Great Wall of China

The bus tour to the Great Wall actually started out at the Ming Tombs. We stopped at the tomb of one of the Ming dynasty emperors, and saw some sights there. The building of course is the most impressive thing:

I also got pictures of some of the artifacts that they had recovered. There are more than a dozen such sites in this area (one emperor per site).

Then we stopped at a jade factory, where we saw an artisan carving a block of jade into a Happy Budda, and learned how to tell real jade from fake jade in the street markets. This is one of the larger jade pieces outside the building:

It is actually taller than I am! The tour guide told us to bargain hard, and I got a good discount on a very interesting piece, which I shipped home.

Eventually we made it to the Great Wall. The tour guide said we should leave that for last, because it would wear us out. We went to the section at Badaling which is the closest most tourist-trappy section. Still, very impressive! Here's a shot from the bottom:


I climbed all the way up to the top. This is a shot from about two-thirds of the way up, looking back down:

This is from the very top tower. Note how the trail goes down in two directions, one to the right (which is the trail I climbed up on) and one to the left (which I went down on):


Going down, it was much more deserted. That side was much steeper! On my way down, I overtook someone who had stopped to rest, and we took turns taking photos of each other on the steep steps:

By the time I got to the bottom, my legs were shaking uncontrollably.

Today I taught my class. My legs were still wobbly! They're very sore, both my calves and thighs. I've been popping Motrin, hoping to heal them by tomorrow. I've hired a private guide, recommended by a coworker, so I'll get to see a lot more sights than if I took the big bus tour. I'm charging my camera and camcorder batteries!