The Great Wall Page 1 : Overview and begining photos One of the most memorable parts of the trip to China was our visit to the Great Wall. Some of Jenny's Chinese friends arranged a van for the day, taking us to one of the more beautiful and less touristy sections of the wall. The trip took several hours from Beijing through the beautiful Chinese countryside. Once there, I was surprised to discover how Westernized it was. Shops were set up at the base of the wall and, to my dismay, on the wall itself. Chinese salespeople, at least those accustomed to dealing with throngs of tourists, were persistent and in some cases rude -- another eye-opening insight for me. I had always thought of the Chinese as a demure, retiring, ultra-polite people. My ill-conceived Western notions on this topic came crashing down as someone explained to me that with 2 billion people, there's a considerable amount of jostling for jobs, education, housing, and space, and so aggressiveness (or assertiveness, depending on whom you ask) is a key part of the Chinese mindset. In light of this knowledge, bargaining became quite fun. Shopkeepers who wanted 100 yuan (the Chinese currency) for something could be argued down to 10 or even less. Some of my favorite purchases were made at the Great Wall. I imagine that Mogol warriors would have appreciated having the ski lift we used for mounting the Great Wall, and the concrete-metal slide we took on the way back down. Once at the top, though, the true beauty of the wall was evident. The amount of work that went into creating a mountaintop wall longer than the width of the United States is staggering. Another preconception fell as I came to realize how steep and slanted parts of the wall were. No rolling waves of stone this; instead, climbing portions required going up or down at dizzyingly steep angles -- not a site to visit for those with vertigo! In places, the wall is being overtaken by trees. Keeping up a cultural treasure of this enormity is probably inordinately expensive; thus only small sections of the wall are open to tourists. On our way to the Wall in a comfy van. Cheerful Cecelia in the ski lift that takes people up to the Wall. My family and I at the Wall. One of the vendors on the Wall. The slide used for coming down. Jenny and Chinese friend Jack on the Wall. OU friends Jack & Sandy Turner, who were in Beijing at the same time with us. The steps and the Wall are made of stone. The Wall is incredibly steep! Continue to Page 2 : More general shots of the Wall Return to the Introduction