This past Saturday we had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall with our friends. It was amazing. If you ever make it to this part of the world, we highly recommend it! Our adventure began with us loading the bus and driving away. Then we turned around to go back because we'd left someoene behind. Oops.
The Great Wall is about an hour and a half drive outside of Beijing. It was nice to get away from the city for a while and see some of the countryside. But before leaving the city we drove past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It's excititng to think that just one year ago the city was buzzing with Olympic activity.
Once at the Great Wall we made a bee line for the bathrooms. On the bathroom door was a sign saying, "Bathroom is bad. Go west." Since we didn't have our bearings yet we depended on the Chinese-speakers in the group to help us find the west bathroom. Mission accomplished!
To get to the top of the Great Wall (which is on the ridge of a mountain) you have three options: 1. Walk, 2. Chair Lift or 3. The Gondola. As mentioned above, the Wall is at the top of a mountain; that ruled out #1 for us. I have a bit of a fear of hights, so that ruled out #2. We went the more expensive route and paid our 40 RMB to ride the gondola, or sauna as it turned out to be. The gondonla "pods" are small enough that you can only fit in four people. There are two very small windows, so on this hot day it felt like a true sauna inside.
Once on top of the Great Wall we began exploring. A group of us decided to go to the very end of this particular section, which involved climbing up. But, the Great Wall does not go simply up. It's built on a mountain ridge so it follows the ridge as it raises and falls. So, up and down we went. We found a lot of great nooks and crannies along the way.
At the end of this particular section is a long staircase that goes up, up, UP! We figured that we were still young and healthy, so up, up, UP we went... panting all the way. At the top of the long staircase was another shorter staircase, but this one was much steeper. Remember how Annie is afraid of heights? Yep, this was a challenge! At the top we enjoyed taking pictures. In one we posed as the attacking Mongols. (We later found out that the wall was built after Mongol attacks and to keep them out. It was the Manchurians who were able to surpass the wall. Oops.)
Getting to the top of this big wall was quite exciting. Looking down at how far we had to walk back was sobering. So, off we went. This time down, down, down. We weren't stopping to take as many pictures on the way back. Maybe it was because we were slowly becoming drenched with sweat. This doesn't look as good in the family album.
Our final destination on the wall was the Alpine slide that you ride back to the bottom of the mountain. Fun! When we were about a quarter of a mile away from the slide I mistepped and had a glorious fall. The Great Wall is full of uneven steps and missing tiles. I found a missing tile and rolled my ankle. Now the fun challenge was getting off the Great Wall after my "great fall" with an ankle that was continuing to swell. Thank goodness for husbands! Brian was on one side, I had the wall to lean against on the other. A few of our friends caught up with us and lingered behind too. What great friends! Eventually, we made it to the Alpine slide. You're not supposed to ride it if you are injured. The attendant noticed my limping and started to protest (I think) in Chinese. This was one of the only times I've been grateful not to know Chinese! My friend who did speak Chinese well said something to the man as I was pushing off and sliding off the Great Wall.
In the end, we made it back to the hotel, sweaty and a little dirty from falling flat on my face. I had to lay in bed with my foot up for a day, then was off for an x-ray the next day. Thank goodness nothing is broken! The friends who live in Beijing even had an extra pair of crutches for me to borrow. I'm still limping a bit, but on the mend now.
I still remember sitting on the floor of the Great Wall feeling quite stupid for falling down and telling Brian, "I need a good story for this because basically I just fell." Brian, mater of factly, looked at me and said, "Annie, you're on the Great Wall of China."
