The Great Wall

Chang Cheng..or the Great Wall as you would call it was the most amazing experience. We left Tianjin about 6:30am and drove North from 3 hours. Slept most of the way until right before the wall came into sight. The wall climbed the mountains that seemed to keep reaching higher and higher until we arrived at the Badaling sight. We could decided between easy and hard....let just say we went the HARD WAY!!! Hard but completely worth it. At some points, we climbed 90 degree angled steps and hills only to turn around and see the wall continue to go far in the distance with mountains and valleys only to beautify the view. I took my time and soaked in the moments, knowing it would be a while until I saw something so beautiful. On the easy side you could only see the massive amounts of people,over thousands,forcing their way through to reach the top. The hard way definitely was hard but worth it for the view, few people and the accomplishment. I can't even think of how to describe it. So many emotions at once piled on top of the leg straining.. I can be considered a man in China now...for climbing that wall!! I wish I could described it more but I trully cannot express it in words.

On the way to the Ming Dynasty tombs, I couldn't help to look back at my pictures and think about all the vendors and people that surrounded us. The amount of English was few and far between. You could hear the voices yelling "Hello, tshirt, Hello water" and soo on just to make their money!

Something I will never forget....