By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent

Beijing - Steep, steep, steep and scary.

Singapore Paralympic gold medallist Yip Pin Xiu is not easily put off by tough challenges, but a 40-minute trip up the newly 'disabled-friendly' Great Wall last week left her muttering those words.

The gutsy 16-year-old swimmer, who was born with muscular dystrophy and gets around in a wheelchair, was a little pale with fear as she was pushed up the Wall's slippery stones - and then had to be scooped out of her chair and carried down.

So often criticised for its human rights record, China has been keen to use its hosting of the Paralympics to showcase the progress it has made in caring for its own 83 million disabled people, who make up 6.3 per cent of its population.

Ahead of the Paralympics - the Olympics-equivalent for 4,000 of the world's top physically disabled athletes - Beijing trumpeted its 67 million yuan (S$14 million) 'barrier-free' installations at 60 tourist attractions.

In recent months, this city has been in a frenzy to put tactile tiles on pavements, stairlifts at subway stations, handrails along stairs and cement ramps in carparks.

But as the 'barrier-free' facility at the Great Wall shows, there is a long way to go before China becomes truly disabled-friendly.

The Wall's picturesque Badaling section is now equipped with two lifts and a 180m wheelchair ramp. As it turns out, those facilities get wheelchair-users only to the start of the climb - about one storey up from the ground.

Disappointed, Pin Xiu and fellow swimmer and wheelchair user Theresa Goh, 21, pushed on up the Wall with the help of coach Ang Peng Siong and the swim team support staff.

Without team doctor Cormac O'Muircheartaigh, who pushed her up and carried her down, Yip Pin Xiu wouldn't have been able to visit the Great Wall.

'It's so scary when you look down from the top. It's worse than riding in a cable car. There, you're secured. Here, you're not. My wheels are suspended in the air, hands are flying everywhere!' said Pin Xiu.

If not for team doctor Cormac O'Muircheartaigh who pushed her up and carried her down, she said she would have had to 'climb off my chair and crawl'.

Likewise, Ms Goh, a plucky young woman who does 80kg bench presses in the gym, admitted: 'My heart was beating very fast. I didn't expect the ground to be so uneven. If it were smoother and flatter, I could have pushed myself up and back slowly. But this was impossible.'

Singapore wheelchair racer Eric Ting, 36, who tried the cable car ride up the Wall last week, found that his chair could not fit in the carriage. And at the end of the ride, he got to see only the ticket booth and a bit of the Wall, he said.

To be fair, the Wall is a tough climb even for able-bodied people and taking a wheelchair up at all would have been a pipe dream just a few months ago.

And for disabled regular Beijing residents, the government's efforts have brought some real change and - many hope - served as an eye-opening education for other Chinese on just how able the handicapped can be, with a little help and consideration.

For example, at the Forbidden City, the new wheelchair-hoisting devices and ramps have made a world of difference, allowing disabled Beijing residents to set foot in the national treasure for the first time, reported state media.

Mr Jin Yi, who heads a Beijing non-governmental organisation, has already swopped his usual crutches for a less strenuous wheelchair since the new subway stations are wheelchair-accessible.

He said: 'I can now take the subway and make two transfers on my own. That was unthinkable just a few months ago.'

simcy@sph.com.sg

Top photo: Paralympian Theresa Goh hanging on as team physiotherapist Peter Stig Halen helps her negotiate the slippery surface on the downward leg, with some help from coach Ang Peng Siong.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Sept 21, 2008.

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