THE GREAT WALL - Part I

I’ve got a lot to say about this, a lot of stories to tell from the journey, so I am going to break my thoughts into a few different posts.

We all gathered at the entry point to our Wall section and took a group photo. I had encouraged everyone to wear as much Duke gear as they could, but it does not really come through in the photo the way I hoped. Oh well. Still, it was nice to get a shot of everyone. Everyone agreed that the Great Wall was a huge part of why we came to China. It was a true “bucket list” item for all of us. I can safely say that it lived up to my expectations.  

We were told by Wally, the guide, that there are two paths you can take as you walk the Wall. You can go to the right and take the easier path that is less steep or you can turn to the left and take the steep way along this large section of the wall. I looked and saw a giant herd of people already on the easy side, so I encouraged folks from our trip to come with me on the steep side, which was largely empty.

I am not gonna say it was a mistake, but lemme tell you… this sucker was really steep at times. We worked up a major league sweat scaling some of the steps. At times, it was almost like rock climbing. The steps were irregular in size, meaning you constantly had to look down and measure your steps or you might make a mistake and fall. There was a great feeling of satisfaction whenever we reached a plateau and could look down at what we had climbed. The pictures don’t really do it justice.  

I was extremely impressed to note that most of our group chose the steeper path and a healthy percentage of them made it all the way to the top. Yay team!!!

I’ll have a lot lot more on the Great Wall and the rest of the day in a little bit, but I have to run now to go see a Chinese Acrobat show!