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The playful wall became our secret world; we were free to roam wherever we pleased. We began scaling the many steps and barracks with nothing to hold us back, total freedom. The trials of the day seemed to melt away as I saw nothing but smiles on my friend's face, we had earned this: our Great Wall adventure. As we climbed our way over the Wall, through its steep crevasses and its guarding watchtowers, we really started to appreciate the world around us; the sun began to peak through the clouds, and everything was perfect.
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顽皮的城墙成了我们的秘密世界；我们自由自在地漫步于此。我们开始攀登层层台阶，没有防护栏，反而感到非常自在。一天的考验似乎结束，当我看见同伴的脸上满是笑容，我们收获了我们的长城冒险经历。当我们爬上了长城，陡峭的裂缝和敌楼，让我们开始真正领略到周围的世界。拨云见日，一切都很美好。
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The first signs of life we came across came in the form of a huge white wedding dress, not a very common site to find while hiking around in Jinshanling. The blushing bride was taking wedding pictures in one of the most romantic spots on the planet. William and I looked on in amazement of the whole production. I couldn't believe someone actually carried that dress up all that way, they are real champions. Wanting to avoid messing up the set up, we cautiously moved past the couple and continued on our journey.
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我们碰到了一对新人，面带红晕的新娘身着宽大的白色婚纱正在地球上最浪漫的地方拍摄婚纱照，要知道来金山岭的徒步旅行者也很少能够走到这个地方。威廉和我惊异地观看拍摄全过程。我无法相信这些人怎么能够一整天穿着这身衣服，的确很厉害。为了避免搞糟他们的拍摄布景，我们小心翼翼地离开，继续前进。
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Approaching one of the watchtowers toward Simatai we saw our second interaction with people. "Hello!, this way good!" A strange older Chinese lady had poked her head out of the tower and was motioning me upward. "Come, up here!" A second older Chinese lady poked her head out and looked down upon me, beckoning me upward. We scaled the rock face up to the watchtower and discovered that quite a few people had taken refuge inside. All Chinese, these people seemed to hangout without a care in the world, they were even using cell phones. A young man in a graphic tee and flip flops sat in the window of the tower with the world at his fingertips. This paradox of Old World Chinese culture and new age technology seemed out of place.
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就快要达司马台的瞭望台的时候，我又看到了一群人。一个陌生的中国老妇人把头探出烽火台，示意我走上去。“来这！”又一个老妇人也探出了头，向下看我，招呼我上去。我们登上了石阶，发现只有很少几个人在烽火台里面休息。所有的中国人看上去漫不经心，有些人甚至在打电话。一个穿着图绘体恤的年轻人抖着双脚坐在瞭望台的窗台上，外面的风景尽收眼底。古老的中国文化和现代科技在这里显得格格不入。
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Not wanting to press our luck, we continued on our journey after a quick glance at my wrist watch. A path off the tower gave us a view of the Wall that not many people are privileged to see, we could see the blue skies over the country, the lush, greenery of the earth and of course, the Great Wall, with its dragon-like back playfully dancing its way across the mountains. I spotted a crumbling terrace that was to be our goal ending point and we headed out.
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我们不想再出任何状况，匆匆看了下腕表继续赶路。走在瞭望台旁的小路，我可以一饱长城的美景，我们可以看到湛蓝蓝的天空，绿茵茵的大地，当然还有逶迤于山峦间巨龙般的长城。我看到前方有一块斑驳脱落的平地，那正是我们的目的地。
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We continued our hike across the Wall, I was left wondering about the stories of those who built it so long ago. I wondered if they realized what a wonderful contribution they had made to the culture of China or if they were solely consumed with their nationalism and goal of keeping China safe.
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我一边走，一边寻思着过去建造长城的人有着什么样的故事。我想知道他们当时是否意识到自己为中国文化做出了巨大贡献，抑或他们只是出于民族主义和保卫家园的目的才建造了长城。
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The Wall seemed to stretch on forever, inviting us to keep taking just one more step, but we knew it was time to go. If we got stuck and missed our bus, a whole other world of problems would befall us, ones we were not excited to tango with. There was one more problem that our friend Murphy had decided to stick us with…I had lost my sunglasses. Somewhere along the wall, my beloved sunglasses had fallen off my head and in a frantic fury I ran back to the nearby tower to retrace my steps. When I had finally given up, no glasses in tow, we headed back toward home, hoping we had enough time to catch the last bus. Then, I spotted them, my sunglasses, tucked into a little corner of a watch tower; Murphy's Law was not going to catch me today.
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长城蜿蜒万里，吸引着我们继续拾阶而上，但是我知道该是离开的时候了。如果我们被困在了这里，没赶上最后一班车，将会有另一堆麻烦降临在我们头上，我们已没有精力对付了。可墨菲老朋友决定让我们陷入另一个麻烦，那就是我把太阳眼镜弄丢了。在长城的某个地方，心爱的太阳眼镜从我的头上滑落了。我疯了似地奔向附近的瞭望台，沿着我走过的路搜寻。最后我放弃了，准备打道回府，希望还能赶上最后一班车。就在这个时候，我发现自己的太阳眼镜正静静地躺在瞭望台的一个角落，看来墨菲最后还是放过了我。
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After a long day of exploring and adventuring, we left the Wall unscathed and with my biggest "to do" in China officially checked off. The rain held out, the sun peeked its head through, and we ended up having a wonderful day in the countryside of China. Though I am not sure when the Wall and I will meet again, I can even now hear the call of adventure beckoning me back to the Wall once more.
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结束一天的探险，我们安然无恙地离开长城。我总算可以在计划簿上划掉我最想做的事情。此时雨停了，太阳出来了，我们在野外度过了美好的一天。尽管我不确定下次登长城是什么时候了，但我已经能够听到有个声音正在召唤我再度登上长城。
（China.org.cn 何珊 译）
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