Beijing -- Down the Great Wall of China

So, we'd made it to the "top" of the wall!!! We'd taken a rest, enjoyed the views, and taken some pictures....
 Now it was time to head back down.....

There were vendors spread out all along the wall selling all kinds of Great Wall wares!
This guy was selling etchings of sorts of different scenes on the wall.

 

If you bought one, he'd tap your name and the date onto the tile. 

One last family picture at the top :)
Had a cute little photobomber in there, didn't we!! 

My favorite pic of us on the wall!!!
Maybe, even of the whole trip!! 

Remember when I mentioned we were on the STEEP side?!?!?!
These two pics do a good job showing just HOW steep!!
Thankfully, it wasn't that steep the whole way...just in sections.

Can you believe they actually run a marathon on the wall?? On those steps and slopes??? 

A couple of my faves of Rodney

 

There's something specific I want you to notice in this picture.....
See the trashcan (center bottom of the pic)?? They were all along the wall. Now, my question is-- now would you like that job??? Gathering up the trashbags from the trashcans.... having to walk that stretch of wall every day??

Proof we both made it back down safely!

 

It was then time for a buffet lunch at the coffee shop upstairs and some souvenir shopping downstairs. 

If our lunch hadn't already been arranged, we could have eaten at one of the places in the village, like California Beef Noodle King USA or KFC! There was also a Subway and a couple of Chinese places.

Yes, KFC as well as McDonald's are quite prevalent in China. Interesting thing is--- the Chinese prefer KFC over McDonald's! For one reason, McD's puts pickles on their burgers and Chinese tend not to care for pickles!! Also, KFC offers some Chinese dishes, along with rice, and porridge for breakfast!

If you are surprised McDonald's, KFC, and Subway are in China, would you believe we also saw Pizza Hut, Haagen Dazs, Starbucks, and Dairy Queen?? In Shanghai, we even saw Papa John's Pizza, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Hershey's!!!

But, back to the wall.....
So, we ate our lunch, bought our souvenirs, then reloaded the bus headed for another stop...

As we rode along, we passed another area to visit the wall....

 

 

We could now mark the Great Wall of China off our life Bucket List!!
Even as I type this and look at my own pictures, I can hardly believe we actually saw it with our own eyes!!