The Great Wall

The Great Wall lived up to its name. It really was great. We had hired a car and driver to take us there. The car was rather old and smelled a bit of gas, but it got us there and back in one piece. We had an unscheduled stop at a factory where they make beautiful vases. We didn't really want to stop, but apparently the company has some sort of deal with the factory and we were required to stop. It turned out to be okay. It was interesting to see how they shape the vases from copper, add copper wire on the outside to make intricate dragon patterns, then fill those patterns with crushed stone for colour and fire them in the kiln and eventually polish them down. Of course there was an expensive gift shop at the end, but we managed to get away without any extra items to pack into our luggage.

We got to the Great Wall around 11:00 and went straight up using the chair lift. It's quite high in the mountains so the ride was beautiful, but a bit nerve wracking for me as I am somewhat afraid of heights!

TBS friends: Did you note the special guest with Yasmin and Roya in the picture above?

We were glad we had taken the chair lift as there was a lot of hiking that we did on the wall. I had imagined it much more flat, but it is like walking on the house that Jack built! Several steps down, then up, up, up. It follows the edge of the mountain so it twists and turns, and winds a lot. A few steps would be one height and then there would be a larger step and then smaller ones again. We had walked towards the left first. Although it had lots of rises and falls, it was not nearly as steep as going to the right.

We were on the wall at lunch time so we stopped at a stone platform that was once used for cannons, and pulled our lunch items from our back pack. It was gorgeous to sit there in the mountains and just enjoy the view. There were not too many tourists which made it that much better.

We had told the girls a bit of its history. It was built in the Ming Dynasty about 600 years ago, and soldiers would stand lookout for the enemy and, if necessary, they would light fires to send a message back to the emperor. The girls had fun peeking out between the bricks looking for the enemy now and then.

When we made our way back, Nadim wanted to climb the passage to the right and go up to the summit. The girls were tired at this point, so we sent Nadim ahead and said we'd meet him on the way down, but before we knew it we had followed Nadim all the way to the top. Admiring the view was a great excuse to stop now and then for a break. The girls were real troopers today. In the picture above the steps were almost knee height and went pretty much straight up, and that was only one set of them. What a climb! I suspect our legs will be a little sore tomorrow.

The ride down was a blast. It was a toboggan ride! We zoomed down the side of the mountain on a winding path similar to a water slide, but in a little cart with wheels. There was a hand brake that we had to use to slow ourselves down particularly as we came to the hairpin curves, but it was great fun. Much better than taking the chair lift!

At the bottom of the wall there were lots of people selling all sorts of souvenirs. We didn't really want anything, but for the fun of it Nadim bargained a couple of T-shirts for the girls down from 120 RMB to 20 RMB. That's two shirts at less than $2 each. I almost feel bad, but he wouldn't have sold them to us unless he was making a profit!

CM