Ever since I can remember, I have dreamed of traveling to China. I have always had visions of scaling the Great Wall, hiking Yellow Mountain, and seeing the Warriors at Xi'an, and finally, at 21 years old, my wildest dreams were coming true. I have been living in Beijing for three months now and one by one, I have been crossing off item after item on my "to-do while in China" list, sadly though, my time is almost up and I only have two more weeks in this wonderful country.

打我记事以来，就梦想着能够去中国旅游。我一直憧憬着能够登上长城，在黄山徒步行走，到西安参观兵马俑。终于，我的梦想在21岁的时候实现了。我在北京生活的3个月时间里，梦想一个个实现，只可惜，我还有两个多礼拜就要离开这个神奇的国度。

Still there was one item in particular on my list that I was NOT willing to go home without completing: hiking the Great Wall.

但是我的计划里还有一件事没有做，那就是徒步登上长城，如果不能了却这个心愿就离开，我会非常后悔。

And I don't mean any section of the Great Wall, I had my heart set on a remote, pristine, and crumbling section of the Great Wall, I wanted to be able to enjoy the full aesthetics that Simatai has to offer. So Saturday morning, under a beautifully blue Beijing sky, my friend William and I set out, determined to conquer the Wall and my number one "To-Do" in China. We left our apartment by 9:00 am, fully confident that by lunchtime we would be enjoying the view from the top, the only problem is, Murphy's Law decided to follow us every step of the way…

我指得长城并不是任何一段长城，我一心想去的是地处偏远、质朴却破败的司马台长城，想去欣赏那里的美景。于是，周六早上，在北京湛蓝的天空下，我和我的朋友威廉出发了，决定征服司马台长城，从而完成我在中国的头等大事。我们早9点离开住所，确信能够在午饭前从长城顶欣赏到美景。唯一一个问题是，墨菲定律又一次在我身上应验了。

You see, Murphy's Law dictates that "if anything can possibly go wrong, it will," and as long as I can remember, this has been following me around.

自打我记事以来，这个定律就屡屡发生在我身上。（墨菲定律就是“会出错的，终将会出错。”）

We had our trusty traveler's gospel with us, "The Lonely Planet" guidebook to show us the way. This book has been with us everywhere in China and really been a lifesaver, unfortunately and unbeknownst to us, today was Murphy's Law day and everything was destined to be incorrect. But, with full faith in our guide we headed into Dongzhimen Long Distance Bus Station, and through broken Chinese, found our way to bus 980.

我们带着值得信赖的、被旅友们称为“圣经”的《寂寞星球》，让它为我们带路。在中国期间，无论到哪，我们都带着这本书，它确确实实是我们的生存指南。不幸的是，墨菲定律已经悄悄地盯上我们，注定诸事不顺。但是，满怀着对这本指南的信心，我们前往东直门长途汽车站，用我们结结巴巴的中文，找到了开往司马台的公交980。

Initially the day was going very smooth; we hardly even had to wait for a bus. William and I marveled at the clockwork like efficiency of the bus station in action, two busses would pull up at the same time to accommodate the hoards of people and then within 5 minutes, two more would show up. We took our seats near the back left side of the bus, careful to choose the best seats possible for our journey, and after paying the 15 RMB ticket price, we took off! Out to explore the wild adventure of Simatai! Only, after about three minutes into our journey, the bus was burning up and the downfall to our seats was discovered: no curtain. Out of the entire bus of seats, we had picked the one row of seats that the curtain had been ripped off; just my luck. Of course I justified this with that outside, hiking on The Great Wall, there would be no air conditioning and I was just acclimating myself to the temperature. Although I was sweating on the bus, I decided to make the best of things, throw on my beloved sunglasses, pop in my iPod, and enjoy the countryside.

一开始一切进行的很顺利，我们很快就等来了公交车。汽车站如此准时，让威廉和我大为赞叹。每隔五分钟，就有两辆公交车同时等候在那，让乘客上车。我们挑了左侧靠后的位子坐下，买了15元一张的车票后，车便开动了。我们就要探索司马台的荒芜之美。但是，开了三分钟左右，车内的温度陡然升高，更糟的是，我们发现座位没有车窗帘！太倒霉了，满车的座位，唯独我们选的座位没有窗帘！想到待会要在没有空调的户外攀登长城，车内这点热不算什么，既来之，则安之，还是让自己去适应高温吧。尽管在车上汗流浃背，但是我决定让自己好过一点，戴上我心爱的太阳眼镜，打开iPod，尽情享受窗外的乡村美景。