寻找最美的“野长城”

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.

这是一个我不得不做的决定，而且时间已经所剩无几。我丈夫是一名记者，被要求调去北京。在我前去探望他的那两个星期里，问题便凸显出来了。那时他在那里工作是暂时性的，但他却想搬过去定居，还希望我也能愿意搬过去。我们的计划是旅游观光的同时，在这个城市和地区找找感觉、看看当地百姓、在住所附近闲逛一下、购物、阅读当地的报纸和杂志、甚至是看看房子。

但似乎是游览长城之行才将这两个意图结合在了一起——对于所有的游客来说，长城是必去景点清单上一定会勾上的选项，但对于我来说，它也是一个了解中国不可或缺的元素。在我看来，那些地理地标——无论是我家乡那条气势磅礴的哈德逊河，那座环绕着我大学的卡茨基尔山，还是法国南部那片太阳花绽放的田野——都变成了好客的朋友，永远都在那里，可靠舒心。

尽管我们曾游览过八达岭——游客们常去的长城中的一段，但这次，我们选择了相当不同的地方：去游览被长城的狂热爱好者威廉·林赛称为“野长城”的地方，这段未经修复的长城离北京大约只有60公里，但感觉上却要遥远得多。林赛先生在他朴素的棚屋里组织徒步旅行，这里曾经是所学校，后来被他和他的中国妻子吴琪女士一起改建成了一所乡村旅馆。

这个计划是于凌晨三点动身。装备好手电筒和御寒衣物后，我们这支由美国人、德国人和中国人组成的小队在黎明前的静谧中出发了。我觉得当我们在山腰上跋涉时，吵醒了农舍里一只当地的大公鸡。即使时间还那么早，天空却已经开始显现出破晓的征兆，尽管如此，我们大多数人还是坚定地将我们的手电筒照向前方的泥路。

当我们向上攀登时，当地的禽鸟开始在宁静中啁啾，远方也传来了犬吠声。林赛指着我们正在靠近的小山上一些朦胧的凸起处，说那是这座长城上成千上万的瞭望塔中的一小部分，但天色依然太暗，让人想到那也可能是岩石山头。

我们来到了一个离山顶大约还有一半路程的小山尖，停了下来。阳光正开始用一种混合着浅桃红和金色的色彩晕染着天空。长城在我们面前延绵伸展，看上去就像是一个孩童拿着粗大的金色蜡笔，勾描出山峰和山谷无穷尽的轮廓。这便是明代所建长城的一部分，大约建于公元1400至1600年间。在我们短暂的休息时间里，林赛指出，长城蕴含了地理和历史的双重意义，曾经数百万的劳力将石灰石从山底拉上山腰，然后在山谷里烧制成砖块，并扛上山顶建成这上面的城墙。

“长城是世界上最大的露天博物馆，却没有馆长，”林赛告诉我们说。不过，如果说有人能胜任馆长的话，那么此人必定是林赛无疑。在他11岁那年，他还是英格兰利物浦市附近的一名学童时，他第一次瞥见了牛津地理课本中提及的长城，此后他的人生就只有一条轨迹：走上长城，了解长城，以及保护它浩瀚的历史。

林赛充当了我和这位新朋友（长城）的“媒人”。在接下来的五个半小时里，我们登上了这段相当荒蛮的城墙，墙中长出的树木和古老的砖砾把我们绊得跌跌撞撞。

在差不多徒步旅行的中途时分，我们来到了被称为“牛角”的地方，一个漂亮的回路，它盘踞了山脉的一边，然后从另一边蜿蜒而下。我们走在沙石上不断滑倒，抓着城墙和树苗作为支撑，终于爬上了顶峰。顶峰上能够从各个方向看到参差错落的山头和长城的全景图，在目力所及的范围内一道城墙沿着山脊蜿蜒曲折，一条围绕着大半个中国的链条上总有那么些个塔楼穿插其中作串联。在北方，蒙古入侵者想要攻破长城，推翻南方王朝。

有趣的是，这座林赛口中的“世界上最大的公共工程项目”，其建造是为了抵御外敌，而如今它却吸引了全世界的目光——包括我在内。中国人的思想里充满了象征和平衡：阴阳，男女，天地。而对于我来说，长城——冷峻却热情——在那时变成了一个我想多加了解的朋友。

长城的“御用护卫”——威廉·林赛

威廉·林赛，英国人，48岁。毕业于英国利物浦大学，主修地理和地质。

1987年，威廉背起行囊，带着相机、地图，还有一年前在利物浦唐人街学到的一句广东话就来到中国，开始了自己的徒步长城之旅。他一路沿长城，从嘉峪关走到山海关，历时160多天。是长城使他结识了美丽的中国妻子，并让他最终留在了中国。他自称“洋红军”，从此开始了保护长城的“万里长征”。 2001年，威廉创建了“长城国际之友”协会并担任会长，让保护长城成了他可能要用一生来完成的事。

为此，中国政府授予他外国专家友谊奖。为表彰他长期致力于长城的保护以及在英中文化交流方面取得的成绩，2006年7月12日，威廉·林赛在白金汉宫被英国女王伊丽莎白二世授予“帝国勋章”。

威廉对于20年前自己第一次来中国时的经历记忆犹新。当时只有20岁出头的他可不是什么观光客，而是怀着一个从孩提时便萌发的念头来到中国。“威廉，你还年轻，还没有结婚，你应该去中国跑完万里长城，实现你的梦想。”正是表哥早些时候说的这番话鼓励了他。