It is a Wall, and it is Great! (thurs 4/7)

You can’t spend a month in China and not see the Great Wall. And we were going to see it today! At breakfast it was just the General and I. Paula must just be on girl time or something. As the time to leave drew near, I used a courtesy phone in the lobby to call her since there was still no sign of her. She said that she would not be joining us that day. Apparently her backed was all messed up. I can understand not wanting to climb a bunch of stairs if you can’t even bend over to put socks on. So, it was just the General and I for the day. Very bummed though. The triangle cannot stand without all three sides! Pauly B would be missed throughout the day.

Jesse had arranged for a cab for the day. It was a little car, the XR4 from LTI I think. British car and if you picture a British taxi, that is what this was. Pretty neat little thing, and very roomy, especially considering there were only 2 of us. The drive to get out of Beijing was about an hour, then was another hour to where we would get on the wall. During the drive we could see some of it, and it looked awesome. We had no idea it was going to be even better. The driver took us straight up to the entrance for a cable car. This was it. We were now just about to be on the Great Wall.

The cable car ride up was nothing spectacular, at least until we crested a ridge. Then there she was, in all her glory. From our vantage point in the cable car it was breathtaking. Words are easily lost to describe what we saw. We came out of the cable car station and were walking right next to it. It didn’t take us long to find a staircase to actually get on the Wall. From where we started, we could either go up right away or down and up and down and up and so on! The craftsmanship to make this ridiculously massive wall is unimaginable. The way it follows the ridges of the mountains was pure genius. We set off on what is definitely more of a hike than a walk. Steep inclines and declines, both with stairs or smooth were all that there was. Very rarely were there flat parts. Every so often was a fortress, which generally had a huge collection of people catching their breaths and resting. As we continued in our way we spotted a really high fortress and opted to make a straight shot for it. When our driver dropped us off he told us we only had 2 hours total, so we had to be quick to get that far. From what we could see, there were no other people on that section, so this was a plus that we didn’t have to deal with crowds, but also potentially a negative since it looked very challenging!

Before I go further, let me just say that the General is a machine. I consider myself in good shape. General Dave is on another planet in that sense. Hell, he might even be FROM another planet. Try as I might, I could not keep up with his blistering pace. That is also to say that I don’t think there was anyone else there that day who could have kept up with me. It’s like there is a rocket strapped to the guy! Every so often I would stop for a photo op, because I absolutely had to. The views are spectacular. The Great Wall seems to extend in every direction, twisting and falling with the mountains every step of the way. This is a wonder of the world for good reason. I think I was in awe of it the entire time. We fell upon several sections that were literally straight up, and there was 3 foot spacing on some of the steps! If you are short you would find yourself crawling up these parts rather than climbing stairs. Steeper than any section we encountered on Mt. Qingcheng. And there were only a couple of other people during this section. It really is a shame that we only had 2 hours. I could easily spend a full day on the Great Wall, even multiple days. We achieved our goal of that high, lonely fortress. We wanted to press on further up the mountain and clamber up more steps, but we had reached the halfway point as far as time was concerned. Back we went, and went even faster than we went up. Well, not necessarily up one way down another. It was all up and down. We were stopped by a few groups of Chinese girls or women for pictures. Even on the Great Wall it seemed we were celebrities. We also got many comments on how we were in short sleeves and everyone else in sweaters. They did not understand how we were not cold. We worked up quite a sweat during our time on the Great Wall. Forgive us for not sauntering like the rest of the lazy world! Our time on the Wall was now over. It really is too bad because like I said before, we could have spent days on it.

Wall and ridge on right was our destination!

Straight up!

Our next destination was the Ming tombs. On the way there, we had an unexpected stop at a restaurant for lunch. The General and I assumed that lunch was not going to happen and had brought some fruit with us for nourishment and were quite content with it. Oh well, lunch we would have. And it turned out to be a good thing. We went to a hole in the wall local place close to the tomb entrance. Our driver stopped there, so it must be for good reason. We ordered broccoli, fried rice and barbecued rainbow trout, which bot the trout and broccoli were said to be local recipes. The broccoli was not like the normal floret broccoli, but resembled spinach leaves with broccoli stalks. Best broccoli I have ever had. Fried rice was good too. But the best was by far the trout. I would say it was the best fish I have had in my entire life. General Dave also found it to be ridiculously good, he said best fish on the trip. I even ate the skin with the meat. It made it even better. You can bet your whatever you want that I will try to duplicate this on my own barbecue. It was so good yet so simple. Par for the course here in China!

Ok, I know the Ming tombs are very historical, especially for the Chinese. Had we not gone to these I would not have been missing much. I liken it to a Chinese person going to Abe Lincolns’ log house. Sure it has historical value, but mostly for those who actually appreciate it. And let’s face it, after seeing the Great Wall it just did not compare. I will not waste any more blog time on the tombs, other to say that the General and I have seen them, so I suppose we can mark it off the list of things to see.

The driver wanted to take us to Olympic stadium and all that jazz, but we declined. I snapped a couple pictures as we drove by, and that was enough. I think we were more concerned with getting back to the hotel and going to work out! Paula was feeling better, so we met in the executive lounge for free dinner and drinks! And that was the end to an amazing day!