Fresh Air and Fresh Adventures

    I had a break last week and had a very exciting adventure. Here are the 6 main stages of our trip. Also, I am an extremely slow writer and pretty busy with random stuff all the time...which means I am getting this post up a bit later than the actual events. Not that it matters haha.

stage 1: the plan
     After our plans to go camping in inner Mongolia were thwarted, we needed a new plan. The plan. Most of our team decided to jump on the Shanghai bandwagon (which was fairly appealing save the great expense). My brother Robbie and I had an overwhelming urge to be outside of a city. We craved to breathe out city air and breathe in the great outdoors during our break, so we put another plan into motion. After frustratingly gathering all the supplies, finding a stellar team, and being delayed a day, we solidified the plan and committed to carrying it out. The team consisted of the following members: Stephanie Anderson, Liz Hanna, Jared Marshall, Robbie Carter, and the Boisterous Beard of Beijing (me). Our destination was the section of the Great Wall between Gubeiku and Jinshanlin. We were off.

stage 2: lost in translation
     I think that people often abuse the phrase, "lost in translation." When you don't understand what someone is trying to say, but you understand what language they are speaking, you are not getting lost in translation. One or both people are just experiencing a moment, or moments, of poor communication. Also, when you can't read a sign that is in another language or you are unable to understand someone who is talking in another language, getting lost in translation is not your problem. You just don't know the language. After the first leg our trip, which involved a short city hike and a long on subway ride, we moved above ground to the North Beijing Train Station. That is where we got lost in translation.
     When we arrived at the ticket counter our translator/fellow traveling companion Liz Hanna told the ticket lady where we wanted to go and we think she said that it was an impossible request. Impossible? Our hearts dropped in despair as we witnessed our trip crumbling down around us. But then a China man came to our rescue who spoke English. He graciously helped us figure out what the heck was going on. Or at least tried to help. He told us that the train stopped going to Gubeiku and that the only trains heading in that direction were freight trains. My eyes lit up for a second because I imagined us traveling like a bunch of hobos...but then I remembered it was the 21st century and my life was not a Saturday morning cartoon. Reluctantly we phoned a bunch of friends and found a closer destination. Still excited for the adventures that lay before us, we jumped on the train and headed north.
     About an hour into our train ride we met a man that was printing tickets for people. We asked, "Gubeiku?" Within seconds we had our extended tickets in hand and were heading to our original destination. We sat around for a few moments and asked ourselves, "Why was that so difficult?" Laughing, we shrugged it off and continued playing Monopoly Deal. Oh China, many of your ways are not sensible to Westerners, and we need to apologize more often for assuming that they should or would be.

stage 3: a Great Wall campsite
     After a 3ish hour train ride we arrived at the infamous Gubeiku train station. We hurried off and quickly cased the joint. The Great Wall was many kilometers away, past two towns, and up the side of a mountain. If we were heading anywhere but the Wall our spirits would have been utterly destroyed. But we were on a mission and with hearts inspired by adventure, so we took off.

We made incredible time. Like, amazing time. Within 2 and 1/2 hours we got slightly lost, almost got hit by multiple charter buses, made it through a shanty town, then Gubeiku, avoided a police checkpoint, got chased down by a guy on a moped (who wanted to charge us for walking on the road)(story of any place near the Great Wall), blazed through some farm lands, ascended a small mountain towards the Great Wall, got on the Wall, hiked on some treacherous parts of the Wall, met a bunch of tourists on more restored parts of the Wall, got charged to be on the Wall, and set up shop in a guard tower towards the end of the tourist zone. After the last of the tourists left, we put our tents up and watched the sun set over the mountains. Truly a spectacular sight.
     Now, this is the part of the trip that I realized how truly blessed I was to be there. Breathing in non-polluted air and camping on the Great Wall with a bunch of great friends...incredible. I felt like I was on top of the world. I took off up the wall a little ways to explore some other towers and spent some time praying. I was so thankful to be there, and thankful for all the amazing things He was doing in, through, and around my life. As I looked towards the heavens I saw my first starry sky since arriving in China. You take for granted the natural beauties of His creation until you live without. Truly a remarkable site and a good reminder of His majesty and incredible beauty. Abba is an incredible artist, and I was appreciating this facet of His character in a whole new way. Thank you, China.

stage 4: avoiding the military zone and getting to the next camping site


    I woke up the next morning to a very exasperated China man yelling to his friend. Yelling because he was quite a bit behind and only had the ability to use his lungs and not his legs. Surprisingly, I was ready to start the day early because we had crashed pretty hard the night before out of sheer exhaustion.  We slowly left our tents and quickly regretted our decision. It was cold. Really cold. I'm from Maine and I am used to such conditions, and my beard was treating me REAL nice, but that morning I wasn't expecting such a harsh contrast between the climates of our tent and the tower. We rushed to our packs to layer up and ventured outside. Once bundled up the weather was more than enjoyable. The cool, crisp air was a refreshing reminder that I was incredibly alive and graciously sustained by Someone bigger than myself. Before we got ready to go, we decided to have a quick competition over who could throw a rock the farthest with their weak hand. Robbie won the distance award and Jared won the "look-the-most-ridiculous" award. Yet another random and good moment.

     Once we had everything packed and "met" a few more Chinese tourists that we couldn't communicate with, we headed towards the military zone. We came up to a tower that was cemented shut and was covered by a bunch of huge signs that we guessed said important things. None of us could read them but the razor wire and the gun shots in the distance were helpful translating tools. Yikes. Looking at all the crazy warnings, I was reminded of a sign I once saw. It said, "trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again." Say "no" to trespassing in military zone kids, could be hazardous to your health.
   So we headed off the wall and took a path that took through some farm lands, a shanty village, small mountains and valleys, and a house we assumed belonged to some drug lord. Probably a mule station. It was so sketchy that I half expected to stumble upon some bones...

we started behind the mountain where the arrow is pointing

Finally, we reconvened with the wall. We ended up climbing it because we didn't know there was an easier entrance about a hundred yards away from our location. I scampered up the wall and Jared handed me the packs one by one. Once we were all on top and in a nearby tower we were instantly met by a number of tourists that were completely puzzled by our apparent materialization from the direction of the military zone. Also, we were quite the motley crew and smelled just as fresh as could be. A few of them spoke English which is always a nice change of pace in China.
     We decided that we would explore the area but would come back and camp there for the night. I foolishly ran ahead to the next tower to scout things out, but was quickly confronted by a woman with an official orange vest and a name tag. She wanted 65 RMB to pass. Check no for heck no. I reported my findings to the group who were equally disgusted. We decided to blaze down the mountain in hopes of finding a cheaper exit. And THEN....it happened.

stage 5: the emergency situation
     Up until this point in our adventure we were having an AMAZING time. No bickering, when we got lost it wasn't ever serious and the detours were always welcomed, and no injuries or mishaps whatsoever. Felt incredibly blessed and thanked God for keeping us safe the entire trip because we were in some really remote places. So, with slightly dragging feet, our team made our way down the side of these mountains in the direction of the village Jinshanlin. Here was our line up: I was leading, Jared was behind me, then Liz and Steph (not sure of their order), and finally Robbie taking up the rear. Now I had known for most of the trip that it was not a great idea for me to be leading. Not because I couldn't find my way, but rather I sucked at setting the pace. The entire time I felt like a kid at Chutters (which is the largest candy counter in the world located in Littleton, NH near where my mother grew up). I was cruising whenever I was up front.
     So I was rushing down the mountain with the group keeping pace, and then our trip took a turn, or a slip, for the worst. A patch of loose gravel sent Steph sprawling with her huge pack and she landed on a severed, plant stump or nub. I didn't see her go down but I saw the response afterwards from the other team members. Liz held Steph and was cleaning up the wound. Jared was helping Liz. Robbie was getting a jerry rigged bandage ready that consisted of TP and a wool sock. I was stuck at the front because the path was super narrow, so I just waited and got kind of impatient. I figured it was a scratch or something because the team wasn't freaking out and they didn't ask me to help them. But I was wrong.
    I wasn't told in words that I had made a mistake. Rather, Robbie just passed out. Not only that but he went on to having his first ever seizure. My brain started screaming, "What the heck is going on?" My choice of words may have been slightly different in the moment. Robbie started snorting and his eyes started to roll back into his head. He started sliding down the mountain only to be caught by random shrubbery. The girls started bawling because they thought Robbie was going to die. Our entire trip climaxed in those few moments, on the side of a tiny Chinese mountain. There was no way to fully prepare for it, other than possibly bringing a first aid kit. I went from being slightly annoyed by the situation to extremely aware of it in a matter of moments.
     I dropped my pack, told Jared to put Robbie on his side so he wouldn't choke on his tongue, cleaned out Steph's wound and bandaged it with TP and some medical wrap that we found, then checked back on Robbie. I realized that they weren't freaking out because Steph had a big ole gouge, about a 1/4 inch in diameter, taken out of her calf. I could see inside her leg. I assessed it was a little bit worse than a scratch. After the craziness had died down I suggested to the group that we pay the 65 RMB and head back a night early. All were in agreement.

stage 6: the not-so-great escape
     The trip back was fairly uneventful (thankfully). By now Steph was walking perfectly fine with some drugs in her system. Robbie was going on as if nothing happened, except for the occasional "I am going to pass out in a moment" quips. He enjoyed getting a few rises out of people, and I felt I would be doing the same exact thing after such an episode. We ended up paying a bit more than we intended, but we got back to Beijing by taking a taxi back to Gubeiku then long distance buses back to Beijing. We were slightly aggitated by some of the people we came in contact with and little things kept happening that were annoying, but we made it back in one piece and Steph was sent to the hospital. The next day we woke up late, made some quesadillas and watched a movie together. Perfect way to end our time together.

   I have already talked to much. Which doesn't surprise anyone who knows anything about me. But I will leave you with the moral of our story: pay the workers with orange vests and name tags, because they have the best exit.