Day 23

Today we went to the Great Wall, and it was even more magnificent than I imagined. We hired a car to take us there because it is about 70 km from Beijing. We went to the Great Wall at Badaling. It is the most well preserved area on the Great Wall. It is huge! I knew it was big, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so tall or well preserved. It was as if it were built ten years ago. I can’t imagine how much man power was needed to build something like that. We entered the Great Wall and went to the highest point on the left side of Badaling. It was so steep going up; I was looking forward to the walk back down. However, it ended up being just as hard going down the slope as it was going up because I had to control my speed. It was very steep. In some places the stairs go straight up or straight down. The Mexican Pyramids seemed like a walk in the park compared to walking on the Great Wall. Once we got back to where we started, we went to the right to go on the famous section. We started to make our way up to the highest point on the entire wall. It was very crowded because it was mid-morning when we started on the famous part. In some places, the wall got very narrow, so people were pushing and shoving to get through. I was really nervous about it because we were so high up. The wall just lifts up from these huge valleys, so all you can see are the tree tops. It took us until about 11 to get to the highest point. I looked it up on the internet, and it is about 800 meters above sea level. I was exhausted by the time we reached the top because it was so steep. Then, we continued on the wall because it eventually makes a circle putting us back to where we very first started. Going down was very difficult also. I had my good running shoes on, but my feet were sliding really bad because it was so steep. There were a lot of women wearing high heels and dress sandals and some wearing no shoes at all. I was struggling in just plain tennis shoes. I have no idea how they were doing it. Many people had young children and babies with them also. We saw this one little boy, who was about five, knock out all his front teeth because he started running down the wall and couldn’t stop. He fell right on his face. I felt so bad for him.
It took us about an hour to make it to the area where the wall is no longer open to tourists. We walked through a marketplace that reminded me of fairs in Iowa. There were games, food vendors, and souvenir shops all along the road. We made it back to the car at about 1. We hiked for four hours (taking out the time we took for breaks). I was so tired, and we all ended up sleeping in the car. Then, we stopped at the Ming Tombs. It is where all the Emperors and Empresses during the Ming Dynasty were buried. I had just finished reading my book about them. We walked along the sacred road that has willow trees and statues all along it. There were four of many different kinds of animals. For instance, there were a pair of elephants (one on each side). Then right next to them would be a pair of elephants that were kneeling in order to show respect to the imperial visitors. It was very beautiful. We couldn’t go to see any of the tombs though because they are closed to the public. There are 13 Imperial Tombs total. They are all very extravagant and built like miniature palaces.
Then, we came back to the university and had a rest. I showered right away and washed my clothes because I was absolutely drenched in sweat. We actually had nice weather here. There was a storm coming, so it was cooler and there was a really nice breeze. It was also very foggy on the wall, so the sun didn’t beat down on us. It was still humid though. Plus, I just sweat a lot too. We went for supper later than usual and went to the marketplace to eat. It was a pretty nice restaurant. We each had our own burner with a pan with broth in it. Then the waiters bring you raw vegetables and meat, and you pick what you want to cook in your broth. I ended up just eating boiled eggs and some vegetables. The other types of meat were veal, which I don’t really care for, and cheese made out of blood, which didn’t appeal to me at all. When we left, it had just started raining and by the time we got back to our building we were drenched. I will be uploading pictures tomorrow of my day at the zoo and the Great Wall to send out.