The Great Wall

We left Beijing in a bus to take us to the nearest access area to the Great Wall of China. Not surprisingly, like the Forbidden City, the Great Wall was crowded with tourists from around the world as well as lots of Chinese.

Some parts of the Great Wall date back to the Warring States period of the 400 BC but the wall was really started by the "First Emperor," Qin Shi-Huangdi in the early 200s BC when he joined together several existing walls. Subsequent dynasties continued the expansion and elaboration of the wall. Its purpose is to keep out the nomadic invaders of central Asia who, attracted by the rich and settled Chinese civilization, continued to raid and attack China. Chief among these nomadic peoples would be the Mongols who would eventually in the 1200s defeat the Chinese and create a Mongol Dynasty, the Yuan dynasty. But most of the time, the wall served its purpose in creating a barrier to foreign invasion.

It stretches across 5,500 miles, across mountains and deserts. Some of it is in ruins and some maintained like the section that we visited. I've heard it said that it is the only man-made structure that astronauts can see when orbiting the earth.

Below, of course, is me on the Great Wall; a photo of it snaking across mountain tops; a section of the wall; if you click on the next photo of this very steep section, the sign says "no climbing," but I didn't see any other way to go up this section; a steep section; these three young ladies are USAC students and, like me, were struggling in the heat (and yes, that is a Hooters of Chengdu t-shirt); another section of wall; a big turret near the gate; and another picture of the wall winding across mountain tops.

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