Hike the Great Wall...

[Chappy]

Hey Gang, I'll be off the site for a few days. Going to China to do a section hike on the Great Wall. Don't think I'll have time to hike the whole thing!

[JLB]

Watch out for Pandas. I hear those things are vicious.

[eyahiker]

Hey Chappy, God bless and have a terrific Trip!

[rumbler]

Hiking the Great Wall. Now there is an adventure!

[Kozmic Zian]

Yea......Great Wall Of China! You're serious. That's great. You're so casual about it, I thought it must be a joke....but, alas, I detect the seriousness of the venture and the wonderfulness that it must surely bring to you. Good hiking and adventure, and take lots o' pics so's you can show us when you return. KZ@

[Lone Wolf]

The ultimate ******ing road walk!

[Streamweaver]

The ultimate ******ing road walk!

I bet youd do it if they let you ride your new scoot on the wall!!LOL Streamweaver

[TedB]

It is better to walk a thousand miles than to read a thousand books.
-old chinese saying

[pvtmorriscsa]

Howdy all,
All I got to say is Hell Yeah! That would be awesome to hike the Great Wall. Or if you were really adventurous, and I am only half kidding, the Ho-Chi Mihn trail.
I have read a couple of books that discussed the supply lines the NVA used. I could not help but imagine how interesting it might be to hike them.
The only thing I could imagine that would be neater would be to walk Slavomir Rawicz's long walk from Siberia to India.

[WalkinHome]

Hi Chappy,

Way to go!! This has intrigued me also but never could put together the logistics. When you return, I would be very interested in all of your planning. Be Safe. Don't eat too much Chinese food.

[WalkinHome]

Hi Chappy,

Just looked at your profile-Uncle doesn'have a problem with you going to China? China doesn't have a problem with you coming to China? Boy, the military has changed a bunch since I retired. Let me know when you get the time and I envy your trip. Closest I could get was a virtual black and white tour on the web. Be Safe. See you on the high ground.

[dje97001]

Yeah, that is a little surprising! You've probably already read about this, but others can read about someone who thinks he was the second foreigner and possibly the 3rd-4th person ever (modern times?) to hike the whole thing. Never heard of the guy before, and you know how the web goes... but it was a good, short read, that read like a trailjournal.

http://206.245.174.113/mag/01-01/china.php

Anyway, good luck. That sounds like fun (unless you get shin splints)!

[Lone Wolf]

Unless there's a Dot's type bar and a Chinese buffet every 10 miles, my big ass wouldn't be caught on that trail.

[hungryhowie]

From what I've read on the subject, it takes a a friend high-up in the Chinese Government, a lot of time, a lot of luck, and a lot of red tape to get all of the permits that are required for a foreigner to walk the entire thing. Only 3-4 foreigners have been allowed this privelege, and all have (to my knowledge) been required to have guides during certain areas to prevent them from "straying" from the wall and doing some spy work at nearby military facilities.

As awesome as the wall is in some places that have been kept up, the vast majority has deteriorated to the point that you've walking beside a pile rubble, from what I understand. Nonetheless, I've also had a romantic draw to hike the wall for the past several years. If it is half of what I hope it would be, it would be the unltimate long-distance hike for me.

-Howie

[retread]

Wow. I agree with howie and walkinhome....I'd love to do that hike.
I, too, would be interested in the logistics Chappy.
Bet you Rameans are $.10 a package over there.

[MedicineMan]

Did Egypt when I got out of grad school and always dreamed of the Great Wall, surely you will have an incredible trip/experience to report back with. Could you bring back a small piece of the wall for me?

[Chappy]

The Great Wall trip turned out to be not so great! I got sick my second day in China...ended up back in Korea in the hospital. Turns out I had a kidney stone that wouldn't pass. Korean doctors did a lithotripsy which pulverized the stone and was able to pass it after three days in the hospital.

Incidental to the kidney stone the CT scan revealed a lesion in my abdomen. I was shipped from Korea to Ft. Gordon (my next duty station) for follow up at Eisenhower Medical Center. After a second CT scan and an MRI the surgeon feels it is not malignant and will do quarterly CT scans for comparison. He said even if it was malignant he wouldn't be able to do anything about it because of the location. For now, I feel ok with his diagnosis. I do ask for your prayers.

The only thing I accomplished regarding the Great Wall was that I got to see it!

Lone Wolf: I didn't see any Chinese food buffets, but did see lots of Chinese!

[WalkinHome]

Chappy,

Can you give some details about the paperwork the Chinese required? How did you find out what they needed? Websites?

[Chappy]

WalkingHome: Even without my medical emergency the trip would have been a disappointment. I worked through travel people in Korea...almost didn't get a visa because the Chinese govt was kinda playing games with Americans as a little retaliation for our govt decision to fingerprint foreigners arriving in the US. That eventually got worked out. We were assigned a guide in China who worked with the Chinese travel agency. It turns out we could only hike certain portions of the wall and only during the day ( I got to spend half day before I got sick). Our choice was the original wall, but we were limited as to our travel. We did see portions of the original, but only walk on the recontructed wall which is still very, very old. I know this isn't much information to help, but information is very controlled over there. I did no direct planning and left details for others to work out. I did learn form our guide that it's probably impossible for anyone to be able to hike the entire thing. My disappointment from the first trip has caused the desire to fizzle...I'm taking that off my dream list! We were treated nicely, but I saw first hand the restrictions of a communist government.