by Debra Bruno

Its a decision I had to make， and time was running out. My husband， a reporter， had been asked to move to Beijing， and the question loomed over a two-week visit I made as he was working there temporarily， but wanting to make the move. And wanting me to want to make the move. Our plan was to mix sightseeing with an attempt to get a feel for the city and the area， meeting folks， wandering around neighborhoods， shopping， checking out local newspapers and magazines， even looking at a few apartments.

But it was the visit to the Great Wall that seemed to combine both purposes—it was an item all tourists check off the must-see list， but also to me a necessary element in understanding China. For me， geographical landmarks—whether its the majestic 1）Hudson River of my hometown， the 2）Catskill Mountains surrounding my college， or the smiling fields of sun-flowers in southern France—become welcoming friends， always there， reliable and comforting.

Although we had visited a touristy part of the wall called Badaling， this time we chose something quite different： a visit to what wall-enthusiast William Lindesay calls the “Wild Wall，” an unrestored segment only about 60 miles from Beijing but feeling far more distant. Mr. Lindesay organizes hiking tours from his 3）rustic 4）barracks， a former school that he and his Chinese wife， Qi， converted into a country inn.

The plan was to rise at 3 a.m. Armed with flashlights and warm clothes， our group of Americans， Germans， and Chinese set off in the predawn stillness. I think we woke up a local rooster at a farmhouse as we 5）trudged up the 6）mountainside. Even that early， the sky was beginning to show the promise of the dawn， although most of us kept our flashlights firmly aimed on the dirt path in front of us.

As we climbed， local 7）warblers began to trill through the quietness and dogs barked in the distance. Lindesay pointed out a few 8）murky knobs topping the hill we approached， saying they were some of the walls thousands of watchtowers， but it was still dark enough to imagine that they could also be rock formations.

We reached a small 9）crest about halfway up the hill and stopped. The sun had just started to paint the sky with a blend of pale peach and gold. The wall stretched out in front of us， looking as if a child had taken a fat golden crayon and traced the outline of the peaks and valleys of the mountains for miles and miles. This was a part of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty， somewhere between AD 1400 and 1600. As Lindesay noted in our brief pauses， the wall encompasses both geography and history， with millions of laborers hauling limestone rock up mountainsides for the base， and then baking bricks in the valley and carrying them to make the top level.

“The wall is the worlds largest open-air museum， but one without a 10）curator，” Lindesay told us. If anyone serves as a curator， though， it is this man who first spotted a mention of the Great Wall in his Oxford geography book when he was an 11-year-old schoolboy near Liverpool， England. His life has been on a single track since then to walk the wall， know the wall， and preserve its magnificent history.

Lindesay served as the perfect matchmaker for my introduction to this new friend. For the next 5-1/2 hours， we scrambled up segments so wild that trees grew through the center and ancient brick 11）rubble caused us to stumble.

About midway through the hike， we came to what is known as the “ox horn，” a stunning loop that snakes up one side of a mountain and down the other. We made our way to the top， slipping on sandy parts and grabbing onto the wall and 12）saplings for support. The top offered a 13）panorama of craggy mountaintops in all directions and a wall that 14）meandered along ridges as far as the eye could see， always broken up by towers that seemed to be links in a chain that girdled much of China. To the north， Mongolian invaders wanted to breach the wall and bring down dynasties.

Its interesting to think that the worlds largest public works project， as Lindesay calls it， was built to keep outsiders out， when today its the draw for the entire world—and for me. Much of Chinese thought 15）is laden with symbolism and balance： yin and yang， male and female， the heavens and the earth. And for me， the wall—forbidding but also welcoming—became at that moment a friend Id like to get to know better.

這是一個我不得不做的決定，而且時間已經(jīng)所剩無幾。我丈夫是一名記者，被要求調(diào)去北京。在我前去探望他的那兩個星期里，問題便凸顯出來了。那時他在那里工作是暫時性的，但他卻想搬過去定居，還希望我也能愿意搬過去。我們的計劃是旅游觀光的同時，在這個城市和地區(qū)找找感覺、看看當?shù)匕傩?、在住所附近閑逛一下、購物、閱讀當?shù)氐膱蠹埡碗s志、甚至是看看房子。

但似乎是游覽長城之行才將這兩個意圖結(jié)合在了一起——對于所有的游客來說，長城是必去景點清單上一定會勾上的選項，但對于我來說，它也是一個了解中國不可或缺的元素。在我看來，那些地理地標——無論是我家鄉(xiāng)那條氣勢磅礴的哈德遜河，那座環(huán)繞著我大學的卡茨基爾山，還是法國南部那片太陽花綻放的田野——都變成了好客的朋友，永遠都在那里，可靠舒心。

盡管我們曾游覽過八達嶺——游客們常去的長城中的一段，但這次，我們選擇了相當不同的地方：去游覽被長城的狂熱愛好者威廉·林賽稱為“野長城”的地方，這段未經(jīng)修復的長城離北京大約只有60公里，但感覺上卻要遙遠得多。林賽先生在他樸素的棚屋里組織徒步旅行，這里曾經(jīng)是所學校，后來被他和他的中國妻子吳琪女士一起改建成了一所鄉(xiāng)村旅館。

這個計劃是于凌晨三點動身。裝備好手電筒和御寒衣物后，我們這支由美國人、德國人和中國人組成的小隊在黎明前的靜謐中出發(fā)了。我覺得當我們在山腰上跋涉時，吵醒了農(nóng)舍里一只當?shù)氐拇蠊u。即使時間還那么早，天空卻已經(jīng)開始顯現(xiàn)出破曉的征兆，盡管如此，我們大多數(shù)人還是堅定地將我們的手電筒照向前方的泥路。

當我們向上攀登時，當?shù)氐那蔌B開始在寧靜中啁啾，遠方也傳來了犬吠聲。林賽指著我們正在靠近的小山上一些朦朧的凸起處，說那是這座長城上成千上萬的瞭望塔中的一小部分，但天色依然太暗，讓人想到那也可能是巖石山頭。

我們來到了一個離山頂大約還有一半路程的小山尖，停了下來。陽光正開始用一種混合著淺桃紅和金色的色彩暈染著天空。長城在我們面前延綿伸展，看上去就像是一個孩童拿著粗大的金色蠟筆，勾描出山峰和山谷無窮盡的輪廓。這便是明代所建長城的一部分，大約建于公元1400至1600年間。在我們短暫的休息時間里，林賽指出，長城蘊含了地理和歷史的雙重意義，曾經(jīng)數(shù)百萬的勞力將石灰石從山底拉上山腰，然后在山谷里燒制成磚塊，并扛上山頂建成這上面的城墻。

“長城是世界上最大的露天博物館，卻沒有館長，”林賽告訴我們說。不過，如果說有人能勝任館長的話，那么此人必定是林賽無疑。在他11歲那年，他還是英格蘭利物浦市附近的一名學童時，他第一次瞥見了牛津地理課本中提及的長城，此后他的人生就只有一條軌跡：走上長城，了解長城，以及保護它浩瀚的歷史。

林賽充當了我和這位新朋友（長城）的“媒人”。在接下來的五個半小時里，我們登上了這段相當荒蠻的城墻，墻中長出的樹木和古老的磚礫把我們絆得跌跌撞撞。

在差不多徒步旅行的中途時分，我們來到了被稱為“牛角”的地方，一個漂亮的回路，它盤踞了山脈的一邊，然后從另一邊蜿蜒而下。我們走在沙石上不斷滑倒，抓著城墻和樹苗作為支撐，終于爬上了頂峰。頂峰上能夠從各個方向看到參差錯落的山頭和長城的全景圖，在目力所及的范圍內(nèi)一道城墻沿著山脊蜿蜒曲折，一條圍繞著大半個中國的鏈條上總有那么些個塔樓穿插其中作串聯(lián)。在北方，蒙古入侵者想要攻破長城，推翻南方王朝。

有趣的是，這座林賽口中的“世界上最大的公共工程項目”，其建造是為了抵御外敵，而如今它卻吸引了全世界的目光——包括我在內(nèi)。中國人的思想里充滿了象征和平衡：陰陽，男女，天地。而對于我來說，長城——冷峻卻熱情——在那時變成了一個我想多加了解的朋友。

長城的“御用護衛(wèi)”——威廉·林賽

威廉·林賽，英國人，48歲。畢業(yè)于英國利物浦大學，主修地理和地質(zhì)。

1987年，威廉背起行囊，帶著相機、地圖，還有一年前在利物浦唐人街學到的一句廣東話就來到中國，開始了自己的徒步長城之旅。他一路沿長城，從嘉峪關(guān)走到山海關(guān)，歷時160多天。是長城使他結(jié)識了美麗的中國妻子，并讓他最終留在了中國。他自稱“洋紅軍”，從此開始了保護長城的“萬里長征”。 2001年，威廉創(chuàng)建了“長城國際之友”協(xié)會并擔任會長，讓保護長城成了他可能要用一生來完成的事。

為此，中國政府授予他外國專家友誼獎。為表彰他長期致力于長城的保護以及在英中文化交流方面取得的成績，2006年7月12日，威廉·林賽在白金漢宮被英國女王伊麗莎白二世授予“帝國勛章”。

威廉對于20年前自己第一次來中國時的經(jīng)歷記憶猶新。當時只有20歲出頭的他可不是什么觀光客，而是懷著一個從孩提時便萌發(fā)的念頭來到中國。“威廉，你還年輕，還沒有結(jié)婚，你應該去中國跑完萬里長城，實現(xiàn)你的夢想。”正是表哥早些時候說的這番話鼓勵了他。