not quite what I'd hoped for, but a fine artistic depiction of the strategic significance of Shanhaiguan and its position between mountains and sea.

The Great Wall

2009 09 07 – Day 73 – 3 hrs bus north west of Beijing

“The Great Wall of China; a miracle of Chinese engineering, so big you can see it from anywhere in the world.“ - Father Ted ("Are You Right There, Father Ted?").

Thanks to Ben for tickling my brain with this particular piece of comedic genius. I laughed my way along the four hour walk that is the Jinshanling to Simatai section.

For those who'd like to see that I was actually there and placate the enthusiastic middle-aged local Chinese lady who'd decided we were walking buddies. A whole group of them joined us tourists at the point we got on the wall – the men-folk were apparently working the fields. My 'guide' entertained me with her broken English banter for an hour or so, before persuading me to buy a few of her goods. Normally I would have avoided buying, but she'd been so enthusiastic, cheery and not pushy, that I wanted to acknowledge her good attitude as much as anything.

It's quite amazing when you get views like this, with every rise within sight having a tower on it and the wall snaking its way up and down along the ridges between.
Although we had something of a timetable to keep to meet a bus at the other end, I was confident enough of my pace, from counting the number of towers I'd passed and watching the time, to allow myself to fall behind a bit, to enjoy the wall alone and take pictures at my own pace.

Occasionally the sun would find its way through the thin cloud, which looks good, but with the temperature rapidly rising, I'd be glad when the cloud covered it up again.

A fair few of these millipedes were also making the trek, despite some gruesome evidence of the hazards of hiker's feet – at least half of the millipedes I saw were splat flat and stuck to the stone.

At times the wall was incredibly steep, managed at times with steps

and at others with slopes

and in case you didn't notice the slope:

Most times you could go through the towers, and buy water, snacks, postcards or t-shirts from the sole occupant entrepreneurs,

but sometimes you had to go round the side and re-mount the wall

The start of the dramatic descent to Simatai

Much of the wall from here to Simatai was heavily restored and, having been sympathetic to the regularly observed indignation to wholesale restoration from travellers and Lonely Planet, I found my perspective on the issue shifting. I think it's important to leave some sections unrestored, just maintaining them and making them safe to walk, but I did value walking on some distance of restored wall and gaining a better insight to how it might have looked and felt when it was in use. Of course I'm no expert in the nature and implementation of such restoration works and couldn't say that they'd done the job in the most historically sympathetic way or not.
It was along this restored section near Simatai that I passed an enthusiastic German family. Though we were the only people in sight, they tempered their exuberance as we neared, as most people would, and we exchanged polite nods and hellos. I'd hardly walked 20 meters further when the father couldn't hold back any longer and opening his lungs at the wilderness to the north he roared:
“Die Mongolen kommen!!”
Which gave me something else to laugh about for the rest of the day :)

A section in the process of being restored that I couldn't help but think of as a massive skate ramp!

A bit like a roller coaster, no sooner had I come down, than I wanted to go up again!

The Wall climbs dramatically beyond the Simatai exit, which made me want to ascend, but I only had strength and time enough to climb past two or three towers. Besides, you can't get to the top of that section, or at least it's shut off, as it's deemed too dangerous for general access.

All that up and down is tough on the legs and plenty of tourists pay a few RMB more to ride the zip-line down the last section across a little lake

But I quite like walking and so I did that instead.

Tallinn to Helsinki

2009 07 19 – Day 23 – Baltic Sea

The passenger ferry port of Tallinn is a conveniently short walk from the old town. You can see some of the new town skyline between the two ferries.


Arriving in Finland is a fairly delicate manoevure for such a big ship, weaving amongst the islets and broken headland, including passing by Suomenlinna

Peter & Paul Fortress

2009 07 11 – Day 15 – St Petersburg


St Petersburg gets its name from Peter the Great who, while learning to sail in a small English vessel, decided that if Russia wanted to be great then it needed a navy. So he went about conquering the area that would become St Petersburg, where the mighty river Neva rushes out into the Baltic, from the Swedes who were hanging about at the time. Once conquered, next on the to-do list was to secure the territory and the Peter & Paul Fortress was the major piece of that puzzle.

Every good fortress needs a cathedral and this golden tower is the imaginatively titled Peter & Paul cathedral... its spire also makes it the tallest building in town.

The extravagent interior of the cathedral.