May 5 The Great Wall of China

We made it!

They say that there are 3 things you absolutely must do if you visit Beijing - we ticked off 2 of them!
*The Forbidden City
*Eat Beijing duck - which we haven’t, and 

*Climb the Great Wall - we did it! Or rather we took the cable car at the village of Mutianyu to the Wall at the top of the mountain and then  simply wandered, gawked and clicked.

Contemplating the enormity of this complex structural effort

It goes on and on into the distance

It was quite exciting to be up there. I never thought it would impact me quite like that, but it is part of such an immense structure of such historic dimensions. Actually the Great Wall comprises a number of walls that intersect and some even run parallel.

The Wall dates back well over 2000 years to the Qin dynasty when, legend has it, the bones of dead workers were incorporated into the wall as building material. Because there were a number of sections to the Wall, there were ‘gaps’ where invaders could enter. And in fact Genghis Khan did just that and sacked Beijing way back when.

Arrow slits placed strategically along the length of the Wall

Watchtowers are placed srategically alomg the Wall

Inside one of the Watchtowers. It would be a harsh duty.

Combined, the entire Wall extends around 22,000 Km. We walked just a tiny 3 km of the  restored section at Mutianyu, but it was thrilling to look out over rugged peaks and imagine the Tartars slipping through the passes. It is beautiful countryside - rugged and forested with valleys stretching out and away where villagers tend their orchards. We ended the day with a tea ceremony back in Beijing.

Far below under the cable car we could see farmers tending their trees

The variety of teas available was quite overwhelmomg

This tea is equivalent to single malt whiskey they told us - very expensive, and it was very strong