An hour before I reached the entrance of the trail head, I experienced chest pains on the bus. I recalled a similar experience with my train ride in Italy to Pompeii three years ago. The areas all around my fourth chakra were tight. An hour and half into my hike on the Great Wall I had chest and lung trouble. I was in a lot of pain. I saw in the past I had been a worker carrying a road brick to build this part of the Great Wall. I was a young man, carrying a large stone brick over my right shoulder. I was very tired, over worked and working extended hours. I fell asleep while walking and fell over the wall with the brick I was carrying landing on my neck and head smashing onto the mountainside. I died quietly and instantly in my sleep. I felt no pain.
The chest and lung trouble went away after this and I was able to enjoy the beauty of the trail. The Great Wall is truly magnificent and beautiful. I was glad to be spending hours hiking it. It is to be experienced. I was approached by two local free lance/independent contractors under the hats of travel tour guide, bag carrier, book-post card seller for their services. One was a female of 23 looking like she was going onto 38 and the other a young man in his twenties. They both work on the Great Wall everyday. Their livelihood depended solely on travelers trailing the Great Wall. They were persistent in walking with me offering to carry my pack and trying to convince me that I cannot make it through the 5-6 hour hike and should take their recommended guided short cut off a lone trail. I was offended by their discouragement, I may go slow but I backpack and hike regularly and I make it to my destinations in joy. Smart rule I go by as a female traveling, “never part away from the tourist or busy areas and go off on unclear, unknown, no man trail, streets, areas.” I didn’t know what to do with these polite persistent locals who continue their selling pitches in any way to make a yuan.
I wondered what was our affinity that brought us together? Of all the people why us, together? I noticed this woman was my lady in waiting in the past. She served me. It was her job, she was paid to do, it was all business and she did a good job in taking care of me. This man was her husband in that life who also worked for me. Now they have their separate families but still spend all day together on the job as acquaintances. I continued to let them walk with me without encouraging them or discouraging them or any interest in making a sale. They were good with caretaking details and kind. The lady would give me a hand up some of the steep steps, the man would show me things, tell me bits of history here and there. I learned to enjoy their company.
Because they walked with me, the other Great Wall sales sharks selling, beer, chilled bottled water, etc… stayed away from me. In many ways, it was a nice protection so I could enjoy my hike. They walked as far as the boarder of Jin Ling to the Si Ma Tai section. At this point, they begged for me to buy a guide to Great Wall book to me for 40 yuan. It was over priced, it can be purchased for 10 yuan. I was not interested in hauling any weight and had no intention to make a purchase to begin with and they were clear of this. For old time sake, I handed them 50 yuan and thanked them for walking with me. I told them they will have to share that and divide it however they both saw what would be of equal division to them. We parted, I proceeded toward the second half of my hike and they quickly headed back to the trail head in scout for more travelors.
