THE GREAT WALL!!!

Great Wall--from the bottom

Our drive out to the Great Wall took about an hour and half from downtown Beijing. We were headed to the Badaling stretch of the wall. This is a view of the wall on the mountain we had planned to climb. It's basically 1,000' straight up in elevation. I think they mentioned 1,830 steps to the top. Chairman Mao also mentioned that only a true man reaches the top of the Great Wall. Well, always one up for a challenge--we just HAD to do it! So, we spent the next couple of hours venturing up on our challenge and quest of becoming true 'men'.