The Great Wall of China

Thursday. The one day that it rained significantly on our trip was the day we were scheduled to be outside all day at the Great Wall, but the rain deterred what would be an otherwise giant crowd, and added a mystic to the ancient structure by covering the surrounding mountains and valleys in a misty fog. The drive to the section of the Great Wall we toured was about an hour north of Beijing, eventually including winding curves with partial mudslides and no guardrails, all traversed seemingly with ease by our driver, despite his being hampered with a 50-foot bus for a vehicle. Luckily, you can always count on China to provide a plethora of vendors for all things necessary: I bought a sweet Hello Kitty-inspired umbrella for the equivalent of $1.50 US, which kept me relatively dry all day.

By way of Wikipedia history, the Great Wall "is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC, the most famous being the one built between 220 BC and 200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. That wall was much further north than the current wall, built during the Ming Dynasty, and little of it remains.

"The Great Wall is one of the existing megastructures and the world's longest human-made structure, stretching over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles)[1] from Shanhai Pass in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. It is also the largest human-made structure ever built in terms of surface area and mass."

We were in the Badaling section of the Great Wall, which Wikipedia describes HERE: "The 'North Pass' of Juyongguan pass, known as the Badaling. When used by the Chinese to protect their land, this section of the wall has had many guards to defend China’s capital, Beijing. Made of stone and bricks from the hills, this portion of the Great Wall is 7.8 meters high and 5 meters wide."

Being on the Great Wall was a phenomenal experience. Traversing the Wall was quite a workout, at times the grade was so steep that your face was about a foot from the ground due to the intense need to lean forward while walking up.












If you look in the center of the picture below, you will see a line of little white pill shapes - those are the tour buses, indicating how far up the wall we hiked.



After the Great Wall, we briefly stopped back at the hotel and then ventured to the Pearl Market - a 10-floor building filled with 10'-by-10' booths full of bootleg and black-market designer goods, each occupied by 1-4 small, young Chinese girls trained with a wickedly harrassing sales technique. You go through the aisles of booths, each filled with Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags, Polo shirts, designer shoes, etc. with the small vendors grabbing at your arms and spouting their few words of English as you: "Lorex Watch" ... "Parada Bags" ... "Polo, Polo, Polo." It's not for the squeamish, but you can get some amazing deals. There are four floors of pearl vendors, and, according to those on the trip with knowledge of pearls, the intelligent buyer can get pearl jewelry for 5% of the US price.