The Great Haul to the Great Wall

It’s a great haul to the Great Wall. From the part of Beijing we were in, it was almost a two hour ride through city and rural, impoverished villages. Even in the poorest, remote areas we saw solar panels for street lights! That’s what Obama means when he talks about infrastructure.

Once we got there, it was another haul up the steps to buy the lift tickets (all pre-arranged and paid for by our trusty guide, Stephen). When we hopped off the lift ride of 3-4 minutes, I didn’t know what to expect. The enormity, the sacred silence, the beauty was all overwhelming. I cried for just a second and then ran up and down steps and corridors, just laughing. Without a doubt, walking, running, and climbing that wall is one of the most significant events of my life.

On our walk, we encountered an old peasant with his donkey. Stephen laughed and said he had never seen a donkey at the wall. It seems almost impossible for a donkey to climb the steep mountain. Check out the homemade bridal (fashioned from wire) and the hand carved bamboo wood stirrups. The man used his donkey to haul water, cokes, and beer to sell at the wall. We bought water from him so he would allow us to take a picture of his donkey. He didn’t want his own picture taken, and Stephen believed that was b/c some of the older people believe that a camera takes away part of your soul.

Later, as we continued to walk and walk some more on the wall, I opened the water and looked at it skeptically to see if there was a seal that had broken. In that Winston Salem twang of hers, Amy said, “Oh, come on, just knock the donkey hair off and take a sip.” Shannon and I laughed so hard, I thought we were going to fall off the lookout spot where we were on the wall.

If you don’t go see any of the other 7 Wonders of the World, you must at least see the Great Wall. You will see things you never thought possible, like the donkey, the woman in the wedding dress, and who knows.

A little history lesson from Wikipedia:

The Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: 长城; traditional Chinese: 長城; pinyin: Chángchéng; literally "long city/fortress") or (simplified Chinese: 万里长城; traditional Chinese: 萬里長城; pinyin: Wànlǐ Chángchéng; literally "The long wall of 10,000 Li (里)"[1]) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during various successive dynasties. Since the 5th century BC, several walls have been built that were referred to as the Great Wall. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; it lay farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.[2]

The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles)[3] from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total;[4] a more recent archaeological survey using advanced technologies points out that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km (5,500.3 mi).[5][6][7] At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men.[8] It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.[

Jun 17, 2009

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