Attack of the Killer Cicadas

Posted on June 27, 2006 by Brendan Fletcher

The Gobi Desert is a harsh, unforgiving environment. Only the meanest and ugliest of living things choose to make their homes here – buzzards, snakes and scorpions.

But of all these vile creatures, none is more fearsome than the dreaded desert cicada.

I mean business on the back end, too

All Emma wanted was a ten-minute break from walking and a cool, refreshing drink of water. It was not to be. No sooner had she found a comfy pile of gravel upon which to rest than a hundred menacing, chirping six-legged devils emerged to break the desert silence. Discretion proved to be the greater part of valour and she beat a hasty retreat.

Outta my way ya big girl’s blouse

(Note: All plant and animal names in this blog are made up by us, unless otherwise noted. This is out of necessity, as we have no practical way of looking up names, and we generally see animals away from villages so we can’t really ask either. In fact, we don’t actually know if the bug in this post is a cicada.)

The Gobi Desert

Posted on June 26, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

The wall and a distant beacon tower

At 1:30 in the afternoon the temperature in direct sunlight is 41.1 degrees Celsius. When we put the thermometer in the sand at our feet to measure ground temperature, it rises to 66.7 degrees before we pick it up to keep it from breaking. We would take a reading in the shade, but there isn’t any.

Emma cooling her heels

It’s our second day of a 50-kilometre stretch where the wall swings away from the agricultural areas and villages northeast of Jiayuguan and runs straight through the desert. We probably would have taken the day off if we’d known it would get so warm, but the morning started out mild, only 9 degrees at 7 am. Now we’re over 10 kilometres from the nearest village, so the only thing to do is have a rest and wait for the temperature to drop a bit. Fortunately, we have plenty of water.

Sharing a drop with a beetle

The Gobi Desert encompasses 1,300,000 square kilometres of flat hills, dry lakebeds and arid grasslands. At its southwestern edge, where it meets the western portion of the wall, it is not the classic desert of endless sand dunes, but rather a flat, sparsely vegetated plain of gravel. As there is little soil in the area, the wall appears to have been constructed simply by excavating a trench and using the spoils to form a wall. However, adobe bricks were imported to construct the beacon towers.

Together, the trench and the wall form a double line of defence

Erosion has exposed this tower’s adobe brick construction

By 3:30 the temperature had dropped to about 37, with a gentle cooling breeze, so we packed up our things and set off. After two days, 40-plus kilometres, and 18 litres of water apiece, the last few hours of our desert crossing seemed like an eternity. Then the plain crested and we could see the irrigated valley of the Hei He (Black River) stretching out below like the Promised Land. Having already promised ourselves a couple of beers when we finished this ordeal, we descended.

The Hei He valley

First Week, First Impressions

Posted on June 25, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

Emma and remains of the wall

Our first week on the Great Wall was as varied as the dishes in a Chinese banquet. One day we’re walking through shadeless desert, the next we’re strolling under huge leafy trees alongside a field of watermelons. One minute we’re entertaining little kids in the village, the next we’re trying to communicate with a shepherd.

A peaceful village setting

Though a fair chunk of our day involves following the wall and photographing it, we spend a lot of time working out where we will stay for the night and what we will eat next. A few times we’ve stayed in guesthouses, once with a family, but mostly we camp. To do this, we have to carry several litres of water in the evening so we can cook dinner and breakfast (noodles and more noodles … plus a rewarding cup of Chinese tea).

Preparing dinner next to the wall

One of the best times of the day is making it to a village and finding the local corner shop. This is where we buy snacks and a drink (an extra bonus if there’s refrigeration) and talk to the people who are gathered there chatting or playing cards. When we stop, the owner invariably pulls out a few wooden stools and serves up some tea for us. Within ten or fifteen minutes, a crowd has gathered around wanting to know what we are doing. The corner shop is not only the first place we head to, it is also where the village socializes.

A shopkeeper’s son, Yang Zhen Xiong, tries out our walking sticks

People have been amazingly friendly. Almost everyone smiles as we pass and often they stop us to ask questions. Though the idea of walking the length of the wall is a bit strange to some, we’ve been surprised at how readily most people understand what we are doing. A few people have even seen us on local TV and already know where we are going. Everyone, without exception, encourages us. The most common response to our trip is a huge smile and two big thumbs up.

The people of Changcheng si dui waving goodbye

Between stretches of desert we passed through some beautiful agricultural areas. These produce herbs, corn, wheat, melons and all sorts of other fruit and vegetables. This is one good thing about traveling during this time of year – the fruit is just delicious.

A couple working in the field

Outside of the agricultural areas, the vast plains and semi-arid desert are home to sheep, cattle and a few camels. Like the sheep, we spend those days in the desert looking for shade and water (unlike the sheep, we have a map).

The master of his domain

In the early morning or late afternoon, the Great Wall is often the only structure that offers shade. For the shepherds, it also offers a good lookout.

Mr Zhu, a shepherd, watching his flock (not by night)

Since we started, our communication has been a bit sketchy. The people of Gansu have a thick, guttural accent and sometimes don’t speak standard Chinese. A few of our conversations have taken place on notepaper. But nearly every village has its fair share of cute kids wanting to practice their English, repeatedly calling “Hello, hello” … even from outside the window when we’re trying to have a meal.

Keeping the riffraff at bay

Legends of the Wall (Part 1)

Posted on June 22, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

The Great Wall of China lends itself to myth and legend. Long walls wind across thousands of kilometres of the most remote parts of China, but no one knows their exact length. All sections of long wall in China date back hundreds of years, some thousands, but in many places no one knows the wall’s true age. The wall is at once familiar and, outside China at least, poorly known – fertile ground for speculation, exaggeration and storytelling.

This painting, from the entrance foyer to the Great Wall Museum at Jiayuguan, presents a mythic image of the western portion of the wall

As we walk alongside the wall we hope to collect stories and post them here, generally without much commentary. A word of warning: we often find Chinese stories obscure. They can end suddenly without any apparent resolution, or build toward a mighty punchline that fails to include humour. But even when we don’t understand the stories, we find them interesting.

This first one seems to allude to the experience of women who send their husbands out from the safety of the city to the dangers of military service along the wall. Or maybe it’s just a story about two birds.

When You Strike the Stone, a Swallow Sings

At both sides of the main entrance to Jiayuguan Fort, if you strike one stone with another you will hear a faint “jug jug.” A legend says that during the year of Zhende in the Ming Dynasty, a group of swallows nested inside the city wall at the fort.

One day, two swallows flew out into the desert to hunt for food. As the sun set, they flew merrily back toward the city. As the female flew through the city gate, a sudden gale rose up and blew the male off course. When he returned to the city gate, it was tightly closed. He bumped his head against the gate, but it would not open.

The female swallow waited and waited, but the male swallow never returned. She was so heart-broken she called out and made the sound “jug jug.” And people say that is the undying soul of the female swallow.

Adapted from an interpretive sign at the Great Wall Museum, Jiayuguan

The Strongest Fortress Under Heaven

Posted on June 18, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

Jiayuguan Fort is a statement. To any visitor from the west, the massive complex – over 600 metres of fortress wall enclosing towers with upturned flying eaves, red columns and elaborate carvings – announces, unmistakably, that you are now in China.

Welcome to China

The symbolism is intentional. Since its construction, Jiayuguan Fort has been considered the beginning of the Great Wall in the west and a border marker between China proper and its frontier hinterlands. Its eastern-facing gate bears the inscription “The Gate to Glorious Civilisation.” On the western gate there was once a plaque describing the fort as “The First Fortified Pass Under Heaven” (also translated as “The Greatest Pass Under Heaven” or “The Strongest Fortress Under Heaven”). Apparently this plaque was lost or stolen in the 20th century, but we found what seems to be a reconstruction just outside the fort.

We think this plaque says “The strongest fortress (or pass) under heaven,” but we’re stumped by the last character (help gratefully accepted)

Work on the fort was begun in 1372, just four years into the Ming Dynasty, when General Feng Sheng recommended to the Emperor that a fortification be established in the area to guard the Hexi Corridor. The initial structure was probably nothing more than a rammed earth enclosure, similar to the short section of wall we have already walked but on a somewhat larger scale.

Like the Great Wall as a whole, Jiayuguan Fort was built in stages using several construction methods. The western gate tower was added in 1495, the eastern tower in 1506, and the walls were raised and strengthened over time. In its finished form, the walls were (and remain) 9 metres tall, with the lower 6 metres constructed from rammed loess and the remainder from adobe.

These arrow loops on top of the fortress walls are now home to many swallows

Today the fortress walls encompass an area of 2.5 square kilometres that includes an interior city; wengcheng, which are additional internal walls built near the fortress gates to provide a second line of defence; and the 13-metre high, three-storey towers pictured below.

Jiayuguan Fort from the desert

The wall connects with the fort from south and north to form a continuous line of defence. It meets the fort near the southwest corner, then extends from the northeast corner before petering out (temporarily) a few hundred metres north of the fort (i.e., the precise point where we got lost on our second day out).

The wall running north from the fort

(References: Dong Yaohui, The Eternal Great Wall (Beijing: China Nationality Art Photograph Publishing House, 2005); Julia Lovell, The Great Wall: China against the World, 1000 BC – AD 2000 (London: Atlantic Books, 2006); Arthur Waldron, The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth (Cambridge University Press, 1990).)

Thank You

Posted on June 17, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

Thanks to everyone for your inspiring and funny comments. We’ve read them and re-read them, and read some even a third time. It’s great to know that we can take you along with us on this journey.

The Start of the Wall

Posted on June 16, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

Brendan and Dale Evans at the first beacon tower

Our taxi driver doesn’t believe us when we say we want to be dropped off at the start of the Great Wall. She’s driven us the seven kilometers south of Jiayuguan Fort to the first beacon tower and helped us get our packs from the boot, but she doesn’t want to take any money until we tell her what time we want to be picked up for the return ride to Jiayuguan. We say (again) that we don’t need a ride back, and (again) she insists on waiting until we’re ready to leave. Eventually she accepts payment and drives off, but even then she parks a few hundred metres away and watches for a few minutes to make sure we are set on staying.

The first beacon tower

It was understandable, considerate even. The first beacon tower, at the western end of the Ming Great Wall, is a bit off the beaten track. It is a modest block of rammed loess, smaller and probably less ancient than Jade Gate Pass near Dunhuang. Unlike Jiayuguan Fort, it doesn’t grace the cover of tourist brochures or provincial atlases. It isn’t even generally considered the beginning of the wall, as the fort makes for a more dramatic opening.

But whatever the first beacon tower lacks in grandeur, it more than makes up for in its setting. Perched on a 80-metre high cliff high at a bend in the Taolai River, the pass has terrific views south and west down the river’s enormous canyon.

The Taolai River

More importantly, the beacon tower affords clear views south across enormous alluvial fans spilling from the foothills of the Qilian Mountains. It doesn’t take much imagination to realise why this beacon tower was built where it was. From the tower, it would be possible to see any party attempting to enter the valley between the river and the mountains to the south. From this point north, the wall extends 17 kilometres to the Hei Shan (Black Mountains), blocking entry all along its path. All practical means of entering the Hexi Corridor from the west are either blocked by the wall or visible from the beacon tower.

An unobstructed view to the impassable Qilian Mountains

Jiayuguan’s cultural heritage authorities have attempted to dress up the tower as a tourist attraction. Below the pass there is a mock military encampment, with reconstructed officers’ and soldiers’ quarters and military equipment. Like many such efforts, it can be criticised for a high cheese factor, but truth be told we enjoyed it and found it informative and even occasionally evocative.

The vehicle and weapons reconstructions were, simply put, pretty cool. They had drum chariots (i.e. a chariot with a big drum tower to beat on), prison vans, and our favorite, the shoving chariot.

The swinging ram on this chariot will shove off any ladder placed against the wall

You could get your picture taken in fake armour (we declined), or shoot a few arrows through some straw warriors (Emma insisted).

Ready, aim . . .

The place had everything – except tourists.

Maybe when the 2008 Olympics come

We went back to the beacon tower to pose for our inaugural shot before walking, the one of us looking all eager and energetic. We’ll see how that compares with the one of us at the end of the wall, but that’s a few months away (see picture at the top of the page).

We set out on the east side with the wall on our left. This would have been considered the “inside” of the wall. It wasn’t really possible to walk on top, and we will rarely do that in areas where the wall is not made of brick. Even though it looks pretty good for being at least 600 years old, when the wall is made of loess or dirt it is still prone to crumbling. For our own safety and for the integrity of the wall, we will mostly be walking next to it.

Only 2999.99 kilometres to go

That’s not to say that the wall is not damaged. What happens when there’s a wall running straight across a valley and you need to build roads and train tracks that directly intersect it? You could build a bridge or a tunnel, but in the space of those 7 kms that we walked that day, there were at least two roads, two highways and one train track. When there’s that amount of infrastructure, it’s easier just to knock the wall down.

A road cuts straight through the wall

However, cultural heritage preservation is an increasingly important issue in China, and at this new expressway a few kilometres away, the wall’s integrity is taken into account.

Walls can be overpasses, too

Though parts of the wall may be crumbling, the towers definitely are not. They are very impressive, huge, solid structures with a cutting still visible down the middle where we assume a ladder or a stairway was built.

Brendan beside a beacon tower

Seven kilometres later we were safe and sound sipping tea in our hotel. Okay, it was a cushy first day. We’ll save the hardship for down the trail.

‘Twas the night before walking

Posted on June 9, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

‘Twas the night before walking, when all through the guesthouse,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a louse;

Our stockings were hung in the corner to air,
In hopes . . .

Oh forget it, we’ll never get through it. Besides, our hotel is quite comfortable, with air-con and cable, and our socks are clean and dry, probably for the last time.

But it is the night before we start walking, visions of the Great Wall dance in our heads, and we feel like two kids on Christmas Eve. We don’t know what surprises lie before us when we wake up.

We thought it would be fun to briefly record some of our pre-trip expectations tonight. If it’s not too embarrassing, after a few months when we have some real experience of walking the wall, we might check back to see just how deluded we were.

Tomorrow’s schedule (click the pic for a clearer view)

Brendan

My concerns about the trip are practical, logistical, specific. We’re starting out in desert where water sources are few, far between and of doubtful quality. We won’t run out of water – there are too many villages along the way for that – but we may be forced to carry much as six litres on rare occasions. At a kilo a litre, that’s a burden.

We’re starting out carrying more weight than I’d like: 16.5 kilos apiece without food or water included. A least a couple of kilos can be trimmed without sacrificing much in comfort, and much more can be trimmed without sacrificing safety. Unfortunately, without experience in hiking in China, we’re not yet sure which “luxury items” to eliminate. I hope we can get down to less than 15 kilos apiece pretty quickly.

Naturally, I’m concerned about our safety. However, we’ve worked to minimise the risks, and as long as we use good sense, we both think the risks are manageable and not terribly greater than we might face in daily life anywhere.

My hopes for the trip are a mirror image of the concerns: impractical, vague, probably unrealistic. When I’ve done long trips in the past, after the first month or so, when the routines are set and you’re at peak fitness, you can reach a state where even the hard days feel fairly effortless. Everything seems automatic, and finishing the trip becomes simply a given, the inevitable result of what you get up and do every morning. I hope we can hit that stride.

Finally, I’d like to reach a point where we can genuinely communicate with people. Right now, our conversations are simple. We can talk about where we’re from, our families, and to a limited extent, what we do for a living. Our Chinese is not nearly good enough for long conversations.

Even if we had the words, there are significant cultural differences in communication. Our experience is that Chinese conversations are laced with subtlety, meaningful silences and important non-verbal cues. In other words, pretty much everything my style of communication is not.

Still, I hope that by the end, we can – once or twice – talk to people about their lives. Whether they’re happy now, the changes from their past, and what they hope for their and their children’s futures.

Our trip can be successful even if we never have such conversations, and we may never get there. But that’s a place I’d like to go.

Emma

When we began researching whether we could walk the Great Wall, it seemed a little improbable. Not many people had done it in one long stretch without support. Some people told us we weren’t allowed to do it, others told us we just couldn’t.

To me, this was good enough reason to try.

The Great Wall is not just a wall for me, it is also a journey – physically, emotionally and culturally. If I can complete the walk I will have tested my physical abilities like I never have before, and probably never will again. We don’t often get to test ourselves while living with the comforts of modern society, so this is something I want to do now while I have the chance. I know from my own thyroid cancer and my father’s cancers that life can change in an instant.

Emotionally it is going to be difficult. I know there will be lonely times when I long for my friends and family, for a bit of girl talk and a few laughs. But hopefully the inner strength I will gain and the laughs with strangers will make up for this.

From a linguistic and cultural perspective it is going to be fascinating. At university I studied German and Arabic (both fun, almost mathematical challenges) but learning Chinese has opened up a whole new country for me. Through learning more about the language, I hope I can understand just a little more about China’s past, present and future.

And that’s where the wall comes in. It will lead us from China’s Ming Dynasty and before, through the towns, small villages and houses of today, towards Beijing and the people’s hopes for the future. Someone said to me I probably will have seen enough of the wall by the time we finish and never want to see it again. I was worried about that, too. Until today, that is, when we were out walking along it. I realised that throughout this journey there will be the three of us – me, Brendan, and the wall – and what had been an abstract thought for the past two years suddenly became real.

Because we began with a poem, I thought I’d write my own to end with. Not quite up to Clement Clarke Moore’s standards, but true nonetheless.

I hope I can walk the length of the wall
I fear my strength is not good
I hope I can walk and never fall
But I fear that I probably should.

I hope my Chinese keeps getting better
I fear that it probably won’t
I hope I can at least ask for my dinner
But I fear I’ll get given a goat.

I hope the two of us don’t fight too much
I fear there may be some words
I hope we can laugh and laugh it off
But I fear we’ll have our own moods.

I hope a scorpion refuses to bite me
I fear the crawlies at night
I hope the dogs also won’t chase me
But I might have to give them a fright.

I hope we’ll have fun most of all
I hope we’ll take some good pics
I hope we’ll explore all the wall
And do so with nary a tick.

A Great Celebration

Posted on June 6, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

As the official send-off for our walk, last week’s event with the China Great Wall Society at Jiayuguan Fort couldn’t have been better. At the invitation of Great Wall Society leaders Dong Yaohui and Yan Daojun, we joined student conservation volunteers and Jiayuguan local government members in celebrating the end of the Society’s 35-day awareness-raising journey along the wall and the beginning of ours.

The China Great Wall Society, with a membership of over 1500 people, is the leading non-governmental organisation in China concerned with the wall’s preservation. The Society is dedicated to studying, publicising, protecting and exploring the Great Wall, and is involved in such diverse activities as publishing encyclopedias and collections of scholarly papers, advising on the production of TV specials, and hosting photo and painting exhibitions about the wall. If you can read Chinese, you can find out more about the Society at its website, www.chinagreatwall.org.

Mr Dong is Secretary-General of the Society and a well-known expert on the wall – he has accompanied foreign dignitaries such as American Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush on their visits to the wall, and is the author of The Eternal Great Wall (Beijing: China Nationality Art Photograph Publishing House, 2005). He probably knows as much about the wall as anyone in the world.

With Dong Yaohui. Photo by Yan Daojun

He is also one of the first men to walk the length of the Great Wall. In May 1984, he and two other men left Shanhaiguan (our destination) and spent 508 days exploring the wall, including its spurs and extensions. They arrived in Jiayuguan on September 24, 1985.

On Tuesday of last week, Jiayuguan was again Mr Dong’s destination. This time, there was a carload of journalists accompanying him, other members of the Great Wall Society, local government and museum representatives, and a busload of students from Hexi University in Zhangye.

Jiayuguan Fort is considered the end of the Ming Great Wall and is the most impressive tourist site in Jiayuguan. When we got there that afternoon, we had plenty of time to look around and take photos. Many of the students were media students, so they were keen on getting the right angles.

With the students at the top of the fort. Photo by Shen Cheng Ming

The formalities started around 5 pm, which is still quite hot and bright out here at this time of the year. There was a very strong wind coming off the desert, which was bad for the hair but good for the flags.

This banner says “Protect the Great Wall that extends 10,000 li”

The ceremony was opened by Zheng Yan, the Society’s Editorial Department Director, who spoke about the Society’s work during 2006 and the importance of the car journey they had just taken from Shanhaiguan. Also speaking were other Society members, museum and government representatives, and Mr. Dong.

After the Society leaders spoke, we were invited to the stage to say a few words about our trip. We’re not sure how well our speeches were understood (or whether the parts in Chinese made sense), but everyone seemed to appreciate the effort.

Emma making her first speech in Chinese. Photo by Cheng Wei Guang

After the speeches, Mr Dong took us both by the hands and formed an arm-linked chain of about seven people. The student volunteers fell in behind and we walked together through the fort as a symbolic send-off.

Under the arched doorway…

…and out into the desert. Photos by Yan Daojun

It was an honour to participate in the celebration. To have the support and encouragement of the Great Wall Society and the student volunteers from Hexi University means more than we know how to express. It was thrilling to walk out of the doorway with the crowd of students behind us, shouting and waving flags. As we write this, we can still feel the excitement of that day.

“If you’ve never been to the Great Wall . . .

Posted on June 4, 2006 by Emma & Brendan

“If you’ve never been to the Great Wall, you’re not a real man.” Or in Chinese (pinyin), “bu dao changcheng, fei hao han.”

So said Mao Zedong, sort of. In 1935 the Chairman wrote this poem to inspire the men and women struggling to complete the Long March:

The heavens are high, the clouds are pale,
We watch as the wild geese disappear southwards.
If we fail to reach the Great Wall we are not true men,
We who have marched more than 20,000 li.

Over the years the context for the third line was lost. Today, “bu dao changcheng, fei hao han,” translated as “if you’ve never been to the Great Wall, you’re not a real man,” is a popular Chinese saying.

We did not even need to make it to the wall to hear it for the first of what will be no doubt countless times.

On the train from Dunhuang to Jiayuguan we were spotted by a man named Gao Wei Ping. Seeing a chance to practice his English, he kicked a woman out of her seat and came over to chat. We didn’t kick anybody, but were just as happy for a chance to practice our Chinese.

Mr Gao

When we told him we were headed to Jiayuguan, “bu dao changcheng, fei hao han” may not have been the first sentence out of his mouth, or even the second, but it was definitely in the top five.

We spent much of the four-hour trip swapping simple translations and writing down sentences, characters and their meanings.

Translations with Mr Gao (click on the pic for a clearer view)

Mr Gao repeatedly wished us good luck and “victory” on our trip, and his pride in China and the Great Wall was infectious.

(Translation of Mao’s poem from Chen Guoliang (ed.), Mao Zedong shici baishou yizhu (One hundred annotated poems by Mao Zedong) (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1997), p. 84, quoted in Julia Lovell, The Great Wall: China against the World, 1000 BC – AD 2000 (London: Atlantic Books, 2006), p. 308.)

Walking the Wall

A journey along the Great Wall of China

Monthly Archives: June 2006