Gone East

On the fifth day the sun broke through.

I'd been woken by an unusual sensation. The sunny shafts piercing the curtains seemed disconnected from my last few days in Beijing. A siege of smog was under-way, darkening the daytime sky and rendering all in a murky grey. I'd held back on some of the tourist trail waiting for good weather, partly in hope of those blue sky postcard views and partly to minimise exposure to the throat grinding pollution. Indoor attractions had kept me busy. I'd padded around a few unexpectedly good museums, seen Beijing acrobatics, done aquariums and art exhibits. The murk even held a strange beauty, obscuring skyscrapers into peering shadows and blowing calm wisps across the Summer Palace lake. But I grew restless for blue sky, realising time was ticking by and I'd still not seen many of the capitals treasures. So looking down at the warm patchwork playing out on my duvet I could tell I'd caught a break.

The sun had broken through.

So we pitched together, grabbing our stuff we headed north of the metropolis, making a B-line for the mountains. Nestled about an hours drive away is an area known as Jinshanling. A further 10k on from there is the destination of Simtai, and connecting the two is a mixed and jagged stretch of China's Great wall.

The track wound past mountain feet and up into narrow valleys. Shepherded by their guides tour groups march up the steep slopes to enter the wall, finally hitting its giant stone steps. Once you'd leapfrogged the herded masses the way ahead lay clear. Snaking magnificently through precarious hills the wall really is a sight to behold. One of the first things that becomes clear is the insane route it takes. Riding up ridges, on cliffs and teetering on mountain peaks the construction of this stretch really didn't stop for any geographical barriers. Often it would be impossible to even approach the wall from below, let alone invade through these points.

Broken every few hundred meters by towers and even walls on the wall, the place is bristling with defences. The name in Chinese translates as “long castle”, which really is what it boils down to. A great linear fortress. Jinshanling's pristinely renovated section soon gives way as you pass the cable car escape route. From there you walk on the crumbling remains of the original renovation dated from the Middle ages. The steep stairwells decay to a shifting rock scramble but its obvious that even in well kept areas that the gradient is difficult. Lumbering along with only a backpack you've got to feel something for the guys who built and guarded this place.

From up here you get a good view of the landscape. Miles out of the Beijing sprawl the hills lie like the great duvet of some sleeping giant, bumped and rolling. Even here though its plain to see the development going on. New petrol stations dot roads, great plantations and construction projects can be seen and the distance hints at a massive lake and dam. The sheer manpower that went into building the wall is now at work building a new China. Westernisation is plain to see and shocking my expectations from this “communist” country where you're never more than 400 meters from a MacDonald, internet cafe, Starbucks or KFC. Great adverts hang around and play on buses, selling diamonds and tailored suits, executive cars plough the streets, the wealth of the cities is clear. It is however in plain context, amongst it all the poverty of the streets and the Hutongs is still present. This city mixes an interesting combination of enormous wealth and a population around that of an entire quater UK, making for a gigantic workforce. The world is becoming flat. A more even playing field. Though China may still be playing catch up in some respects, its very obviously gearing up to take the ball... and run with it.

All the way back in Amsterdam another traveller had talked to me about the Beijing Olympics. One line really resonated at the time. That China was aiming to use these Olympics in the same way Berlin did in 1936. This is China's coming out party, a show of its enormous power and sneak peek at the next decade. Whilst the good weather lasted I decided to take a look for myself.. North of the city centre is the enormous Olympic park. Huge trucks sweep in and out of the place filling the air with dusty clouds. I again find the sun hazed and the air thick, but this time its all dust kicked up by the enormous construction area. With no official public access I decided to skirt around the miles of plated fencing, to find a good place to take a look. A pile of breeze blocks finally gave me my in. Hoisting myself up I peered over the fence. The only word I can really use to sum up what I saw was, crater. Far from my expectations of a place nearly complete with little over nine months to go for until the games... it looked more like it had been hit by a meteor. China's great birds nest stadium and bizarrely beautiful water cube are framed by open soil and spindly cranes. Workers dig, push, move and build all around the place. A sense of action is everywhere. The graceful web of the national stadium's steel nest now sits with a thick coat of dust. Its a fairly surprising sight. Still I'm assured by the adverts and releases that this is merely the final stage, laying the aesthetics, pathways and trees, the main work is already over. My untrained eye just lingers on the massive earth works, such a scene of emmence wasteland even if it is only a stones throw from the paradise illustrations for the final site. I can't help but wonder if this is a sign of things to come for my own home in 2012. But those will be a very different games. When the dust settles it will be interesting to see what state China and indeed, the world, lies in. All I could do now though was gawk.

Clambering up the final hill we could see the last of our wall down to Simtai. From there the long castle takes on a vertical mountain and wins, riding over ridges and peaks across the horizon. But our hike ended at the sparkling river. Beyond here you cannot continue, its too dangerous to walk. Its worth noting the wall ultimately failed. The Mongols broke through somewhere less well defended , conquered and ended up founding a dynasty here. The wall changed hands. There's a saying, "the wall is strong because its built on the bones of its people", a great effort that was in some places practical defence and in others far more a show power, a definite statement of “because I can...”, but that is China's past. The question that lingers on my mind, is what will the China of tomorrow be built upon and ultimately what it will look like.

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Lunch: Wall top "Cucumber & Cherry tomato" flavoured Crisps stuffed in a Sandwich