10-11-2005

On the bus at 8:30 for the 1 hour trip to The Great Wall. Along the way we saw some of the ˇ§realˇ¨ great wall in the mountains. I say real because the areas that they take tourists are heavily restored. We are visiting a section from the Ming dynasty which is made of large brick covering the earthen mounds. Much of the wall in other areas is just earthen. After getting off the bus we make our way past merchants to the entrance. Now comes the climbing. We were given two choices, the steep but less crowded side and the not so steep but jam-packed. Before we set out along the wall we all posed for a group photo with our escort Maggie. The photo is presented in a very nice book along with certification that we have climbed the wall. Leslie and I chose the steep side. At some points it was close to 40 degree pitch without steps. We climbed up a few sections before Leslie turned back to shop for a suitcase to hold all our newly acquired loot. I stayed and took photos while fending off the peddlers trying to sell me sweatshirts, carvings, postcards and any other bit of crap they could. The area we visited didn't off much, IMO, in the way of good photo opportunities. It was nice that the trees were turning to fall colors. This was our second visit to the wall so it wasn't that awe-inspiring. While it is a great piece of historical work it isn't all that much of a marvel. Take millions of workers and give them two thousand years and they're gonna come up with a few thousand miles of wall. On the way the guide echoed the age old myth that the Wall can be seen from space. Anyone with a bit of logic in their head can see the improbability of this. The Wall is about 15 ft. wide at the top and maybe 45 at the base. Most modern 4 lane highways are way wider than this and they are not visible. Now if they're talking from space with high resolution spy cameras, then yes, you can see it. Naked eye out of the Shuttle's windowˇ I doubt it. At the hotel along the Wall Leslie and I did some shopping. We ended up buying a neat silk embroidered "painting" for lack of a better way to describe it. It is being shipped back to us since it was quite large. Maggie assured us the shop was reputable and we should not worry about receiving it. After the Wall came lunch. The restaurant just happened to be adjacent to a huge jade store. Lunch included all the beer you wanted and they also provided some 112 proof alcohol for our pleasure, all of which surely was intended to make your jade shopping experience more enjoyable :-) It must have worked because we bought a very nice jade horse.