Feature: Traversing the Entire Great Wall of China
An MSU junior completed the 1,800-mile hike across the entire Great Wall of China, the first Westerner—and second human—to complete the feat.
I first dreamt about scaling the entire Great Wall of China when I was 17. My friend Beau Bacevicius and I were standing in Simatai section near Beijing in December 1997, when we tossed out the idea. We were too young to realize all the problems involved, but that helped us work hard to achieve our dream. China became a part of my life in 1996 when I visited my grandfather, who worked for Ford Motor Company. Three months there opened my eyes to what China really had to offer. Subsequently I returned to China seven times. I learned to speak fluent Mandarin, attended the International School of Beijing for one semester of my sophomore year in high school, and immersed myself into the culture. As soon as we returned home in 1997, Beau and I we began to research our idea. One huge issue was obtaining the proper permission from the government. How do we go about it, who do we talk to, and how do we fund it? Also, we wondered, had anyone done it before? The answer to this question is, only one person—a Chinese man from Harbin, in the 1980s.
It took us two more years and two trips to Beijing to get all our questions answered. My grandfather helped us with. One of his contacts, Zhao Jian Wen, 42, wanted to tag along and become the oldest man to traverse the Wall. He worked with CCTV (China Central Television), which had an interest in filming the adventure. So did Star Television. In fact, once Star TV agreed to take responsibility for us, the red tape cleared quickly. We also worked to gain financial sponsorships from American companies. Luckily, four companies donated money and gear to our six-month cause—Davis Industries, Moosejaw Mountaineering, Magellan GPS, and Skyway Precision.
In the spring of 2000, I was a engineering sophomore at Michigan State, while Beau was a freshman at Oakland Community College. We impatiently waited for classes to end. Beau flew out to Beijing in April and I followed him in May. A month later, we had cleared all bureaucratic hurdles and Zhao gave us the thumbs up. The three of us flew west to Lanzhou, the capital of the Gansu province. From there we rode 15 hours by train to the ancient city of Jiayuguan, the most westerly point of Wall. We took several days to unwind and get adjusted to the elevation and climate. On June 3, we took our first step. There it lay in front of us, our grand dream now a looming reality.
For the first few days, hiking the desert took its toll on us. Heat exhaustion, sunburn, and raw-blistered feet marked our beginning, along with some strange events. The first day we found a dead body, perhaps the remains of someone trying to finish the walk before us. The first 100 miles helped break us in for what was around the bend. Each new day presented more stressful challenges. We lugged 60-pound packs and our bodies began to feel aches and pain all over, especially our hips and feet. Every morning at 6:00 the sun’s rays would heat our tents like a sauna. I felt like an old man with osteoporosis and could hardly get up on the sandy soil.
The stretch of the Wall in the Gansu deserts was constructed of mud and reeds, damaged by the elements over the centuries. We hiked mostly over vast dunes and salt flats, using small Wall remains to guide us. We beganto adjust to the blazing temperatures, sandstorms and solitude. Blisters always seemed to find a new place to form, and pains and aches were constant. Luckily we found villages everywhere. We seldom went for more than a day without seeing people, and finding food and water. We decided much of our gear was useless, and were happy to ship some 25 pounds—heavy objects like batteries, cookware and stoves—to Zhao’s family in Beijing. With less weight on our backs, we increased our speed and morale. The worst was going to be over soon, we told ourselves.
Gansu Province, mostly desert along the Himalayas, is poor, scarcely populated, and tough to navigate. The hospitality of the people, however, left a lasting impression. We found food, water, and safety among the people and we noticed that they were excited to see us. Most had never seen a foreigner (Wai Guo Ren) before. Often young Chinese students in the villages besieged us, eager to practice English. Beau and I came from a land of diversity, and here we were, a minority of two amid 1.5 billion. Their reactions to us were fabulous and helped make our first three-and-a-half months very enjoyable.
The one misfortune during this stretch is that Zhao severely rolled his ankle in a wheat field the first week, kept walking on it for miles, until the pain reached his knees and hips. He was forced to abandon the trip. He would follow us via car or bus and come to various checkpoints to ensure our safety. We were able to greatly increase our speed because Zhao could now carry our heavier items with him.
Beau and I flew through the second and third provinces, Ning Xia and Shaanxi. We set our personal record in Shaanxi, walking 36 miles in some ten hours. This stretch has pretty flat and arid terrain and included some green and lush areas—a reminder that we were heading East away from the desert. Again, we met some great people. We followed many rivers. Near irrigation sources were large crops full of fresh fruit and vegetables that was available to us from farmers. Eating an enormous watermelon or ripe tomato was a welcome contrast to the usual noodles that we ate in Gansu and NingXia.
With our morale high, Beau and I covered more than 500 miles in less than a month. The weather in Shanxi Province in early August was exceptional—blue skies with a cool breeze and occasional rain. We hiked shirtless in sandals. No more sand storms. “Shan-Xi” means Western Mountains, and the rocks and fired bricks held together much better in this part of the Wall.
On August 8 we saw the first beacon tower made of brick, which stood in contrast to other that had caved into mounds of dirt. This tower had doors and windows and resembled the massive towers in the marvelous Beijing sections. To us, this felt more like the real Wall. It was so perfectly connected that it seemed to roll over the hills and mountains like a dragon in the clouds. We seemed to be in a no-man’s-land as we trekked across endless mountains. Villages were scarce. Occasionally we’d run into nomadic herders. Villages consisted of only several small brick homes shared by an extended family. These people were shocked to see foreigners passing through. They rarely saw other Chinese people, let alone two Americans.
Once, we came across an old man and woman tending to their fields and asked them where we could find water. The old man was so shocked to see us that he could not reply. By then, Zhao was healed and began hiking with us more, and even he could not prompt the man to speak. Most people could not understand why we would even want to walk along their Great Wall. “Why don’t you drive?” they frequently asked.
Beau and I saw this cultural gap: Americans deal with stress and technology and take time off for hiking and camping to escape everyday city life. The Chinese people that we met did not have access to much modern technology and wanted to use what ever newer innovations that they had as much as possible. They were in awe of our cameras and GPS equipment; even our tents and backpacks seemed to be of interest.
Shanxi Province was the most beautiful and enjoyable part of our hike. Many Wall sections were untouched and wild. We felt we were the first people to visit in a long time. Despite having to back track and hike 50 miles out of the way once, we finished its nearly 300 mountainous miles in just over 20 days.