The real Great Wall, and how to get there

by Jerry Guo on

The girl in the photo is my girlfriend, in the process of slowly freezing to death on the Great Wall. We were stuck in a snowstorm with the nearest hikers miles away. And that path? Yep, it’s as narrow as it looks, and I’m not exaggerating here, but one slip, and you’ll be falling a few hundred meters down straight cliffs.

Yet that hike at Simatai has been one of the most fun adventures we’ve taken. Why? We got to experience the real wall (which is rapidly crumbling), avoided the masses of tourists (see this ridiculous shot at Badaling, the most over-touristed section of the wall), and the climb was actually strenuous in parts.

We had such a blast that we returned to the wall a few months later, this time to Jiankou (translated as the “arrowhead”), the steepest section of the 3,000 mile Great Wall. Here, we camped in one of the watch-towers for a night, which I’m sure is not exactly legal, and hiked an untouched part of the wall that has been almost covered with dense vegetation. Here’s some info about hiking to Simatai and Jiankou. Backpackers in Beijing and hostels will also have more info for you (it’s a bit strange that Westerners will actually know more about the “wild” Great Wall than the local Chinese).

This gallery has photos from both trips.

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One for the Road: Hoshino’s Alaska

by Kelly Amabile on

Neil shared an awesome Alaskan journey with us this month, and a good friend of mine also just returned from a visit to the northern-most state. So with Alaska on the brain today, I bring you Hoshino’s Alaska, a collection of 150 photos that celebrate the life and work of wilderness photographer Michio Hoshino.

Japanese-born Hoshino traveled to Alaska in 1972 for what was to be only a two-week trip. He remained for three months, then returned to live there in 1978, where he lived as a naturalist and photographer driven by a deep commitment to and curiosity about the region. Killed by a bear while traveling in Russia in 1996, he is still widely regarded as the preeminent photographer of the Alaskan wilderness for his breathtakingly beautiful photographs. This recently published book serves as a fitting tribute to his legacy.

The Devil’s Highway – Journey Along the U.S. Mexico Border

by Adrienne Wilson on

Walking the Arizona desert in 100 degree heat is no joke. I’ve done it before. During my travels I wasn’t out there alone and I had plenty of water to get me to my final stop. I was beyond well-prepared for the occasion, but it didn’t take away from the brutal heat, sun exposure and vast silent nothingness the desert so often revealed. On the flip side there are secrets only the wind carries, the skull of animal or worse – a human and border patrol know. My 20-mile stretch nothing in comparison to the journey made by hundreds of thousands Mexican migrants each day.

National Geographic Adventure Magazine has a spectacular story and photo gallery on the plight of the illegal migrant. Photographer John Annerino and contributing editor Tim Cahill spent nine days in the Sonora Desert borderlands of southwestern Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge discovering what goes down in one of America’s most troubled wilderness areas. One word – chaos. Imagine migrant groups battling it out with border bandits, vigilantes, Mexican coyotes and dehydration. If that isn’t enough already throw drug smugglers and the U.S. border patrol and what we have is a very ugly reality of one of the hardest types of travel known to man. The hunt for opportunity and better living in the land of the free could very well be in the hands of many migrants so long as they can make it in, through and well-out of the Devil’s Highway.

The story is truly phenomenal and the gallery just the same. If you’ve got the time I suggest you head over for a read. Makes you think.