尋找最美的“野長城”

by Debra Bruno

Its a decision I had to make， and time was running out. My husband， a reporter， had been asked to move to Beijing， and the question loomed over a two-week visit I made as he was working there temporarily， but wanting to make the move. And wanting me to want to make the move. Our plan was to mix sightseeing with an attempt to get a feel for the city and the area， meeting folks， wandering around neighborhoods， shopping， checking out local newspapers and magazines， even looking at a few apartments.

But it was the visit to the Great Wall that seemed to combine both purposes—it was an item all tourists check off the must-see list， but also to me a necessary element in understanding China. For me， geographical landmarks—whether its the majestic 1）Hudson River of my hometown， the 2）Catskill Mountains surrounding my college， or the smiling fields of sun-flowers in southern France—become welcoming friends， always there， reliable and comforting.

Although we had visited a touristy part of the wall called Badaling， this time we chose something quite different： a visit to what wall-enthusiast William Lindesay calls the “Wild Wall，” an unrestored segment only about 60 miles from Beijing but feeling far more distant. Mr. Lindesay organizes hiking tours from his 3）rustic 4）barracks， a former school that he and his Chinese wife， Qi， converted into a country inn.

The plan was to rise at 3 a.m. Armed with flashlights and warm clothes， our group of Americans， Germans， and Chinese set off in the predawn stillness. I think we woke up a local rooster at a farmhouse as we 5）trudged up the 6）mountainside. Even that early， the sky was beginning to show the promise of the dawn， although most of us kept our flashlights firmly aimed on the dirt path in front of us.

As we climbed， local 7）warblers began to trill through the quietness and dogs barked in the distance. Lindesay pointed out a few 8）murky knobs topping the hill we approached， saying they were some of the walls thousands of watchtowers， but it was still dark enough to imagine that they could also be rock formations.

We reached a small 9）crest about halfway up the hill and stopped. The sun had just started to paint the sky with a blend of pale peach and gold. The wall stretched out in front of us， looking as if a child had taken a fat golden crayon and traced the outline of the peaks and valleys of the mountains for miles and miles. This was a part of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty， somewhere between AD 1400 and 1600. As Lindesay noted in our brief pauses， the wall encompasses both geography and history， with millions of laborers hauling limestone rock up mountainsides for the base， and then baking bricks in the valley and carrying them to make the top level.

“The wall is the worlds largest open-air museum， but one without a 10）curator，” Lindesay told us. If anyone serves as a curator， though， it is this man who first spotted a mention of the Great Wall in his Oxford geography book when he was an 11-year-old schoolboy near Liverpool， England. His life has been on a single track since then to walk the wall， know the wall， and preserve its magnificent history.

Lindesay served as the perfect matchmaker for my introduction to this new friend. For the next 5-1/2 hours， we scrambled up segments so wild that trees grew through the center and ancient brick 11）rubble caused us to stumble.

About midway through the hike， we came to what is known as the “ox horn，” a stunning loop that snakes up one side of a mountain and down the other. We made our way to the top， slipping on sandy parts and grabbing onto the wall and 12）saplings for support. The top offered a 13）panorama of craggy mountaintops in all directions and a wall that 14）meandered along ridges as far as the eye could see， always broken up by towers that seemed to be links in a chain that girdled much of China. To the north， Mongolian invaders wanted to breach the wall and bring down dynasties.

Its interesting to think that the worlds largest public works project， as Lindesay calls it， was built to keep outsiders out， when today its the draw for the entire world—and for me. Much of Chinese thought 15）is laden with symbolism and balance： yin and yang， male and female， the heavens and the earth. And for me， the wall—forbidding but also welcoming—became at that moment a friend Id like to get to know better.

這是一個我不得不做的決定，而且時間已經所剩無幾。我丈夫是一名記者，被要求調去北京。在我前去探望他的那兩個星期里，問題便凸顯出來了。那時他在那里工作是暫時性的，但他卻想搬過去定居，還希望我也能愿意搬過去。我們的計劃是旅游觀光的同時，在這個城市和地區找找感覺、看看當地百姓、在住所附近閑逛一下、購物、閱讀當地的報紙和雜志、甚至是看看房子。

但似乎是游覽長城之行才將這兩個意圖結合在了一起——對于所有的游客來說，長城是必去景點清單上一定會勾上的選項，但對于我來說，它也是一個了解中國不可或缺的元素。在我看來，那些地理地標——無論是我家鄉那條氣勢磅礴的哈德遜河，那座環繞著我大學的卡茨基爾山，還是法國南部那片太陽花綻放的田野——都變成了好客的朋友，永遠都在那里，可靠舒心。

盡管我們曾游覽過八達嶺——游客們常去的長城中的一段，但這次，我們選擇了相當不同的地方：去游覽被長城的狂熱愛好者威廉·林賽稱為“野長城”的地方，這段未經修復的長城離北京大約只有60公里，但感覺上卻要遙遠得多。林賽先生在他樸素的棚屋里組織徒步旅行，這里曾經是所學校，后來被他和他的中國妻子吳琪女士一起改建成了一所鄉村旅館。

這個計劃是于凌晨三點動身。裝備好手電筒和御寒衣物后，我們這支由美國人、德國人和中國人組成的小隊在黎明前的靜謐中出發了。我覺得當我們在山腰上跋涉時，吵醒了農舍里一只當地的大公雞?！?br>