The Great Wall of China: One of the seven world wonders and on every single bucket list out there. An impressive structure that would be near impossible to recreate even with today’s technology, the Great Wall of China spans over 13,170 miles with construction beginning as early as 7th century B.C.. No trip to China would be complete without a visit to the famous wall. It would be like visiting London without seeing Big Ben or visiting Paris without visiting the Eiffel Tower! Without a doubt, it was one of the attractions I was most looking forward to on my first trip to Asia.
The Great Wall of China had both lived up to my expectations while simultaneously letting me down. Let me make it clear–I am never realistic with my expectations. In Rome, I expected to live like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. In Paris, I wanted to dance ballet in the fountains like Leslie Caron in An American in Paris. And in Beijing, I wanted peace and serenity while climbing a wall that has been well preserved for dynasties.
The Great Wall of KFC
It was impressive, I have to admit, and very well preserved considering its age. What ruined it for me though were the thousands of tourists that made it hard to navigate and the touristy shops and American franchise restaurants that lined the most famous wall in history.
I realize that it’s 20151 and every world wonder has been capitalized upon, but couldn’t they have spared the Great Wall of China? I did not travel half way around the world to eat at the KFC at the Great Wall of China. Well, I did as a joke, but it certainly was not planned ahead of time. **Side Note: Eight years later, I still have ketchup packets from the KFC at the Great Wall of China and they are one of my favorite souvenirs ever!
Hope You Like Crowds
Aside from the cheap souvenir shops surrounding the Great Wall of China, what irked me the most was the fact that it was crowded–more crowded than Disneyland on the 4th of July and pretty darn close to Time Square on New Year’s Eve. Okay, maybe that last one was a bit of an exaggeration, but let me get my point across: it was very crowded. I don’t operate too well in crowds. I’m not claustrophobic, but I prefer to have some peace and quiet and room to spread out.
When you go on the internet and read up on the Great Wall of China, you see all these beautiful pictures with no one on the wall. This is not the case in Beijing. There are people and a lot of them, to the point that there is a slim to no chance of you actually getting a photo of yourself and no one else in it.
StairMaster
Another thing that they never accurately depict in pictures online is the incline of the wall. There are many sections where you’re basically pulling yourself up because it’s so steep. The steps are so short that I found myself actually walking sideways at times. It wasn’t an easy climb. It was long, steep, crowded, and so humid that I could feel the sweat rolling down my back and dripping off my face.
Worth it
I stopped every once in awhile to take a picture, but kept thinking to myself, “that’s not good enough, I need to keep going”. I’m not the most active person on the planet, but I’d kill myself trying to get a good picture. Only for the sake of competition or for a picture would I push myself that hard. After well over an hour of climbing, I saw the point where everyone else gave up and the hordes of tourists finally dissipated. It was a turn in the wall, and you can look for miles and miles and spot only one or two people still climbing.
That was the spot. The spot for my epic group jump shot that I had planned. I paid for that shot with sweat and blisters, and I was so happy to finally get it. I would have continued until I dropped dead just to enjoy being one of the only people on the wall, but being part of a tour group, we were given a limited amount of time to climb the wall, shop for souvenirs, and eat lunch. If I do get the chance to go back though, you better believe it that I’d climb the entire day, as far as my little legs would take me.
It’s a beautiful site once you get away from the modern monstrosities that await at the entrance and the satisfaction of climbing the Great Wall of China is like no other. People dream about doing such a thing their entire lives and I was luckily able to experience it. All of it–the good and the bad. It makes the little annoyances like the souvenir shops and the crowds seem like nothing. I was able to escape it all anyways with a little effort and get the experience that I wanted all along.
If you plan on visiting The Great Wall of China, my biggest recommendation is to either go as earlier as possible if staying in Beijing, or book a tour that will take you to more remote and less crowded parts of the wall. There are even tours that will take you to unrestored areas of the wall for a more adventerous and definitely less crowded experience, which I plan on doing during my next visit to China.
- This post is a re-upload from my previous travel blog and was originally written back in 2015. ↩︎
