See the Great Wall of China

You are in Beijing (why the French have renamed Beijing a city which does not belong to them?) And you can not come this far without dreaming of seeing, at least from afar, the fabled Great Wall of China. Raised to the UNESCO World Heritage this masterpiece of architecture with a length of 5 000 km is visible from the north of Beijing. But there are three access points to the Great Wall at the start of the Chinese capital, and if you are not careful in city guides or travel agents will take you directly to Badeling, point of view the most popular tourist : Thousands of tourists arrive each day and crowded buses on the road to watch for being photographed. A Chinese tourist is not a Chinese if he does not take pictures wherever he goes ... (and it is a Chinese woman who told me yesterday!).

I was promised hell, I chose Paradise: 2 hours drive from Beijing is less access, and more sports to watch in the most visible portion of the most beautiful of the Great Wall. Luo Zhewen, a famous expert in the study of the Great Wall might say: "Great Wall of China is the author most gigantic world and the Simatai section of the most spectacular Great Wall of China". Thus the Great Wall made it part of the cultural heritage of the Chinese people, but also that of all humanity Simatai section of which is undoubtedly a key element of this precious heritage ...

I wanted the spectacular, I had ... a dazzling!

Built on the mountain ridges Simatai Great Wall, whose construction began in the first year of the reign of Hongwu of the Ming dynasty is so far the best preserved section of the Great Wall of Ming: 35 watchtowers still stand in the along the 5.4 km visible from Simatai with a sinuous shape and varied. If the towers are normally separated by 500 meters of city walls, two of them are only 43 meters distant, and most have between one and two hundred meters. And a hundred meters may appear five hundred when you browse on foot ...

On seeing the distant towers punctuate the walls on the ridge of steep mountains, you still know that you will use your muscles to win a magnificent view. However, after choosing the option cable car rather than relentless climb, climb like everyone else on board small platforms suspended above the void, only (e) or two at most, and enjoy a walk fifteen minutes over the valley. In an almost perfect silence you will have the pleasure of admiring the blue mountains and the lake at the milky color supplying the region. But all your attention remains fixed on the still object of your desire: the Great Wall of China that is becoming increasingly clear gradually as the car rises to the heavens.

Descending from these eggs suspended you should travel a few hundred meters before boarding the cable car that will push you one hundred feet higher, but a hundred meters steep that will thrill the most susceptible to dizziness ... Superb!

Next, you will check if your fitness is up to your expectations ... The Great Wall wins, mount another twenty minutes on a good slope redesigned blows of steps carved in stone, with different heights, which starts quickly after endurance most pronounced. So out of breath as you reach the summits to finally bring on the Great Wall!

Welcoming a smile the young Chinese who hammered a sharp punch a thin piece of marble to shape the landscape he had before, I took the time to put ashore 12 kg before my camera bag to embrace the panorama of a bewildered but grateful look: here I am on the roof of the world!

Not entirely, of course ... But the roof of the world is not so far as Everest dormant for a few thousand miles away as the crow flies on my left.

Contemplating a move the winding road formed by the Great Wall through a landscape of mountains and deep valleys crenellated a feeling of fullness and wonder mixed, but how did these men to build such a border between two states on 5 000 km and in such conditions?! ...

The guide with me remember that there are still a few hundred years the Great Wall officially separated two territories: left China, Mongolia to the right. Each watch tower could house a small garrison of men stranded there for defend China against, among others, those of Genghis Khan from Mongolia. Three times the hooves of horses of Genghis Khan will walk the trail of the Great Wall, piercing the defense of stones and bricks to gain access to Beijing it will burn twice.

But how did he manage to climb so far?! ...

It is said that Simatai Great Wall is the most spectacular and most able to understand the daunting aspect of this construction. I want to believe ... For nearly four hours I'll stay in the cool under the sun but to take pictures and take the time to climb higher, ever higher, until the tower number 12 which marks the end Drive to the peaks allowed: beyond is a military for soldiers of the Republic of China which I have a young, very young, yours eyes. Biting his nails in boredom, strapped in a uniform almost too big for him, he shall ensure that tourists do not go further.

When I go down to the lower rounds, each round consisting of one or more parts to the deadly and narrow arched windows, my guide will specify in winter the snow-covered by the Great Wall with a layer of forty centimeters snow, making it difficult to access the tower number 12 on the smooth stones that are already under the bright sun of October as a slippery slide for children. Besides this, no children: we are barely thirty who dared to come to Simatai, special visitors, whether conscious or not a highway is being finished. In a few days Simatai will be only less than an hour from Beijing and the locations of gift shops already in the plain hordes of tourists. But for now I compare with a gentleman of a respectable age benefits of the Canon EOS since 1000 it has a materne carefully. For twenty minutes we seek him and me the best views on the Great Wall, with a courtesy that many Chinese would find in France. Further, he is quite young Icelandic couple who ask me to take pictures in front of the scenery, the time to compliment the beauty of their island of fire beneath the ice and here I am rewarded with the bright smile a blond angel came from the cold ...

Do not come to Beijing without sacrificing a morning dedicated to the section of Simatai Great Wall: nowhere else will you live the exhilarating sense of seeing the unique, the incomparable beauty of a human work defying the centuries . The Egyptian pyramids are nothing beside despite their great age and the respect that we can have before the mystery of their construction. Here in China, on the worn stones of these walls you will have the unique feeling of having touched the dream of every traveler: further, still further ...