China Trek in aid of Mind

I have just returned from an absolutely wonderful experience in China. To see photos click on the links  to the left.

During the first week, I undertook a challenge of a lifetime in the company of 36 others on a sponsored trek in aid of the mental health charity, Mind. In total approximately £80,000 will be raised for the charity, from this event.

We had 3 days of 8km to 12 km warm up walks through beautiful scenery in the north of the Beijing province. Our Chinese guide took us through a series of warm up exercises each day, before setting off. I almost got knocked over by a wayward donkey in the first ten minutes of the first day.  On another day I had an elderly Chinese man standing beside me as I completed my stretching exercises. Each bend or hill offered something new from the local farmers selling their produce along the side of the track to beautiful pristine clear waterfalls and rock pools. Our first sight of the 16th Century wall on day 3 was humbling and brought home the difficulty of our undertaking.

Day four was the big day. The day we had all trained for. It was very emotional to walk on the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai climbing 28 watch towers accompanied and assisted by local farmers who were supplementing their income through assisting trekkers. Being greeted by the sound of traditional Chinese music emanating from a speaker on the hillside added a sense of surrealism to the experience.

My knees are still recovering from 1 1/2 days trekking on the Great Wall where we climbed a total of 39 watch towers and completed the last 8km in a thunder storm complete with lightening. I somehow managed to ignore the fact that I am frightened of thunderstorms and dismiss the fears of my local helper who was reluctant to climb up to the highest watch tower, a total of 1500 steps. We then had a very muddy and slippery slide down through an oak forest to return to be greeted by fireworks at the finish line in Simitai. What a mixture of emotions: relief, pride, joy, sadness, all vying for recognition in a matter of seconds.

The Chinese are a friendly race with an overall happy disposition. They are absorbing western ways at an alarming rate and I hope that they do not lose all of their own culture and traditions along the way.

My roommate and I were invited to join in Line Dancing and a kind of Frisbee throwing by some of the older Chinese doing their morning exercises in The Temple of Heaven park in the centre of Beijing and I also joined in some Tai Chi . This is something that has to be experienced, over 1000 Chinese people scattered through the park doing all types of exercise, Chi Gong, Tai Chi, Tai Chi swords, Tai Chi with fans, line dancing, ballroom dancing, stretching, walking up and down steps, playing badminton whatever they choose and all of them over 50 and this is before 9.00 a.m.

I took the opportunity to extend my trip for a further week and travelled to Xian and Shanghai. Seeing the Terracotta Warriors was amazing and fulfilled a dream to one day visit China, since I first read about them in the seventies. We arrived in Shanghai to witness the National Day celebrations commemorating the founding of the republic of China. The famous Bund  and Nanjing road were absolutely packed with Chinese people out celebrating. A special light display was set up in Tianeman Square in Beijing and we walked freely among the locals getting our photos taken so often we began to feel like the tourist attraction.