I started walking at about nine o’clock. The last days of walking along irrigation channels put me a bit too far West, so the first 3-4 kilometres I walked Westwards to get to the starting point of the suspected Great Wall in the area. I walked Westwards along a dirt road surrounded by farmland. Walking past several suspected beacon towers, without finding any evidence of them, made my heart drop a bit. But a few kilometres later, I found the Great Wall in pristine order. It was probably about six metres high and continued for a stretch of about a kilometre.

Trying to follow it’s track was difficult because there were buildings right beside it on one side and, in some places, fields with corn on the cob on the other side. I tried to walk through a house yard, but was effectively stopped by two very aggressive guard dogs. They were chained, but had a look in there eyes that said I wouldn’t have lasted very long had they not been chained.

After getting to the most Western point of the Great Wall in this section, I backtracked, walking in the streets of the small village, and stopped at a small shop to buy something to drink. Ice Tea as usual.

Heading Eastwards, the sun hit me right in the front. I notice very well how I heat up most when the sun is in front of me. From the sides or behind, it doesn’t hit as large an area of my body. Soon I was sweating intensely. I started asking villagers if they had seen any Ming Dynasty Great Wall and they confidently pointed in the direction I was walking.

After a while I hit the Great Wall again. It had shrubs on top of it and was not very evident some places. After walking for a while, it became higher, and there was no doubt – I could see the remains of beacon towers too. I followed it for approximately 8 kilometres before hitting the road on which I hoped to get a bus to Yinchuan.

After waiting for a while, I saw that this particular road was only trafficated by lorries and the occasional car and motorbike. Therefore I started walking to get to a larger road. Then I got lucky and a motorbike with two adults stopped.  The driver asked if I wanted a lift. Here in China I have seen up to three adults and two children on a motorbike, so three adults and a large rucksack was no problem at all. The helpful driver was going in the same direction as me, and dropped me off right in front of a bus that was going to Yinchuan. I was very grateful and offered to pay him for the ride, but he said he didn’t want any money. Many thanks to him. I was really tired when he picked me up and the extra walk would have zapped me a lot in the heat.

Many thanks to the members of the Great Wall Forum for feeding me with information on the probable route of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall in this area!! Andreas – I will write a summary with coordinates in the Forum tomorrow. I also plan to add some pictures from the day here.