Walking Along the Great Wall 长城

As one would expect, walking along something called the Thousand Li Long Fortress 万里长城 as the Great Wall of China is known to the Chinese is not a trivial matter by any means. There are several well known sections of the Great Wall in the Beijing area, but the Chinese say that the Great Wall in Jinshanling is one of the most beautiful ones. I haven’t been to the other sections of the Great Wall but I already loved what I was seeing. The wall followed the contour of the land, it undulates up and down much like a dragon, a dragon that stretches as far as I can see.

I was extremely lucky to have excellent weather here at Jinshanling. It was cold but since I was climbing the wall I won’t notice it that much. The wall itself is a marvel knowing that this was built hundreds of years ago, parts of it were built thousands of years ago. The wall starts at Shanhaiguan 山海关 in Hebei province and ends somewhere near Lop Nur 罗布泊 in Xinjiang province thousands of kilometers later. It is actually not one single piece of wall, however large chunks of it are linked together all in different stages of decay or improvement.

Although I was excited to be visiting the Great Wall of China, I probably wasn’t that prepared physically since it is actually hard work to be climbing the wall. I immediately recalled how we would relentlessly climb stairs in a previous trip to Southwestern China. This was no different, but infinitely more significant. The crowds were surprisingly nowhere in sight and I am not complaining.

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