China Pics#1 ---The Great Wall

Somehow, I managed to get the layout that is quite squished. I can't figure out how to change it, and I'm not uploading the pictures again! For those not aware of my recent escapades to the far East, I spent two weeks in China the end of June. My cousin Katie lives in Shanghai where she teaches English at a private boarding school. I spent about 9 days in Shanghai, and then we flew NW to Beijing, where we spent 3 days touring that beautiful city. We accessed the Great Wall at a point called the Guyu Pass, which was a strategic point militarily for the Chinese. The Wall actually formed into a little circle at this point because it was considered a likely area of access by invading enemies from the North (the Mongols). I climbed to the sixth little parapet/outpost on a very hot and humid day, but had a lot of fun doing so. As I got higher and higher, the view got more spectacular. Unbelievable to imagine how difficult it must have been for the Chinese to build not only this massive of a structure, but how difficult it would be to do so on such rugged and mountainous terrain. The padlocks seen in the top left picture are left by young couples to sort of be a sign of the steadfastness of their relationship.


While the steps within the wall made it much easier to climb up the mountain versus a foot path, they were very uneven; no two steps were alike. So that required one to look down frequently while climbing up the wall (at least this clumsy woman had to). The air got progressively cooler, so by the time I got up quite high, the cool breeze was refreshing and I wish I could've gone farther and enjoyed more sights: maybe next time! The Wall was certainly all that its name describes it to be: "Great."