Wandering Weavers: Beijing -- Up the Great Wall of China

So, we're riding along in the bus admiring the countryside.... then we realize we are seeing patches of snow on the ground, then---- there it is----

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!

The first sections of the wall were built in the 7th century using sticky rice, egg whites, leaves and mud as the "glue"! The Beijing section is now about 600 years old.

Badaling was our destination...

The gate to the parking area

Badaling 'village' with shops and food places.

We believe these are depictions of different rulers and, of course, with Rodney--- life imitates art!

National Park of China

We were so excited to be here!!!
Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined I would get to see the Great Wall for myself!!!

Under the wall....

...through the gate...

...and now to make a choice-- which way to go??
The North Side was said to be the not-so-steep side. (We had no idea about the Cable Cars!)
The South Side is the 'steep' side. ("Hero Stele" is evidently a marker in honor of Chairman Mao, but, I don't remember seeing it.)
We went left....yes, the steep side....
the path less traveled....
Turns out, as steep as some of the places were (pics in next post), we actually chose wisely. The ones who took the other way said it wasn't steep, but a constant steady incline that actually gets real annoying real fast!

Looking back at the not-so-steep section

Here we are-- "stepping on great wall"!!

Now, time to walk on that wall!!!
The most annoying thing is I had developed a headache during the bus ride. I don't know if it was the altitude or what, but it developed into a real pain! I felt like the right side of my head was going to split down the middle, so I took my own pace and let them go on.

The wall is on average sixteen feet wide and sixteen feet tall, and almost 5500 miles long which would take about three years to walk the entire thing! It crosses thirteen provinces and ten cities.