The Wild Wall of The Great Wall of China

When most think of China, The Great Wall is one of the first things that comes to mind. After all, the Great Wall of China is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. However, most don’t realize that the Great Wall is about 5,500 miles long and was built by different Chinese Dynasties over time to keep out the Mongols. Most are only familiar with Badaling, a part of the great wall that is almost completely restored and is the popular tourist section of the wall. Badaling is the part of the wall that is in majority of the pictures of the Great Wall; therefore most are only familiar with this part of the wall.

I expected to spend the day at Badaling fighting to get around hundreds of tourists and struggling to take a good picture. Fortunately, I was completely wrong and instead we went on a wild journey on the Great Wall. We were picked up at our hotel around 6:30 in the morning and drove to the village along the Ming part of the wall, or called the Wild Wall, named after our guide William Lindesay or Wild Will. On the bus to his village, he gave us a detailed history of the Great Wall and about his life. Wild Will fell in love with the Great Wall early in life and when the time was right, he moved to China. He walked the whole Great Wall once in the late 1980’s and wrote several books about the wall and has a TV program coming out about the Great Wall that airs April 30^th on National Geographic.

After eating a quick breakfast at Wild Wall’s lodge, we began our 6-mile hike along the Wild Wall, which is named after Will. We hiked through the snow covered woods stopping every once in a Will to take in the scenery and listen to what Wild Will had to say about the wall. Eventually, we made it to the actual wall and out of the woods. The Wild Wall is not artificial like Badaling; it is truly genuine. The wall has not been restored so it is in its natural state and it is not over flowing with tourists. When hiking the Wild Wall you need to be cautious and aware of your surroundings, because it has not been restored the rocks are loose and it is easy to slip or trip.

Overall, we spent about half a day hiking the Wild Wall and then we enjoyed some of the best dumplings I have ever tasted at Will’s lodge. After a long day, nearly all of us Mojo’ers were sound asleep on the bus ride back to Beijing. It was truly amazing to see an authentic part of the Great Wall and a wonder of the world. Here is the link to Wild Will's website.