The Great Wall of China

Our driver winded up the mountains outside of Beijing though lush green foliage. It felt so good to be back in the mountains again. We got on a gondola at the Mutianyu entrance of the Great Wall. I chose this entrance because it was the farthest out of town in hopes it would have less of a crowd. It was pouring down rain but it wasn’t cold at all. After a look around we decided to head out to the left. We could only see about 2 towers. Each tower is 2 arrow shots away from each other. They built them this far apart so they could get their enemy from either tower. Each tower has several archways that are very short so Will worked hard on minding his head. We continued out and went through 10 towers and by the time we made our way up to the farthest tower I was crawling up the last bit. The Wall is in ruins past this tower. The weather did cooperate and stopped raining and cleared up long enough for us to see into the valley and back 8 towers for a distance of 3 miles. If it were not overcast it would have been baking hot. This way we had the wall practically all to ourselves. We made our way back to the gondola to find it closed down. We could see another gondola in the distance but it too had stopped running. There were only 4 other people on the wall and we caught up with them and they showed us how to climb down. My feet did not fit on the steps as they are size 11 and most Chinese have very small feet. We made our way down the mountain and it was like climbing down Mt Tallac. At least my legs feel like they did. Climbing the wall was incredible, ominous and Will compared it to walking up to the edge of the Grand Canyon and looking down, you can't get the impact in pictures. I look forward to the day I get to climb it with Annalise.