Health and safety regulations of China .. they call these things ‘steps’ – when walking up they may fall and hit the person behind you.

Ni Hao, China – The Great Wall

the great wall is well.. great. We are going to ‘walk’ the great wall they said, ‘ yea yea wear sensible footwear and bring water if you want’ they said.  By sensible footwear , we needed hiking boots and unless you’re a camel human who stores water on your body, bring as much water as your back pack can hold! as well as some sugar replenishment because there will be points of this walk in which you feel ‘hey, it might be easier just to jump off and cry’.

We set off to a part of the wall that tourists don’t usually visit, we all started walking up the first peak almost running, however after reaching the top of the first peak , I felt as though my lungs had not been in use for the 20 years I’ve had them and were working overtime. We soon broke up into our pace groups. The remoteness of the wall meant that at times it would feel like no one else was on the entire wall, it was so peaceful and amazing, really hard to put into words.

At first we were complaining about the un-eveness of the steps being different sizes : and no hand rails (the audacity china!)… little did we know that soon we would be walking through vegetation and paths which were only one rock wide. We motivated each other with acoustic performances (yes performances) of Destiny’s child: Survivor ( yup.. I’m a survivor , I’m not gon give up , I’m gonna make it) and of course some Mulan (im gonna make a man out of you).

After 7 peaks and 10 k  , sometimes vertical we reached the end of our hike and had to turn back and walk the 7 peaks again before sunset… no one really warned us about the sunset issue, there was a point walking back when we didn’t know if we would be able to make it back. But what was most important was that : WE MADE IT! it was a ‘finishing a marathon’ kind of moment. hugs where exchanged, photos were taken (and instagrammed), we were at the highest point of the great wall! WE MADE IT!

After doing the 7 peaks all in reverse – we where back to ground level, where everyone was sitting waiting.. I think I crawled the last metre or too because of the trauma my legs had just experienced. (3 days after the trip I wanted to cry every time I walked down stairs or up them – stairs were taunting me – because of my abusive words towards them on the wall)

After the hike, we went for a ‘bonfire’ by that – it was a ‘barbeque’. This was my only problem throughout the trip, no halal means no meat. So I sat down asked if there was any vegetarian options – Yes she said! awesome I thought – CHINA – CUCUMBER AND BREAD is not a meal! needless to say I was ready to cry, and then they brought out some octopus.. I guess I could eat that.. in times of despair I ignored the tentacles and  the fact it kind of looked like it was moving and ate some octopus. it was nice, SO SALTY. I think  I’ll  stick to bread and cucumber next time.

There was also some traditional Chinese poetry/comedy – I didn’t understand it , but it was a lovely atmosphere!

We spent the night in a close by hotel, where our intern group took over a level of the hotel, and no doubt in all our foreign intern glory managed to trash it, with noodles all over the place. (apologies)

We had to wake up for sunrise at 4am, well the sun actually rises at 4am so by the time we got on the bus it was already light. And also, because of the smog its virtually impossible to see sunrise. So the rest of the day was spent sleeping catching up on the lack of sleep we had when you put 40 people on one corridor.

TIP: Must visit! Bring water and be prepared!