The Great Wall

As I learned today, the Great Wall of China was constructed for three reasons. The first was to protect an area of China from Mongolian invasion, and this seems to be the most well-known reason. The second reason was at that time to stimulate the rural economy through providing jobs. The third reason was to protect the tea road that was important to Chinese trade. This road served the same function as the well known silk road, but was just in another location. I wonder what would happen if we had one road for only one good, but that's neither here nor there.

The Great Wall has five places that can be visited, and we went to the section at Badaling. I loved this experience in full. To actually be hiking on such a historical landmark was incredible. What added to the fun of the experience for me was the challenge that the Great Wall provided. As you might be able to gather from some of the picture below, the majority of the Great Wall is very steep. Some of the inclines and declines are slopes while some are stairs, but both aren't always a breeze to handle. You even have to be careful going down. I was one of three from the group who traveled to the highest point of the Badaling section of the wall, and I had to hustle back to the exit in order to make it back in time. At that point I was definitely feeling tired, and I won't be surprised if I'm sore tomorrow morning. Any pain is worth it though because I will never forget the sites I saw at the Great Wall today. I even made friends with a young woman from southern China along the way, whom I spoke to for a good fifteen minutes. Her English was surprisingly good, and we were both highly curious as to where our journeys have taken us in China. I was also surprised (although probably shouldn't have been) as to how many street vendors were on the Great Wall. I'm still undecided as to whether or not you would actually call them wall vendors in this case, but they were still ready to bargain. One man even followed me down a long flight of stairs attempting to sell me something without even looking where he was going. I'm sure he could make the journey blindfolded. Enjoy the pictures below, and I hope they capture to magnificence of the Great Wall, but I don't know if such a task could be accomplished.

Here's a picture of our group before climbing the Great Wall. I'm sure if this picture was taken after climbing the Wall you would have see many more tired faces, but the smiles would still be present.