Day 2: Great Wall

Getting onto our blog is a bit challenging.  We will do our best to update with news of the day and some photos.  Today we started out our day early on a two hour bus ride out to the Great Wall.  Our guide, Emily, gave a nice overview of political history, a personal account of the one child policy (she has 2 boys and was fined HEAVILY for the second one!) and a history of the Great Wall.  This wall was built in 1400 ish.  The original wall was connected by the First Emperor in 200 BC or so and was actually made of earth.  I am not sure why you need to build an earth wall on top of a mountain range (isn't that a wall of earth already?)

Half way there we made a stop at the jade factory and got a little tour and were then able to shop.  Neela got a little jade turtle necklace.  I was afraid to let Andrew loose in that place (bull in china shop?) as some of the sculptures were VERY expensive.   There are apparently only about 50 jade masters left and the new generation doesn't have the patience to learn the skill.  

It was fun to drive through the countryside as we got closer to the wall.  There were little plots of corn growing wherever there was some space.  The views of the mountains were a nice change from the density of the city.  We took a shuttle to a hill to a cable car and then reached one of the watch towers on the wall.  While the idea of a 4000 km wall on top of the mountains is impressive, actually being there you really get a sense of what an amazing feat it was to actually build it.  It is on top of a mountain range!  How did they get all of the materials up there as they kept lengthening it?  You can see the wall stretching on forever!  

We all hiked to 6 towers I think and Luke and I climbed the last stretch up a very steep section to the 7th tower (after that, it was off limits as the wall has degraded.)  What a view!  We carefully climbed down that section, hugging the wall as it was so steep and then headed back for our picnic lunch.  Just as we were finishing up lunch, it began to downpour.  We made it down the cable cars just before the lightening started and they shut down the cable car line.  

We walked back to our shuttle with enough time for Andrew to practice his bargaining skills and then took the bus back.   Traffic really is horrendous here.  Got back in time for a quick break and then back on to the bus to sit in traffic again to get to the famous Peking Duck restaurant.  It was good, but not sure I understand the hype.  After a much quicker bus ride back to the hotel, we were too tired to go out to the walking street at night.  We'll have to get that experience somewhere.  I'll get the kids writing next time.

-Marnie

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