Hin's 6th C.O.U.N.T. 1,000,000 steps (Sep 20th – Oct 18th, 2014)

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14: By God, this is it! 

Thean Hin Ooi <ooithin@gmail.com>   Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 2:26 PM

16/10  08:09 – 17:45  15.2km 27,635 steps TA 1174m.

Dongjiakou – Tiemenguan

AL is still down but help mapped out the path up and down to the wall sections I intended to walk today. Great start to the day. Hiked 40 minutes up to the strong tower and followed the wall to a series of towers – even an ancient stone tower (BeiQi?) built before the Ming, and a fortress bounded to the wall – the local said it’s a corral for horses but AL doesn’t seem to think so. Came down that early section (no evidence of continued built wall) to the village of Liutiaoguo, walked the 3km road to Tiemenguancun.

Took the Ming path up to the other section of the wall, which had been neglected and broken. Had a most challenging time climbing over large boulders with dropped cliffs on both sides – no room for error or carelessness, else it’s down 150m. Made it through and reached 3 large towers. Didn’t stay long as the sun was waning, found the path down, exited and walked to the Tienmenguan/Lingxi trunk road. Waited at the sundry shop and a cute little boy of 3 just tuck at my hearts strings – gave him an “ang pow” of Malaysian ringgits. What a wonderful day.

17/10  07:15 - 13:45.  9.6km 17,455 steps TA 472m.

Qingshanguan (QSG) – Yumu lingcun

Said farewell to AL as he was leaving for Beijing. Just as excited to hike the official last day of this 2014 COUNT. It was an easy start up the terraces and bush fought the last 20m to the tower/wall. A glorious day with the sun trying to break through and what a wonderful sight it was, when it finally did – through the “eye” of a tower.

As I got higher up the mountain and looked back at the beautiful lines of towers and the QSG fortress, it conjures up the feelings of awe, wonderment, amazement, fascination, consternation, admiration for the human spirit, determination, imagination and ingenuity in building this Great Wonder Wall.

The trek along this magnificently built stretch was relatively easy and the numerous gigantic towers were a sight to behold. By 12:30 noon, exited the wall via a quarry and ended at the quaint village of Yumu lingcun. Got a couple of drinks from the sundry shop and waited for CH. We then took off on the dusty country road to Qinhuangdao, where I shall rest for a couple of days and visit Shanhaiguan to assess the finishing point at Laolongtou (Old Dragon Head).

18/10  10:35 – 1630. 15.9km 28,909 steps TA 84m.

Shanhai Pass - Laolongtou

It was to be a slow easy day to check out Shanhaiguan. Took a taxi from Qinhuangdao to Diyiguan (First Pass under Heaven) in Shanhaiguan (Shanhai Pass).

Qinhuangdao – the 1st Emperor Qinshihuang, came seeking immortality and sent people to the sea looking for the immortals. A white whale was spotted off the coast and thinking it’s one of the immortals, tried to capture it with his bow and arrow, camping on the island for weeks, but to no avail. The place was subsequently named after him - Qinhuangdao (Emperor Qin Island).

Shanhai Pass is built as a square, with a perimeter of around 4 kilometres. The walls reach a height of 14 metres, and are 7 metres thick. The east, south and north sides are surrounded by a deep, wide moat with drawbridges and a tall bell tower stands in the middle of the pass. All four sides of the Pass once possessed a gate or mén (门), with the Zhèndōng Mén (镇东门) in the East wall, the Yíngēn Mén( 迎恩门) in the West, the Wàngyáng Mén (望洋门) in the South and the Wēiyuǎn Mén (威远门) in the North. Today, only the most important (which guards the passage to Beijing) Zhendong Gate remains.

Visited the impressive Zhendong Gate, a few nearby towers, the ancient village and command centre of the fortress, temples, and the now, numerous tourist shops. The wall sections after the fortress are in disrepair, fenced off and just too difficult to hike.

Had to walk the road to Laolongtou (Old Dragon Head) – again a cordoned off tourist area by the Bohai sea – with just a couple of towers to visit and the Temple of Mazu (妈祖 - the Goddess of the Sea), similar to Laolongtou, jutting into the sea. Back to Qinhuangdao for the night before departing for Beijing the following day for my MH361 flight home.

C.O.U.N.T 2014 has been just as challenging as the previous 2 years. I had great company (AL and JK) to start the hike and later KQ from Singapore.

The Brit and Oz couldn’t make the weekend due to unfavourable weather. We lost quite a number of days to rain, fog, smog and haze. This area of Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin is one of the most polluted provinces of China and some days the haze is so bad, the visibility is down to no more than 10m. Having said that the rain was a relief – clears the smog and haze and accorded us many days of clear blue sky.

This year, finally made past Panjiakou, which I had forecasted to reach for the last 2 years. Beautiful area, unfortunately covered in heavy fog on the day we were there. The section after Panjiakou is a continuous stretch of over 100km, which I have only managed to get past the scenic Qingshanguan to the village of Yumu lingcun – this shall be the resumption point for the next trip.

All in, I only managed 324km (589,093 steps) covering about 215km of the traced Great Wall, ascended 15,891m, and in the process shed 4.2kg (from 63.2kg to 59kg) off my already small frame. I have another 205km of this traced wall to reach Laolongtou and by the graces of God(s), will be able to complete this small C.O.U.N.T dream in the next outing. 

To date, in the last 6 years, I have covered:-

1. Y2009 - 20 days hike: 1,137,882 steps (593.2km);
2. Y2010 - 24 days hike: 1,038,591 steps (557.4km);
3. Y2011 - 22 days hike: 1,005,782 steps (553.2km);
4. Y2012 - 23 days hike:    781,296 steps (421.3km);
5. Y2013 - 25 days hike:    510,628 steps (309.6km);

6. Y2014 - 26 days hike.    589,093 steps (324.0km);

totalling  5,063,272 steps , (2,758.7km).

And finally, a reminder - please donate to your favourite charity.

C.O.U.N.T (Compassion, Optimism, Unity, Nature, Tomorrow) 1,000,000 steps :-

"Every fortunate person to demonstrate the Compassion of one's heart and donate to the destitute and needy, so that together we can share and partake in the Optimism and hope for the Unity of all peoples to preserve the wonders and beauty of Nature for our children of Tomorrow."

Thank you everyone for all prayers sent and wishing all, an abundance of love and health.

All the very best.

Regards,

Hin.

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