Great Wall of China | Jojie Alcantara

“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb”.
~ Nelson Mandela

Scaling the Great Wall via Badaling Route

This UNESCO World Heritage Site is very touristy and congested in the Badaling route from Beijing. It may be a little difficult to recognize from the serene pictures you see on the net and books. For a photographer, it becomes a feat trying to find a spot to capture its “zen-like” ruins, without being pushed or diverted by a shuffling crowd.  Not recommended for those suffering from vertigo and fear of heights. Then again, you will encounter a whole family gently holding on to a grandmother who looks to be a hundred, nimbly stepping on very steep stone pavements, while a throng of tourists are hyperventilating and waiting behind them.

This is a rather delayed shoutout to Third Eye Mom who has a better experience of trekking the Great Wall from a different location with less of the people and more of nature untouched. 

A while back, I promised her I will blog about my own surreal experience, to which I kept forgetting.  It’s not because it wasn’t memorable, but because I had way too many photos to sort from.  All of them entails me struggling for support clutching at rails while carrying a camera and teetering on a steep incline. It was a giddy and fun experience. 🙂

I will have a more detailed blog post soon.

(Thanks, Wiki!) The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces.

Badaling is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of urban Beijing city in Yanqing County, which is within the Beijing municipality. The portion of the wall running through the site was built in 1505 during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military outpost reflecting the location’s strategic importance.  The highest point of Badaling is Beibalou, approximately 1,015 metres (3,330 ft) above sea level. The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone heavy restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to open to tourists.  Now visited annually by millions, the immediate area has seen significant development, including hotels, restaurants, and a cable car.