The Great Wall

What can I say....the Great Wall is absolutely amazing! The hotel arranged for a car to take us to the Great Wall from our hotel. The driver was amazing. He was great with the girls and even brought them juice boxes for the ride! The ride took about 1 1/2 hours and was north of town. We decided to go to the restored section at Mutianyu. One of the reasons we chose this section was because it is supposed to be less touristy than the other locations. The other reason we chose this section is because there is a chair-lift to the top and a toboggan slide to the bottom. The slide down took several minutes and was one of the most favorite parts of the day for all of us!

When we got there, we were swarmed with street stall owners, trying to convince us to buy their wares. We heard that each restored, tourist section of the wall is crawling with these at the entrance. You just have to smile, say "no thank you", and keep walking. It's pretty funny to hear what their starting price is and what you can get an item down to. One guy trying to sell us a fan started off at 140 yuan and he ended up offering an item for 20 yuan (a little more than $2 US).

One can't truly understand how big the Wall is. Although it is not continuous, the wall is more than 4,000 miles long. And, you can never truly understand how steep it is until you have to drag your rear end up and down it (plus your two kids)!! Jenna walked the entire way with us, but Meredith had a sweet ride on top of John's shoulders most of the way. It was a hazy day, but we were still able to see the Wall stretching over other mountaintops. It was a beautiful experience...we met many great people during our walk and we got some great pictures!

We were all so pooped from the walk that we stayed in for the evening. Jenna and I walked to the local supermarket and got food to make in our hotel. When you are out on the streets at night, it really feels like NYC!

See you tomorrow.

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