China - Day 7

Well, it's our last day here in Beijing. The plan is to go hit the Great Wall then it's straight to the airport for us.

We had hired an independent driver to take us to the Great Wall and then to the airport. This was really convenient. It's like a personal driver. So he picks us up right on time from the hostel and we were on our way. We just drove and drove. Eventually, we pulled off the main road. I was like what the hell? In my head I'm going through all the scenarios of being harvested for my organs.

The driver took us into a market in a little dusty town. It was quite a sight, there was all kinds of things there on sale in the streets. Lots of veggies, a few chickens, and some fishes. The fishes were swimming in a little kid pool. Now that's fresh fish.

Eventually, he got out of the car and told us that his wife is going to take it from here. I was a little suprised, but I guess it didn't really make a difference. So, no excitement really, just switched drivers. After a short ride, we were at one of the entrances for the Great Wall.

Here's a map.

I really couldn't tell you where we are, so this map isn't all that useful except to show that the Great Wall is long. Really really long.

We started our trek up the mountain. I'm blaming this on the fact that I danced hard last night and not because I'm insanely out of shape, but just getting to the Great Wall, I was hurting bad. This is going to be a really long hike.

I finally got up to the wall. This is what awaited me.

Besides the constant struggle to breath and move, being here was amazing. Everywhere you look is simply spectacular. I couldn't help but think of the people that built this thing. Man, that would've been one difficult job.

If you look at the wall careful enough, there are a lot of people's names engraved in them. Not the tourists who's been, but the people that built the wall. That was a bit freaky, but very cool.

More climbing.

I won't bore you with all the photos, but I've got literally hundreds of these. All of them could pass for post cards. It was almost impossible to not take a good photo being on this wall.

At one point, when the others have walked way ahead due to my insane slowness, I look to the side of the wall and said 'You want me on this wall. You NEED me on this wall!' What? You've done it too if you remembered.

Yet more wall.

I think the hike took an hour longer than it should have for me. It was quite sad really.

Eventually we got to the exit for the section that we were hiking. Seeing that exit sign was one of the happiest moments of my life. We walked out and met up with our driver for a ride to the airport. It was the wife that picked us up. We drove back to the village. The husband came back in the van and took over the driving.

At least this is what I think happened. I was passing out by the time I got to sit down.

Soon, we were back on the airport and on our way back to Shanghai.