The Great Wall

Needless to say the anticipation of seeing the Great Wall was building - we had been in China for 3 weeks and had been looking forward to it from Day 1. After a few days of sightseeing in Beijing we made the trip to the Great Wall. We took a 3 hour bus ride from Beijing to Simatai, a more remote section of the Wall with less tourists where we would be able to hike all day. We started to get close and all of a sudden, there it was on the horizon: a seemingly endless wall that perfectly kissed every curve of the surrounding hills. We practically jumped out of the bus, made our way up a few ridiculously steep flights of stairs and then we were standing on the Great Wall. I think we all just stood there for a few moments taking in the scene, we were speechless.

The Wall was built under the rule of Emperor Qin to protect the northern borders of China from Xiongnu attacks. It stretches more than 6000 meters from Shanhaiguan to the current southern border of Mongolia and took nearly 2 millenia to complete and maintain. Some of the most famous parts of the Wall were built in 220 B.C. and many sections are currently being restored. It is estimated that nearly 3mm people died during the construction of the Wall. It was difficult to grasp the amount of time and dedication it took to continue construction over several dynasties. It was one of the most impressive man-made things I have ever seen in my life.

We hiked for 4 hours, climbed 10,000 steps, and passed 30 watch towers, stopping every few minutes to take photos and just take in the fact that we were walking on the Great Wall of China. It was a perfect autumn day complete with cloudless blue skies. Simply amazing. Sarah, Charlie, and I did cart-wheels along the way and Holly impressed us all with a backflip (she's got diving skills). We had an awesome time taking crazy photos and messing around, but overall the day was pretty quiet and serene. We spent most of the time admiring its beauty and just taking it all in. Once again, Sarah and I found ourselves just gazing into the horizon, thankful for how lucky we are to be doing this.

We were approaching the end of our hike and thought it could not get much better when we saw a zipline from the top of one of the watch towers, over a lake, back to the bottom of the hill. How could we possibly turn down a zipline? We strapped in and took off, a great ending to an awesome day on the Great Wall. It was a bit of a risk taking the camera but we got some bitchin' shots of us on the way down.

And just when we thought that the day could not get any better, we forgot that we had tickets to see a traditional acrobatics show in Beijing. It was insane - a group of guys jumed off trampolines to do flips 5 meters into the air, a contortionist twisted her body in ways that I did not even really care to see while balancing crystal vases on her hands and feet, 12 young girls balanced one bicycle while riding around stage, men did flips through hoops and juggled while balancing on each other's heads. Like I said, insane. I couldn't have asked for a better way to ring in my 26th birthday...