Hin's 3rd C.O.U.N.T 1,000,000 steps (Sep 19TH – Oct 12th 2011)

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8: Valley 109 ("Yuet teng kou")

Thean Hin Ooi <ooithin@gmail.com>  Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 5:17 PM

After the toughest day's walk yesterday into Hebei province, we arrived in Zhangjiakou, where I shall take the day off just looking around the city - museum of Wall dynasties.

Only managed 22.93km along the high roller-coasting, rocky, long grass, prickly shrubs, before we decided to leave the wall at 5:05pm and fortunately made it to the valley before night fall, then had to walk another 9km to the nearest village and with the help of the shop-keeper, got on a taxi to Huai'an. It was a scary moment as to be caught up in the mountains in darkness could prove disastrous.

AL leaves for Beijing in the afternoon and I have 2 more days of walking, I shall be done for this year.

Oct03. Day14. 07:20-17:48. Zhengqiangpucun – Sanduncun. Walked 31.0km, ascended 1,042m.

With a starting temperature of 0degreeC, the 2 of us bolted off like flying horses at 6kmph for 20 minutes before we could feel our fingers. It got warmer when we climbed 300m up the mountain and precariously followed the contour of the cliffs.

Just as we descended to the valley below, we were faced with a major challenge - standing on top of the wall, with a steep drop of 15m on both sides, a narrowed 2m, half a foot wide crossing. It was a 1,2,3,4 steps balancing act and should either of us mis-step step4, at least broken limbs would be the order of the day. With shaking knees, I made it to the valley floor and reached the "Valley 109" - there so many beacon towers in a stretch of only 12km.

Unfortunately, my Garmin eTrex's waypoint mark exceeded its limit of 1,000. Entered Sanduncun and decided to call it a day. We were then picked up and drove back to Datong.

Oct04. Day15. 08:10-17:50. Resumed at turnoff to Sanducun at 40°19'35.10"N 113°27'9.14"E – Provision Road 202 just after Buziwancun. Did 23.9km, with ascent of 645m.

Started later as it was raining, and just as well, as it became a drizzle when we arrived at our resumption point, The night before, had managed to download all the waypoints (GPS locations of all the towers I passed by) and was able to resume marking the towers in Valley 109***.

So many towers, in sets of 3, on the wall, 2 outside, each set no more than 50 to 100m apart. Makes one wonder why the need for so many of them. It was obvious the fertile valley must be defended against invaders but why build it in the valley in the first place? Why not up in the mountain range 20km further north?

Imagine the major task of building up on the high mountains and furthermore the water supply and feeding of the defending soldiers would be enormous. So there it was, in the valley and to properly protect it against attacks, the sets of 3 towers, so that soldiers on the 2 outside towers could shoot arrows upon the attackers of the wall. The effective range of the bow was 100m and even better with the Han Dynasty's invented cross-bow which has a range of 300m. That is why I termed this Valley 109 (pronounced in Cantonese “Yuet teng kou”) – which means definitely enough! to defend the wall.

The walk became harder as we proceeded up the mountain again, with 15 - 50m ravine crossing almost every 250m. I went slip, sliding a few times and soon a long tear appear on the butt area (not that hole!) and the duct tape came to the rescue. Dark clouds loomed at about 3:30pm, and when we heard the herdsmen calling to their sheep, goats, cows, we knew we had to also make it down the mountain to the trunk road to Xinsunrenpuncun (a further 8km away). And no sooner as we reached the trunk road, the rain came. CH came by and took us to Yanggao.
 

*** For best explanation by Andreas Lehman, of why so many towers, please refer to this link:

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http://www.greatwallforum.com/forum/forum/the-great-wall-of-china-forum/approved-users-forum/35504-the-one-hundred-tower-valley-in-shanxi

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Oct05. Day16. 07:00 - 18:10. Shijiuliangcun -  Xiezhuangcun. Hiked 33.5km, ascent 1,040m.

This day turned out to be a great day - sunny and cool. Still a few ravines to cross, still a few slides and falls and a couple of dangerous cliff hanging slope to descend. On the rocky mountain top we were greeted by flocks of Alpine choughs (yellow-billed crow family that breeds in the high rocky mountains).

Shanxi is really magpie country, nests after nests almost along the Great Wall, chasing away kites, hawks, sparrow eagles, black crows and occasionally the rare Shrike birds - a predatory bird of small field rats. The shrike do not have any sharp claws and would use the sharp thorns of the bush to help it tear out the flesh of its prey.

Not further on, we came across a "raided" grave, its white ashen planks yanked out from the side of the slope. These thieves just know where to locate ancient burials hoping to find jewellery in-laid with the corpses. Made it to Xiezhuangcun and rested the night in Yanggao.

Next episode to follow later.

Rgds,
Hin

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