The Great Wall

I realized just how long I've let this slide this morning when my parents called and my phone cheerfully told me that it was July 1st. This will hopefully be my second-to-last post on our Beijing trip, which was now nearly a month ago.

After our lovely, but long day at the Summer Palace, Jingsong treated us to dinner at a nice restaraunt across the street from his apartment building. He apparently goes there regularly enough to be friendly with management. While waiting for Jingsong, Johnnson told us that the restaraunt specialized in cuisine from Jingsong's native province, the name of which I have now forgotten. Anyway, we all enjoyed a nice long meal and several rounds of Tsing Tao (it actually sounds more like "ching-dao") before Jingsong went home and Johnsson took a cab to his place. We were told to get plenty of sleep so we wouldn't be sore for our trip to Badaling.

Jingsong and, to our pleasant surprise Johnnson, met us outside the hotel at 9am and we got right in Jingsong's car for the drive. We drove out to the 4th Ring Road and then took the appropriately named Badaling Expressway the rest of the way up. About 20 minutes before our arrival the air pollution cleared enough for us to make out the ridges ahead, and then before we knew it, we were parked and walking towards the wall.

Yes, there is a Starbucks right below the wall. It's seriously less than 100 feet from the structure itself.

The hills, in all their glory. Note the sign across the valley reminding everyone of next years Olympic games.

One of the many impressive things about the wall is how steep many sections are. Jingsong told us how several years ago, he had seen a Chinese soldier sprinting up the entire length of the wall (at least the section open to the public). Sam and I couldn't quite manage that.

Fortress-like structures dot the wall at irregular intervals. Here's Johnnson inside one of them.

This was right near the upper terminal of the tramway. Yes, there are trams at the Great Wall. We can't expect overweight western tourists to climb these things all by themselves, can we? Anyway, with the tram station nearby the crush of people increased, as did the vendors, as you can see in the background.

Beyond the tram terminal, the crowds thinned. This was probably the most enjoyable section of the wall for us. The structure there towards the back is a good example of the fortresses I talked about earlier.

There is only a short section (well, short compared to the entire 6,000km+ length) of the wall open to the public at Badaling. Here it where it ends. Entrepreneuring salsemen have made good use of the sign ordering everyone to stop. This is also where Sam and I made our international phone calls from.

Beyond the barriers, you can see what some people refer to as "the natural wall." The existing restored section was completed in 1957, and there are ongoing efforts to expand the restored area open to the public, hence the construction evident in the photo.

The steep sections meant shortness of breath on the way up, but they were actually much more tricky on the way down. Note the young lady trying to negotiate the descent in sandals. We were smarter than that, fortunately.

And that about does it for the Great Wall. After we made it back down to the old Ming army base camp that serves as the entrance, we treated ourselves to glasses of cold tea, and hopped back in Jingsong's car for the ride to Beijing. We made a few more stops though, which I'll write about next time, since it's after 1am and I have to work in the morning.