I joined a day tour group run by the hostel to Jin Lin and Si Ma Tai Great Wall. I had done my research the day before like I was advised by the locals to make sure not to get scammed because even the locals get scammed. I have to check details on whether or not the tour takes me to specific part of the Great Wall I intended on, because some tours will just drop you off at any part of the Great Wall and called it delivering what it promised. Yeah, the Great Wall is vast it can be seen from the moon. So some people would spend a day on the mission to the famous Great Wall and got nothing much out of it because not all tour groups have contracts with the famous parts of Great Wall to park their buses or even have access to the entrance tickets. So I found out the only way to get to outskirts where Great Walls are, is to get onto a day tour group. Fortunately, I found out about this trip through my European bunk mate Matt from Sweden who checked in late last night. I didn’t pre register, paid for it all this morning at 5:30am after breakfast. My trip included only the round trip bus ticket for 100+ yuan. It was a 11+ kilometers hike over 5+ hours. There is no turning back once you step onto the Great Wall, this particular trail is all the way or no way. Most of the Great Wall visits included a tour of the Ching Lings, Ching tumbs. But this one being in the direction of east towards the ocean instead of the tumbs on the west by Henan, and due to the longevity of the trail, it stood as a single event on its own.
For breakfast my roommates and I went to the same place I ate yesterday, it was the only place within foot steps, up and fully running at 5am in the morning. The owner remembered me and was proud of the fact I spoke English and brought westerner to her breakfast eatery. All the workers paid attention to me in awe. I watched both mornings on how this female owner took care in dealing with her business matters. She was gentle and detailed. She took her time in taking care of everyone’s orders with courtesy. Not once did she cheat anyone of their money. There was a kind of class and refinement in her that is not often found in the hole in the wall food industry. She was a beautiful person to watch. The workers commented to me how great that I was educated and spoke English fluently. I ordered plain rice buns to go and stuffed them with all you can eat complimentary fresh vegetable pickles. I packed them in with my camera, journal, and 3 liters of water. I knew it would be my only meal for the next twelve hours of the trip. I preferred it over a bag of potato chips.
I got onto a tiny shuttle bus, sold to be luxurious and comfortable. It was cramped with 35 tall strong boned Europeans and me. The seats were lumpy and the motor was loud, it was one rough ride for me. As I starred out the window with busy Beijing behind me heading towards the unknown, I felt like we were all chickens on a chicken truck happily chatting away not knowing if we would be sold for slaughter or not. I am very sensitive to industrial sounds. The loud motor from the bus was difficult for me. I put on ear plugs, ah… my savor, my magic scrunchies. Two tiny little blue things that goes into my ears that helps me fall asleep in cheap youth dorm style bed with anyone coming in and going out at any hour with infinite scales of music of the night being played in unique symphonic form called, the human snore. It also works really well when someone is machine gunning me with their tongue, I would hide my bullet proof secret weapon tucked within my ear underneath my black long hair. I have survived many attacks this way. My other secrete weapon is to remove my glasses especially when someone is giving me a toxic vaporizing nuclear stare down. Yes everything and everyone is beautiful when it’s all a blur like a Monet painting. All the details of prickly tensions are gone, just beautiful soft blurs of color to relate to. Ah…
I folded my legs to half lotus, pulled out my beads and recited the Great Compassion Mantra in my mind. The Great Compassion mantra has been my most dependable, reliable, trustworthy traveling companion ever since I first memorized it over a decade ago. I wasn’t a Buddhist back then, I just heard it, found it to be beautiful, liked it and wanted to memorize it because the vibration felt really good. I found it be a miracle cure for everything from salvaging a terribly cooked meal, to body aches, to relationship problems, to falling asleep, and joy. I highly recommend trying it out. You can go to http://www.dharmaradio.org/ for a download.
