16 | AN ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME


www.nitravelnews.com


February 2024


BY KIRSTY JOHNSTON kirsty@nitravelnews.com


STRETCHING 6000km in a dotted line across China, the Great Wall was begun in the 5th century BC. As it snakes across the mountains it conjures up a sense of history, which is difficult to grasp until you have had the opportunity to experience it.


My trek across this sleeping reptile was very varied, we passed through woodland and terraced farmland, following the contours of the beautiful hills and mountains in remote areas north of Beijing. We followed old sections as well as restored sections with smooth flagstones and lots of steps - both with very different difficulties… jostling with crowds of tourists and school children on the restored sections or navigating crumbling stones, no side walls and sharp drops down steep mountainsides on the old wall. The challenge was physically demanding but we were well rewarded with some fantastic scenery, breathtaking views and a fascinating first-hand insight into a rich culture and history. Days one and two were filled with travelling. I took a mid-morning flights from


told us to enjoy it as the food for the rest of the trip was “unpredictable”, to which we all laughed… we weren’t laughing two days later when we thought we may have unknowingly have eaten squirrel in one of the villages! After our traditional Peking duck feast,


some of the group (myself included) decided to go off in search of beer… a local beer to be exact, and we found it… just down the road from the Dong Fang. It was lovely; cool, crisp, refreshing… and only 50p… we splurged on two each before turning in for the night, deciding it was best now to blow all our budgets on the first night.


Day three came quicker than I expected,


but after all the sleep I got on the flights I was fresh and raring to go. Breakfast at the Dong Fang was another feast. A buffet of eggs (cooked several ways), meats, fried rolls, sweet bread, cereals and sticky pastries. We had no time to spare after breakfast as it was straight back to the room for our baggage. The trek was imminent! We made the morning journey out of Beijing, heading for Huangyaguan and caught our first glimpse of the Great Wall ahead of us.


Belfast City to London Heathrow where I would be meeting up with the rest of the Skyline group, the company who would be hosting us on our trek.


It wasn’t long before I spotted some people hanging around near the meeting point who looked like they were going on a trek… dressed in walking trousers, heavy walking boots and warm fleece/coat (similar to myself).


The group leaders showed up pretty promptly and got us all checked in, leaving us with instructions on what gate to meet at and what time. The key rule… DO NOT MISS THE FLIGHT. The first flight - from Heathrow to Dubai - went by in a blink. I spent the majority of it sleeping, with small intervals of eating. I love a full service airline… that is the life! We only had 30 minutes between landing at Dubai and taking off for Beijing so we had to be off the plane pretty sharpish and run through the connecting baggage checks to make it which, thankfully, we did. I spent the Dubai-Beijing leg of the journey much as I had spent the Heathrow-Dubai leg… sleeping with intervals of eating, although I did manage to squeeze in a movie too. We landed in Beijing on day two of our trek (because of the time difference) just as the sun was setting, and the journey to our hotel (The Dong Fang) wasn’t very long. Everyone was surprisingly hungry… I say surprisingly because we all had two meals on each flight (four meals in total already), and the hotel has


prepared a traditional Peking duck welcome feast for us all. The Skyline staff


Ming Dynasty with bricks and for the second time in 1985. This section is noted for being particularly stunning because of its water towers, which have all been restored to their former majestic glory. We completed this section of trek in two hours, well under the suggested time and were pretty pleased with ourselves.


Later in the trek, as we progressed onto the old wall, we realised why we made such light work of our first trek day… it was smooth, with side walls and didn’t crumble as you walked! Since we finished our trek sooner than expected there was time for a nap/beer in the courtyard before dinner. I chose the nap. Dinner that night had been arranged in a local restaurant. We did a whip round of our table for a kitty and took advantage of the local beverages. Dinner was lovely, sweet and sour pork like you have never tasted from your local takeaway, beef and potato stew, kung pao chicken loaded with chillis and peanuts, light


We arrived at our accommodation in Huangyaguan, the Tianjin Huangyaguan Great Wall Home Hotel, a monastery-style hostel at the foot of a mountain, the Great Wall running high along the mountain top… our rooms were arranged in a square with a courtyard in the middle and we could see the Great Wall high on the mountain from the grassy courtyard. We were assigned a room buddy, who we would be sharing with throughout the trek. My room buddy was Jeannie, a lovely lady who had signed up to the trek to raise money for Breast Cancer after battling with the disease herself, a very brave lady indeed! After checking into our rooms and enjoying


some lunch, we set off to the first section of the trek which was to give us a good indication of the challenges ahead. The trekking time for the day was estimated at around three to four hours. The Huangyanguan section of the wall was originally built in 557 AD, and was repaired for the first time in the


as a feather rice and several other vegetable and meat dishes.


After dinner we all headed outside and


pulled up chairs round the campfire. The nights in China can be very cold, so we all pulled our chairs close to the campfire and dipped into the kitty for another round. We


ended the night with a game of campfire charades.


Day four saw us up early for a breakfast


of steamed flat sweet dumplings, jam and boiled eggs. We loaded our bags onto the bag bus (which took all our large bags to the next accommodation while we took our smaller day packs with our daily essentials with us) and headed our for the second part of the trek. We hiked up the mountain and along a restored section of the wall. By mid-morning we had reached the bottom of Heaven’s Ladder, a steep climb of over 200 steps. This was a tough section, but it’s well worth the effort as the views from the top are out of this world. I guess that’s why they call it Heaven’s Ladder - a view from the heavens over the Yanshan Mountains and the region below.


After a well deserved breather at the top we headed on up the mountain further to join the top of the ridge where our path then wound its way around sections of the old wall. Some parts of this section of the wall were in very poor condition and impossible


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