The Great Wall Fiasco

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After the end of our September session Dan, Tracey, 4 other facilitators and myself, went on a crazy adventure to the Great Wall. We took a bus about 2 hours away from the city and had planned on hiking to the wall in the late afternoon, watching the sunset over the wall, and then hiking back down with our headlamps at night. We had rented a hostel that afternoon, took 20 minute van ride from the hostel to a trailhead that would take us to the wall, and then began our ascent at about 4pm. The sun was to set at about 6pm, and the locals had told us we could make it up to the top in in less than two hours if we hustled.

The hike started out smoothly. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were excited to be away from campus. Yet, after about a half an hour in, the terrain started getting rather steep. In fact, as we continued moving upwards, there were some points of the hike that became more of rock climbing without safety harnesses and ropes! And, since we had started so late in the afternoon, we eventually got to the point of no return and had to continue to the top and hope to find an easier way down. The sunset was gorgeous, yet unfortunately it started to get rather cold when the sun went down. Thankfully we had packed some warmer gear and headlamps since we had been planning on hiking down after sunset. But we ended up not making it to the actual wall until about an hour after sundown and realized that there was no way we would be able to make it down on any safe route after an arduous 3 1/2 hour hike. So, we ended up camping the night in a large watch tower on the top of the Great Wall where we started a fire with sticks and small trees we ripped up from the forest below the wall! We hung out and talked for hours until it was around midnight, and then tried unsuccessfully to sleep for a few hours on the hard stone floor with our backpacks and nearby shrubbery for our bed. The temperature dropped to about 35-40 degrees and no one slept much, but we made it through the night.

And, eventually when the sun came up, it was by far the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen and I think the pictures will prove it. Then, with plenty of light to guide our path, we hiked down the mountain toward the bottom a different way than we had gone up (though it was still very rugged and steep). We arrived at the bottom after about 2 1/2 hours sleep-deprived, exhausted, and hungry, yet most of us were stoked to have spent such a crazy night on the Great Wall of China and were excited to tell our epic tale to others.

We then took a van back to the hostel, where we told our story to the hostel owners. They informed us that 2 college students had recently died hiking in the same area. This was crazy to hear, and left us feeling humbled and thankful that God had brought us up and down safe and sound.

(See the pictures for more details)