The Great Wall [Ba Da Ling]

It didn't look like much from where we were standing. Red flag! Yellow flag! Blue flag! Green flag! All fluttering limply in the wind! I only discovered the severity of the steepness of the giant stone steps on ascending the preliminary flight of steps. Crossroad. The more annoyingly populated and winding left or the deserted and imposing right staring down at our faces? Decisions, decisions. They made their way to the right; the guide had told them that this was the shorter climb. Or was it the opposite side? Nobody could remember now. The aura of the place and the sheer magnitude of the quest before us had consumed us entirely by now.

I took a few tentative steps upwards. This couldn't be right, the steps were sloping downwards; an obvious show of hostility much in the manner an indignant stallion attempts to throw the foolhardy rodeo off its back. So this was what the handrails were for. Right up, left down. Were the rest following? Still posing around at the base of the steps. Surely the view at the top would be better?

The family with the two young children was making their way down again. It was one thing to plough your way blindly up, with solid stone staring reassuredly in your face; but the downward descent demanded you to practically take a plunge with the vast expansiveness of the area opening up before you. It'd be a natural reaction to be afraid, I suppose, which was why courage is about conquering your fears rather than denying their existence. I'm not saying I'm brave, mind, just something I thought of when I turned around and found those stone slabs at the bottom all those many steps ago inviting me to jump down at them.

Young couple was still with us. They weren't yet married, what a shock. The lady seemed to be increasingly running out of breath. She was only a year older than me at 24, but she had weak knees--- and her long-standing male companion would find that out shortly--- which would complicate her descent. It's funny how you can live with someone for half a lifetime and not know anything about that person in many ways. Yet nobody can wholly understand a fellow human being, I suppose. We're complicated enough creatures that way even without ornamental horns or webbed feet.

Weather was kind enough anyway. Mr. Sun was in good form this afternoon and the sky was a clear effervescent blue. Not many clouds decorate the Beijing skies, I observed wryly. Perhaps the wind had blown them all away? No, that was an absurd thought, even by my standards. Were we all still ok? Yes thank you I'm fine please go on. Was that due to the oxygen level thinning the further we went or should I attribute it to a chronic lack of exercise?

Here we were, at the summit of the Great Wall in what had seemed to be thousands of steps away from where we were standing at the base of the steps a couple of hundred hours ago. That's it I'm not going any further I'm totally bushed. Come on lady, we would be entering into unchartered waters now. Through the dimly lit but nonetheless charming coarse brick arc--- in the photograph the scenic view that could be admired from the arched window had been transformed to celestial white light, not unlike a magical portal into an alien dimension. Where Hobbits DO NOT exist.

Blue skies again. On and on, up and up. And here we were, to the neglected wilderness that would mark the ending point of this civilized climb. No more sturdy walls reconstructed from UN funds, just two thin handrails that outlined the unpaved path from the abyss that plunged below either side. Even the flags here (Green flag! Pink flag!) hung lifelessly from their lithe poles, only occasionally frayed by a passing breeze. Somewhere along the ruins stood an erect sign of red calligraphy words on a white wooden base: He who has not been to the Great Wall is not a true hero.

I suppose that sign had deceived many a wanderer into believing that he had found whatever it was that he was looking for when he took that first step a couple of hundred feet below. In reality there was no barrier that impeded any intended further progress, but I suppose the decapitated state of the undulating wall clearly visible from this vantage point was enough discouragement in itself. And so the gentleman turned back, with his lady companion resting somewhere back waiting faithfully for his return; and my father turned back, having seen enough to satisfy his appetite for adventure, and lastly I turned back, somewhat sick at the realization that the real climb only started from this point onwards, but we had a long way to return, and the coach was waiting.