THE STORY

This was an e-mail we received on our return to Scotland, from Mike Sellars, who was our companion on the walk through Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Wishing i was back in China. How was Beijing? I liked it myself, was good fun.

After we parted [ in Lijiang ]  I took the nightmare overnight bus back to Kunming,then to Xian and Datong, last stop Bbeijing where checking my flights i realised to my horror I only had a few days left as I was flying home on the 17th and not the 24th of June, so it was a bit of a rush to see the sights and do the Great Wall walk.
                                          

The Wall was awesome, I did the Jinshanling to Simatai hike, 10km or so.  It was very hot and dusty and the hawkers were hell from the start.  I tried to ignore them by pretending to be deaf and dumb, yeh I know drastic measures, they did spoil things a little, they wouldn't leave you alone to enjoy the magic of the place, shame.
                                           

One old girl followed us for miles "you buy t-shirt, I go home Mongolia" was her sales pitch.  Imagine the scene, Mongolia one side, ancient China the other, one million Mongols ready to invade, that,s the image i was trying to create in my mind, "you buy........"  was all i could hear, she drove me nuts.  It's not that you don't want to buy from them, why the hell don't they flog something you need, water, not beer and cigs, oxygen would be good. At one point she fell against the wall holding her chest, feigning a heart attack "you buy t-shirt, cough-cough - I go home Mongolia" at that moment she was distracted, Ed and I, the guy I was walking with took our chance and legged it.  When she realised what was happening she picked herself up and chased after us, I kid you not she had to be at least 185 years old and we couldnt out run her!!!!

It was at this point I decided there was only 2 options left open to us, 3 if you included Ed's, but I had to point out to him that throwing her off the Wall would probably be called murder here too, he said he didnt mind, like her, he was being doggedly stubborn, life in prison was better than giving in and buying 1 of her t-shirts.  I managed to talk him out of it, option 1 was not dissimilar to his idea,except we would jump off the Wall to almost certain death. Of course not being sure she wouldn't follow us we abandoned that idea, so that left plan b, I begrudgingly handed over my 30 yuan "yes, blacks fine, yes I'm sure it'll fit, no I don't want matching baseball cap, don't push your luck lady, he still wants to throw you........."

Ed was spitting "you bloody English, I can't believe you bought that crap, you bloody English you're so bloody polite.....". I asked him if he would like it as a souvenir, bleep, bleep!!!!   He was right, it was crap, didn't survive one wash.

I've been looking at your web site, I thought it was superb, seeing the gorge walk again brings all the memories back, I got to go back some day, if I do anything good I'll send it on to you, keep up the good work and safe travels.                                                           

Best regards

Mike

Contributed by: Mike Sellars

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