The Great Wall

We got an early start this morning. We signed up to do a five hour hike on one of the more secluded parts of the Great Wall. As we approached the place where our hike would start, I noticed some strangely shaped jagged mountains. It wasn't until we were close up that I realized that the jagged "mountains" was actually the lines of the wall on top of the mountain range. Now, maybe it's just me, but I always pictured the Great Wall to be one big, relatively uniform wall cutting evenly across the mountains. I was surprised and amazed to see that it actually follows the contours of the mountain. It is incredible to see (and to think about how LONG it must have taken to make it).

There were 32 towers between where we started and where we ended. The towers aren't too fancy, but they do mark the top of the hills, which were steep. Jayde kept complaining that all the climbing was making her ill. This made it a little difficult to completely enjoy the scenery, but I had to agree with her that it was a LOT of climbing. I consider myself to relatively fit, but I was definitely winded. Some of the towers are just straight up stairs, others probably should have stairs.

The first half of the wall had been restored and looked completely intact. It wasn't until we reached the second half of the wall, which is slowly crumbling, that we realized how much work had been done to the first half. Some of the peaks were impassable and we had to detour around them.

Now, China may be a communist country, but its inhabitants sure have the capitalist system down. There were some very enterprising people making a lot of money on that not-so-short hike. We were warned by people who had done the hike before not to let any of the people who volunteered to "guide" (it is pretty hard to get lost . . . you follow the very large wall) you for free not to walk with you. After trying to discretely "lose" her several times, we politely told a woman following us that we really wanted to enjoy the wall by ourselves. At the midway mark, we saw several other people guilted into paying a lot of money for overpriced souveniers from the free guides crying that they had walked all this way, "Won't you please buy something? Not just a postcard. I have walked so far!" Also, we had to buy a ticket to walk from the beginning to the middle of the wall, from the middle to the end of the wall, and to cross a bridge between the end of the wall and where we met our bus.

All-in-all, it was still worth it. There is no doubt in my mind why the the Great Wall of China is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It's breathtaking (literally).