Before I knew it, we were being told to get off the bus. "Simatai, umm, Grrreaat uh Wall," a man was speaking to us in broken English, we did as we were told and stepped off the bus, only to find ourselves on the side of the highway; peculiar. Apparently we needed to find supporting transportation and began getting slammed with a slew of minibuses to take us wherever we needed to be. The only problem was, well really one of the only problems (besides us being stranded on the side of the road) was the language barrier; they didn't speak any English and unless you want to order dumplings and a draft beer, my Chinese is well, less than par. One of the men began hassling me in Chinese, he drew: M->S, on a piece of paper and wanted 180 RMB for a ride, unfortunately for him, William and I are about as cheap as it comes. A group of 6 young men were also standing at the bus stop with us, I was amazed when one guy began to open his mouth and fluent Chinese came out, and then another guy, and then another guy; they all spoke beautiful Chinese. William and I decided to tag along with them.

還沒等我反應過來，我們就被示意下車了。”Simatai, umm, Grrreaat uh Wall,”一名男子操著不熟練的英語對我們說，于是我們照著他說的做了，下車卻發現我們被丟在了公路上，太奇怪了！顯然，我們需要找其他交通工具幫我們到達司馬臺。隨后，我們倆被眾多面包車包圍，車上的司機說能帶我們去。有一個問題，當然是眾多問題中的一個（除了我們被困在馬路上），那就是語言障礙。那些司機不會說英語。如果只是在餐館點個餃子和生啤什么的，我的中文還湊活，但離標準水平還差遠了。其中一名男子開始用中文和我不停比劃，他在紙上畫了：M->S，然后要價180元。不幸的是，威廉和我身上就只有那點錢了。此時，我們邊上有另外六個小伙子站著，其中一個人一張嘴開始說著一口流利的中文，我感到非常驚訝，其他幾個人也一個接著一個說起流利的中文。威廉和我決定和他們一同走。

We ended up getting the ride for 40RMB per person and figured this was as low as things were going with these guys. I justified things once more by saying that we were burning daylight and needed to get to the Wall A.S.A.P., we needed to catch the last bus back to Beijing or be stranded wherever the heck we were. The group of 8 piled into two cars and we were on our way.

最后，他們要價每人四十，這個價格也不能再砍了。我對他們說，這個錢花得還是很值的，與其在這里浪費時間，還不如盡快到達目的地。我們需要趕最后一班回北京的汽車，否則就只能困在這里了。八個人分別鉆進兩輛面包車，再次出發。

For some reason, William, a man of a very tall stature (6'2" or 188 cm) decided to cram in this middle of what seemed to be a very small backseat, I sat on one side and Jake, one of the guys from the other group, sat on the other. We were like one crammed, hot, but excited little family. The ride was nice for a few kilometers until we hit traffic unexpectedly. A three lane road was converging into one for no obvious reason than to create a whimsical bottle neck and pushed us back at least an hour's journey. But we all had fun and talked along the way. The boys were part of a language school near the Beijing Zoo and had decided to spend the summer abroad to learn Chinese. They said that the rigorous education was great, they were learning about 70 characters per day, but really needed a break for the weekend, they were planning to make the hike from Simatai to Jinshanling and camp out on the Great Wall. I thought this was a wonderful idea, wish I had heard of it earlier, it would be on my "to-do list"; no matter.

身材魁梧（身高188公分）的威廉決定把自己塞進一個看上去非常狹小的后座。我坐在一邊，另外一伙的杰克，坐在另一邊。八個人擠在一起那叫一個熱，看上去就像興奮異常的一家子。開始的幾公里非常順利，直到我們意外碰上交通擁堵。一個三車道的馬路不知怎地交匯成一個古怪的狹窄通道，這至少讓我們的旅途推后了一個小時。但是我們一路歡聲笑語，非常愉快。那些男孩來自北京動物園附近的語言學校，決定來中國學習一個夏天的中文。他們說，嚴苛的學習非常好，他們每天學習大約70個漢字，但是也確實需要周末來放松一下。他們打算從司馬臺徒步走到金山嶺，在長城上野營。我覺得這個主意非常棒，要是能早點聽說就好了，我也會把它列在我的計劃簿上，不過也沒關系了。

The open road was calling us once again, and the group concluded that by 2 pm we would be on the Wall, ready to hike and enjoy the countryside. I was meanwhile happily looking out the window, watching the rolling countryside fly past my window at 60 km/hr, and the wind in my hair; it was the feeling of adventure! This is the same feeling that drew me to China in the first place, the possibility of great voyages into the unknown, experiences like no other place on Earth, the thrill of living my life; I could hardly wait to be on that Wall!

我們再一次上路。大家推斷能夠在下午兩點前到達長城并開始徒步行走，飽覽郊外風光。我愉快地望著窗外，窗外的景色以每小時60公里的速度向后移動，頭發被風揚起。這就是探險的感覺！也正是這種感覺吸引我來到了中國，這是充滿無限可能的未知之旅，這是不同于在地球其他地方旅行的經驗，是一種源于生活的興奮。我對登上長城的那一刻已經迫不及待了。

（China.org.cn 何珊 譯）