The Great Wall of China must be one of the most visited tourist attractions for each traveler. However, most travelers nowadays nearly only visit those that are quite famous and have been perfectly renovated. Although the feel of walking the Great Wall still exists, you might miss the print of history because they look new, beautiful and intact. The true Great Wall does not look like that. For example, if you pay a visit to an area called Jiankou (Arrow Nock), you will feel like walking into the past and the wild Great Wall will offer you a brand new feeling.
I had long hoped to visit the Great Wall at Jiankou since one of my good friends introduced it to me. According to what he described, Jiankou is a Great Wall section which looks stunning and is indeed dangerous, for at least you need to continue by climbing a roughly-made ladder once, and walk on a single brick wall sometimes. Actually, this sounds scary for some but alluring for me. After visiting this part of the Great Wall, I have to say: “This section of the Great Wall is worth traveling to, and it is indeed not easy to conquer. Be careful, my friends!”
Jiankou is commonly divided into two parts: front and behind. Even as of today, I haven’t clearly learned the order of it, but I began my journey at the foot of the front. This one is located a few miles away from the Mutianyu Great Wall, the second most popular Great Wall section in Beijing. You can spend 1-2 hours walking from this part to the foot of the front Jiankou or just get on the only bus normally known as H36 (but you had better carpool with a few guys: it costs 30 RMB or more) to that area.
Climbing the mountain to the arrow nock is a terribly tiring job. If you begin from where I did, you are dead! The entrance is behind a salmon breeding farm. The beginning seems not that hard, but as deep as you walk up the mountain, you will face all kinds of difficulties, such as very steep rock roads, large boulders, bends where you can easily get lost and paths where you will feel regretted you have come. I spent 3 hours or so up the mountain to the nock. Water is essential during your climb. Prepare as much water as you can! Of course, if you have already known this nock, you don’t have to work so hard, for the path behind the mountain is your way, where there is no so much difficulty.
I sat down resting on the nock wall for about 10 minutes before I set off east. The towering Great Wall debris stopped me and I had to climb over it. Standing on top of it was really awe-inspiring. The first thing swarmed into my eyes was the dilapidated beacon behind me, which looked somewhat like a king standing in front of his people. Then, I walked into the woods of short trees growing out of the cracks of the terribly damaged ancient brick walls. In fact, the wild Great Wall is all the way filled with short trees. It feels like walking in a thin maze rather than up or down the Great Wall. Yet, each brick, each square-shaped floor brick and even each particle of the concrete of the past can bring your emotional heart to the past and beyond. This quite differs from visiting a well renovated section of the Great Wall.
What amazed me the most was the astonishing view of this part. Compared with the beacons at Mutianyu or Badaling, these buildings here look more magnificent and admiring, for they stand on higher and steeper mountain peaks. Colored by the setting sun’s golden light, they looked even greater than they really were. I walked and climbed past a few ruined beacons and wall bends but didn’t know their names. Standing on such a Great Wall, you cannot help yourself screaming loudly to vent your inside passion about this man-made miracle. Many guys did so and echoed one another for fun. I did it and was profoundly impressed by what I saw.
After a few minutes of walk, I came to the ladder my friend said of, where everyone paid five yuan to pass. The man who took money from us also has a good knowledge of the Arrow Nock. Hearing his stories and guideline also seems not bad. The road ahead of me was not that difficult and I managed to arrive at my destination of today’s trip---Zheng Bei Lou (North Tower, which is actually a bigger beacon on which travelers love camping). It was already 6:00 p.m. and I jumped off the Great Wall and walked down the mountain from the back of it, where there is an easier path meandering down the mountain to a small village.
