Trotting up the Wall
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The silhouette of the Yangbian Great Wall is made out against the red rays of a setting sun. Liu Di / for China Daily |
"These entertainment people can party the whole night long when they are out here, it's quite a sight," Liang says.
We head south from Tianmo into a narrow valley that would have served as the perfect ambush spot for bandits who preyed on merchant caravans in imperial China. The air grows drier and the valley funnels thick winds of dust that penetrate our face scarves and gear.
But the air soon clears up and the highlands in the southwest - which the Yangbian section of the Wall snakes through - open up before us.
Our pack rides up the ridge into the seemingly deserted outskirts of Miaogang village, where cracking dirt-packed walls and bone-dry wells echo more prosperous times when mountain streams were probably flowing more fully.
The slopes become steeper as we make our way toward the mountain ridge and up against tougher terrain of shale and stone. We can already make out crumbled sections of the Wall against the red rays of a setting sun.
About an hour after our horses cautiously navigate up the ridge, we stand before a beige-colored stretch of Wall. Below the crumbled section is a stone tablet that reads "the Yangbian Great Wall".
We set up our camping tents just below the ramparts where the slopes protect us from the wind. We also free our horses for them to recharge on the fresh mountain grass.
Trip organizers soon transport our dinner up the slopes, including mutton skewers, an assortment of local fruit and vegetables, and freshly caught fish, all to be washed down with Chinese baijiu liquor, red wine, beer and soda luxuriously chilled with ice cubes.
Our banquet on top of the Wall stretches deep into the night as we share stories and songs, dancing around the campfire under a starry sky.
As we trace the silhouette of the Wall on the mountain ridge just above us, we can almost hear nearby wolves howling hauntingly under the bright moon - an experience not far from what Chinese troops stationed on the Wall's guard towers would have felt in earlier times.
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