I Climbed the Great Wall of China

And I have the t-shirt to prove it!

Our day started with a bus ride at 7AM. We arrived at the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall around 9AM after a gorgeous drive through the mountains. I fell asleep sometime while we were still in an urban area, and when I woke up, we were in the mountains and I could not take my eyes off what was outside my window.

We got off the bus, stopped at the restroom, and then proceeded up a slope to get to the wall itself. Going up the slope was more difficult than any of the climbing we did on the wall itself. The Wall has steps and towers, and the steps are uneven. They can be very shallow or very steep, and they often vary within the same staircase. The towers were nice because they gave us some shade on a sunny day. It was breezy on the Wall, so the heat was not too terribly oppressive.

The thing about the Great Wall is that after a while, all the stone looks the same. The views, however, change with every step and I found myself saying, "Oh my G-d this is SO BEAUTIFUL!!" repeatedly throughout the day. I took a lot of pictures of scenery because it was that special. The beauty of nature is so different from the beauty of a cityscape, and I think I enjoyed it even more after being in Beijing itself for two weeks. The air was so clear and we could see the sky and the sun for the first time since we arrived.

I find it hard to tell this experience as a story because so much of it was, "this is so pretty!" or "let's take a picture here!" or "we're going to the next tower; be careful on the stairs." We did have a souvenir seller follow us on our entire trek, which was a pretty clever business model because the tourists notice and will buy because she did the entire walk. I brought one bottle of water on the climb with me and had three more after we were done. Well, one was a soda. And I had an ice cream bar as well because it was hot. But we did a lot of physical activity, so it's okay. 

We headed back to campus around 2PM, and we arrived around 4. I fell asleep on the way back, and when I woke up and looked out the window, BAM! Olympic Village/Stadium. Casual Bird's Nest and Water Cube right outside our bus window. It looks so much bigger in person! I took a shower first thing when we got back, then did a load of laundry because it was a very sweaty day. I had dinner on campus, and then had a quiet, restful night in.

Today is awesome because I climbed the Great Wall of China!!!