Chapter 190

Distance covered: 227 km (total 2533 km)

I woke up at 9, had the hotel breakfast, and slowly packed my stuff. I got on the road and headed east, eventually making it to Shanhaiguan. There were police checkpoints at the beginning and at the end of my itinerary, I wonder what the hell it is about. Both times I got told to park on the side of the road and hand in my passport, that they perused through with the most clueless expressions on their faces. They were quite friendly, making small talk that I asnwered with grunted monosyllabes, but it took way too long both times and they clearly had no idea what to do with me, prefering to keep me idling there rather than releasing me and find out later that their shurgwaydinger-in-chief wanted more information.

Shanhaiguan is the easternmost section of the Great Wall, and there are two sites that can be visited. One is a bit inland in the mountains, and one is right by the sea. I went to both but didn’t pay to enter, as I knew it would be clownishly overpriced and that the dog wouldn’t be allowed in. I thought that at least at “Old Dragon Head” I could see the Wall extending for a few meters in the sea without having to go in that big tourist circus, but no, the whole thing is fenced in. Ah well.

Then I went south to Qinhuangdao, and from the expressway I saw something I couldn’t identify at first. It was a series of long parallel steep slopes on the side of a tall building, I wondered if they’re water slides, but then I saw a guy wearing a helmet gliding down on skis and catching a jump at the bottom, doing a bunch of flips. Woah! So it’s an acrobatic skiing training center? I took the next exit and tried to find it, I couldn’t really park nearby but saw another guy doing down and landing in a pool.

Qinhuangdao has a huge beach, and I plopped on it in the late hours of the afternoon, watching the world go by. It was a bit cold, and I can’t say I was mad at that, after a month of furnace temperatures. I put up my tent after getting confirmation from a friend of a friend via WeChat that it’s allowed, just that I can’t barbecue on the beach. There were a few tents set up, but eventually they all packed and left, Chinese people don’t do much camping but like to bring a tent to the park or beach just to have a little spot to hang out sheltered from the sun. I started hesitating, and moved the tent near a bunch of large beached boats covered with tarps, where it would be less conspicuous than in the wide open space.

I had beer in the car but it was beyond piss warm, so I went to a store and asked if I could leave a can in their ice cream freezer. They were kind enough to say yes with no hesitation, and to endure the wait I bought a cold one, a black beer brewed locally.

After drinking my beers and eating a dinner of leftover barbecue meat from two days ago in Tangshan that I had kept in the hotel fridge, I went to bed and fell asleep quickly, for once, as the temperature was still pleasant.