August 1, 2009
Today we visited the Great Wall. The bus ride was about 2 ½ hours. When we arrived, I was a bit disappointed to see that there were a lot of low clouds, so visibility was poor, especially for taking pictures. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise later as we would have just roasted if it was sunny. We took a “ski lift” up the side of a mountain. The equipment looked questionable and we went over some deep ravines. My knuckles were definitely white! We arrived safely at the top. Wow…I had no idea that there were so many stairs on the wall. Steep stairs, short stairs, stairs on an angle. You really had to watch your step. Stairs would go down, down, down, down. Then stairs would go up, up, up, up, up, up. Then down again, descending a steep ladder, then ascending almost vertical steps. Then up about twice as many steps as the time before to get to “the top”. This is where the wall becomes inaccessible and you cannot go any farther. After a short rest at the top, it was back doooowwwwn, then uuuuuuuuup, then dooooowwwwwn, then uuuuuup. Whew! My legs were shaking by the time I got back. Also, did I mention that many of the steps were designed for Chinese feet…about a women’s size 5 or so. And some of the steps were as tall as two water bottles stacked on top of each other. It is amazing how they built this wall on top of the mountains. I don’t know how they got all of the materials up there! To get back down the mountain, you could either take the ski lift again or you could take a toboggan down a metal track. We took the toboggans. It was very fun…not scary at all. I would have gone faster if I could, but there were a lot of us on the track at the time. After exiting the toboggan ride, there were a lot of vendors. In the usual Chinese way, they come and grab your arm and pull you into their booth and shove things in your face that they hope you will buy. I am getting better at resisting. As we went up the hill, prices got cheaper and cheaper. I wish I had figured this out before I bought some stuff. I bought a t-shirt for 35 yuan, which at $5 USD, I thought that was a pretty good deal. Steve burst my bubble when he told me he paid 9 yuan. I did buy a couple of more shirts at that price. When I got to the top of the hill, those vendors only wanted $1 (7 yuan) for 3 t-shirts. By that time, I didn’t want any more t-shirts. Oh well….still got good prices by U.S. standards. I wanted to buy a banana crepe. The price was 20 kuai. I talked her down to 10. Then Andrea came by and said she got hers for 5. I said I would pay 5. The lady was angry and said some unsavory things in Chinese to Andrea! I bought a few more trinkets and then headed down to meet the bus.