Hey Boss, Don’t Read This One

Fellow members of the press and I sat in the lobby late Sunday night, purchasing tour guide tickets to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, roughly an hour outside of Beijing. Fast forward to Monday morning, and our tour guide has abruptly canceled our tickets, stating the Wall is closed on account of flash flooding and other dangers. Are we really not going to visit the Great Wall of China, a literal wonder of the world, while in China? Setting aside the theoretical voice of editor-in-chief Matt Miller in my head asking me not to go to the Wall on account of flash flooding and other dangers, four of us decide at roughly 3 p.m. Monday to take a 90-minute cab up to the Badaling section of the Great Wall, seemingly still open despite weather conditions. With the entrance closing at 4:30 p.m., we know we’re cutting it close, and our cab driver is meeting our urgency with some questionable/respectable driving.

He drops us off at an entrance worthy of a theme park… and it’s deserted. There’s nobody there to help us, and after spending 20 minutes walking around trying to figure out where we are, we realize the entrance is a 26-minute walk up the road. So, we begin walking… and quickly double back because it is a much more dangerous walk than any of us anticipated, with cars flying around corners and no pedestrian safety.