The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

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It's 1:42 AM and I'm writing a blog. My hotel's power just cut out. Boo.

Yesterday was amazing.

My first Great Wall tour guides didn't work out. They said they decided my hotel was too far for the sections of the wall I wanted to see. So I contacted Miles Meng (recommended by Lonely Planet) and organized my driver less than 24 hours before he met me at my hotel. Glad it worked out.

He picked me up just before 8 AM and we drove quite a bit to get to Mutianyu.
We drove through many small towns. We kept passing small dim sum places and I wanted to stop so badly. I just completed coursework at PSU for Food Politics and Immigration/Citizenship issues. While driving around, I saw so much degradation of their lands. Lack of water. Endless trees marked dead for removal. In the mountains there was terracing for rice, but you can tell the land was not usable. A man was using a tiny machine to till a huge field that looked like it wouldn't be worth the time anyway. Basically, I wanted to drop a buttload of water on china. The Green Revolution didn't do any long-term favors to Asia. But these people are resilient.

Finally, we got to the Great Wall. You take a shuttle bus to the tourist entrance. You have to buy all these tickets for the bus, tram, entrance, and a way down. I shoved them in my backpack and went on my way.
There are little shops and restaurants at the base of the mountain before you enter to take the lift/tram. There was even a Chinese Burger King (and a Subway on the return side). Street vendors that live in Mutianyu village in the valley at the bottom of the mountain come here to sell their wares. "Hey...lady! You buy this! Very pretty!"

The grade on the hike up was treacherous. And then I had to climb a ton of stairs. It seemed never ending. I felt old by the time I sat in the tram. Teenagers were winded.
The tram took you up the mountain with a great view of the valley. And then...more stairs.

There were so many stairs, so many weird sections of the wall. Most of the wall I was walking on was around 600 years old, below those pieces it was around 1,500. The small brick sections were added for security in 1984. It took a few hours to hike to the top end and back down to the other side of the wall. I got a heck of a workout. I did this on 2-3 hours of sleep with an upper respiratory infection. But it was still amazing.

At one point, I was around other Americans from Boise, and we all looked at each other and I said, "People: we are standing on THE freaking Great Wall of China," and they laughed and said it was amazing.

At one point, while I was inside tower 11, I just shed a tear and stared out at one of the original sections of the wall at the top of the mountain peak. I made it here, on my own, and I am healthy enough to do this hike. I am somewhere rich with history and culture. I am living. I am just fine.

I made it to the end of the wall, and had to buy a toboggan for the ride down. It was 80 yuan, and totally worth it. I'll post a video later.

I took another shuttle bus back to where my driver was, and we headed to Ming Tombs. So awesome. The architecture, the history. I stood on jade bricks, met awesome people and read about Ming artifacts that were 2 inches from me. I also used my first Chinese squatty potty, but that's another story.

After all of this, I was exhausted and made it to my hotel with another long drive.
I could never drive here. It's nuts.

In a few hours, I'll be on a train to Xi'an.
That'll be another adventure.

XOXO.

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Photos

Degradation
Dry, dry, dry.

Shuttle Bus
Up the mountain.

View from a tower on the Great Wall
If you look closely, you can see an old watch tower on the peak.

Looking down the Great Wall
Up & down & all around.

The sun was brutal.
My eyes were puffy from no sleep, but I felt alive.

Almost halfway there
Looking back at the start.

It goes on and on...
And on.

Onward!
The steps were odd.

This happened.
See the foot lever flush?

Dragons.
When it rains, they spit out water. These should be all over Portland.