Saved the Best for Last

Today, the Great Wall of China - Changcheng. My aunt Marty and I hired a driver to take us to the Mutianyu section (about an hour outside the city) and back again. This is the section of the Wall that I’ve heard the most about. Not a lot of tourists – I could count on two hands the number of people there today. A good exercise, with steep gradient and large stretch open to the public between hazardous areas. And cool ways to get up and down: we opted for the cable car on the way up, and louge/toboggan on the way down. I felt like I had my own Cool Runnings taste of the winter Olympics.

It was the perfect day for the long haul. Sunny, warm, hardly any wind, and serenely silent. Most of the snow had melted, so slippery wasn’t much of a factor, even if vertigo was. The last leg we traversed was an incredibly steep incline, but well worth the climb. It took several breaks on the way to the top, but once up there, the view took away any breath we had left.

We spent two and a half hours trudging up and down the steps, scaling the slopes, and snapping as many shots as my shutter allowed. But I have to say, the louge ride down was pretty exciting, having never sped down a mountain side as such speeds before.

So, on my last full day in China, I ended my time here with a big bang. All I have done in the past three days has been extraordinary; and if for nothing else besides the Great Wall, I would tell people to come to Beijing.