A couple of months ago, while deciding on our very last trip before moving home, I was sure that I wanted to go to a beautiful beach somewhere and do nothing but relax. Then I got to thinking...why would I spend 17 months in Southeast Asia where I was only a 6 hour plane ride away from China and never even attempt to visit the Great Wall? Suddenly I found myself leaning less toward a relaxing beach and more toward a chaotic city. So China it was! Plus, as I mentioned a few posts back, Matt had already been to China, but wanted to go back there with me - so bonus! we were both happy with the decision :)
I imagine most everyone is at least a little bit familiar with the Great Wall of China, but I'll add a little blurb on it real quick just in case you need a refresher. I'm taking this directly from my Lonely Planet book... "The most iconic monument in all China, the Great Wall stands as an awe-inspiring symbol of the grandeur of China's ancient history. Dating back 2000-odd years, the Wall stretches from the border with North Korea in the east, to Lop Nur in the far western province of Xinjiang." I think that's a good description! So basically, the wall is enormously long. It's non continuous length is said to be about 5,500 miles!
Work on the wall begun during the Qin dynasty and continued into the Han dynasty, then the Jin and finally during the Ming dynasty. As my book also states, "the great irony of the Wall is that it rarely stopped China's enemies from invading." It was less than effective for military use, but proved effective in transporting people across the mountain.
The Wall is not only considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world, it is also a Unesco World Heritage Site - so it was definitely something worth seeing! Let's move on to the fun part...the pictures! Get ready for Great Wall overload...I had a hard time narrowing down my pics to share!
Our very first look at the Wall!
Proof that the Wall is a Unesco World Heritage Site...in case you didn't believe me ;)
Me, Matt and baby Benjamin (23 weeks) on the Great Wall. Our little boy is quite the traveler. Such a shame that he won't get to travel nearly as much after he's born!
We were expecting huge crowds, but it turns out it was pretty empty! A weekday visit to the wall is definitely the way to go!
Here we are with our wonderful guide! We booked with Beijing-Travels and highly recommend their trip to the Wall :)
The tower at the top of these steps is as far as you can travel on this section of the Wall. I had every intention of going up there, but upon seeing the stairs we (really read Matt) decided it wasn't worth getting my heart rate too elevated just to make it to one last tower...so I finally gave myself a break and sat this last section out. After seeing people come down looking completely out of breath, I'm pretty glad I didn't make the trek up there!
Of course, Matt made his way to the top. I must say, in comparison to the other people making their way up, he absolutely flew up there! I guess all of his marathon training has him in good shape :)
A break for a picture. You can see me way down there in the distance...the little green dot in the right corner.
A look back at the part of the Wall we traveled on
So that was our trip to the Wall and we loved every moment of it! Of course, several hours of climbing stairs and ramps in the blazing sun made for some hungry tourists so we were thrilled when our guide and driver brought us to lunch. We were expecting some type of strange picnic lunch or a stop at a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant, but to our great surprise we ended up a pretty fancy place! They ordered all of the dishes for us and everything was SO good. I wish I'd taken a picture of our meal, but we were too busy eating to remember to do it. It turns out there was a wedding going on at the restaurant and as we were leaving the bride and groom requested to have their picture taken with us, ha!
Finally, after a quick nap back at the hotel, I found what VERY little energy was left in me and followed Matt to the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to snap a few quick photos.
This is the Water Cube, the place most known for being where Michael Phelps won his Olympic medals. It's since been turned into an indoor water park.
The Olympic Stadium, aka, "the Bird's Nest"
That was pretty much the end of our big trip to China. I am so happy that we chose Beijing for our last big trip before the move because we have so many sweet memories to bring back with us!
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