Day 58 – 3/13 – Great Wall near Beijing

On the bus ride out to the Great Wall in the morning, the tour arranged for us to drive by the Olympic grounds. We had time to get pictures of the Water Cube swimming center and the Bird’s Nest track & field (and opening ceremony) stadium.

The Great Wall is about an hour’s ride northwest of Beijing. It was cold: about 40 degrees F. And it was windy. You can tell from the photos below we were colder than past stops. There was even small amounts of snow in the inside corners of the guard towers that are every 100 meters or so.

We had heard that the Great Wall was rugged, but we did not think through that it would be so steep in so many sections. There were sloped areas up to 25 degrees or so, and sections with steps at 45 degrees or so.

The Great Wall is about 4 meters wide by 6 meters tall by 6700 km (4000 miles) long. It was built in the 15th century, as were most of the sites that we visited. This was when the capital of China was moved from the south to Beijing.

The section of the Great Wall that we visited gave the option of walking right or left. Right was easier and left was more difficult….but had better photo possibilities. I chose left. Kathleen made it part way to the local highest point. I pressed on and made it to the 888 meter tower. I was very out of breath and cold.

Someone said that in the summer, the Great Wall can be so crowded that people are as close to each other as in a crowded elevator. I had sections where I did not see anyone else ahead or behind me. I think from this respect, the cold was okay.

We stopped for lunch at a combination Jade store and restaurant. I found this very interesting and will write some of my thoughts about this with a photo below.

The afternoon was at the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. Text on that with photos below.