The Great Wall of China

Photos: Me, Carlos, at the top section of the east edge of the Great Wall section near Beijing, and a photo of a small portion of the wall. Friday was so hazy, one can barely see the wall on the other side of the mountain side, but I did my best to photograph them.


Today, Friday, we went to the Beijing section of the Great Wall. It is a limited section, and no longer continues very far into the east. I hiked to the last point possible from the road, which was a huge elevation climb, as the road is in a river/stream basin. It was really awesome, but also very crowded. There were mostly Chinese tourists, but also a few small groups from Russia, India, a US Indian family, and, my best guess, from Pakistan. One lady, when we got to the top of the section we were climbing, asked me to take her picture, so I did. She said “spieciba” (thank you) so I said in my best Russian (ok, you can laugh here), “Russian?” She said, “da.” Finally about five minutes later, I remembered how to say “you're welcome,” but by then, of course, she was long gone. I did learn how to say “thank you” in Mandarin, but I just never got the pronunciation down very well, but better, I think than many in my group. (Thank you and the word for the money, Yuan, both have these very difficult, unfamiliar diphthongs. Oh ya, off on tangents again). I think I would like to see some other sections of the 4,000 mile wall, and walk on top of other parts that are more level. So Rochelle, I guess my answer is yes, I would like to return to China. I hope I can include a few photos of the Wall into this post.

On the way to the Wall, we stopped at the “Jade Factory” and on the way back at the “Pottery Factory” (or something like that). It is a government racket, where the tour companies stop their groups and show them how some of the things are made, and then bring you into a large sales area. I honestly don’t know if the tour companies are required to present their groups, or if they do that just because they earn a commission on the things purchases the group makes (I have it on good authority in addition to my own infallible powers of observation and deductive reasoning that they do get kick-backs). I don’t see that as being dishonest or anything, but just the way things are done. China has only been opened up to tourist for the last 20 years, and I imagine that it is now much, much less strict with tourism issues than it was in 1988.

Photo above: Carlos' self-portrait at the Jade Factory