" If we fail to reach the Great Wall we are not men" ~ Mao Zedong, Mount Liupan.
I guess I can call myself a (wo)man because I reached the Great Wall!
Admittedly though Mao wrote that poem as the Red Army was nearing the end of the Long March. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that he probably wasn't referring to a tourist being chauffeured in an air conditioned taxi to the wall and then riding a chairlift to the top.
Our visit to the Great Wall was absolutely incredible. The wall originally began construction during the Qin dynasty (over 2000 years ago - ie BC!).
I guess I can call myself a (wo)man because I reached the Great Wall!
Admittedly though Mao wrote that poem as the Red Army was nearing the end of the Long March. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that he probably wasn't referring to a tourist being chauffeured in an air conditioned taxi to the wall and then riding a chairlift to the top.
Our visit to the Great Wall was absolutely incredible. The wall originally began construction during the Qin dynasty (over 2000 years ago - ie BC!).
My original plan was for us to do a three/four hour hike along the wall between Jinshanling and Simatai. However, my plan was revised when I discovered that one of those sections would be closed during our visit. David was not at all disappointed when I told him that I was switching our plans to Mutianyu and our walking time would be shorter.
Mutianyu turned out to be fantastic with beautiful views and lots of watch towers to walk through (there is one behind me in the photo above). It is also a 'renovated' section of the wall and the occasional handrail was very appreciated. A cable car took us up the side of the mountain to the wall and we rode back down again via toboggan (which was pretty fun). It was great to be able to save our energy for the wall itself and not use it up reaching the wall.
David with the wall stretching along the mountains behind him.
The wall heading in the other direction behind me. It was fairly steep. We walked up to the highest guard tower that you can see in the picture above.
Looking at the view from one of the watch tower windows.
This was taken from the roof of one of the guard towers.
I like this shot because you can see the wall snaking along the mountains far in the distance. It was amazing to feel like you had done a lot of walking, but then look to the mountains in the distance and realise you had barely scratched the surface of just one section of the wall.
David with the view towards the village at the base of the wall behind him. We drove through here on our way to and from the wall. I assume the wall must play heavily in their economy. But it also seemed like corn was very important - there was corn piled everywhere, even on rooftops.
David at the end of the wall (for us). The sign he is resting his hand on tells us not to go any further. Walking further would have been pretty difficult because the wall was overgrown with vegetation from there on.
The view from the highest part of the wall that we reached.
Some sections of the wall were very steep.
David heading down another steep section.
Me heading back down, but a much gentler slope in this section.
David with another view of the village near the wall and the mountains beyond.
The very historically accurate Subway restaurant at the base of the Great Wall.
On another note - apparently the Great Wall cannot be viewed from the moon. The idea of being able to see the wall from space is a myth, although I haven't been able to verify this myself :)
On another note - apparently the Great Wall cannot be viewed from the moon. The idea of being able to see the wall from space is a myth, although I haven't been able to verify this myself :)
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