Wednesday, April 8, 2009

China recap--segment 1(Great Wall)

We had a great time in Beijing! It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that we were able to do it. That being said...I'm also very glad to be home! We live in an amazing country and I appreciate the blessings of living here now more than ever.

I have decided that there is so much to share from our trip that I'm going to have to do this in a few different segments. I would just be totally overwhelmed trying to pick and choose just a handful of things to share. Already this will probably be a fairly long post but I hope you enjoy it. You can click on any of the images to view in greater detail.
We rode a chairlift from the bottom of the mountain up to the Great Wall. Here is our initial view of the wall as we got close to the top.

The wall itself is pretty steep once you get onto it. They were definitely not into changing the topography to facilitate their building projects. Everything just follows the lay of the land.

The steps going up and down were very small and uneven. you had to watch very closely where you were walking. It was easy to get caught up in the scenery and we both almost paid the price. These were the other guys we went up to the wall with--Two funny Canadian brokers and their 12 year old daughters.



As far as the eye could see---that's how far the wall went---in both directions.





This is an example of the little entranceways and exits that were built every so often into the wall. It's just stairs that leads down to the hillside below.

I thought this little wooden ladder was kind of interesting leaning against one of the guard towers on the uphill side.








The view from the top of the wall was pretty spectacular. Believe it or not this was actually very good visibility for China which typically has incredibly crappy air quality and visibility.
It is almost always overcast and smoggy.



We rode a fun tobaggan slide to get down the hill from the wall. It would have really been a blast except that there were about 20 chinese guards all along the track and every time we would pass one they would scream, "SLOW DOWN! NOT SO FAST!" I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have sued them even if I had gotten hurt.


It was an incredible day! I really never thought that I would ever be able to say that I had walked along The Great Wall. Sometimes life takes you by surprise and drops a few flowers along your path. This was definitly a wonderful moment that we will keep tucked away and will most assuredly remember for a long time.

Stop by tomorrow (or the next) for some views of the Forbidden Palace and some of the Ming dynasty temples and tombs. :)

4 comments:

Becky said...

I love your pictures. What a cool trip.

Emily said...

Glad you had fun and made it back! Can't wait to read more about the trip!

Nettie! said...

Breathtaking!

ashley said...

hey julie. we have missed you at b-ball. brooke claims she is getting too big to play. how have you been feeling? did you find out what you are having? do you do that? So did you just go to China recently or what? I enjoyed reading about your experience and looking at the pictures.