The Great Wall - Finally!

Ok, I could hardly contain myself this day. I was so excited to finally be going to the Great Wall. We hired a driver and a tour guide to take us. Our visit would include the Wall and the Ming Tomb. The drive was very long, two hours away, and very terrifying. Let me just say - there really are no traffic rules in China, or at least not enforced.

In this picture we are driving in two different lanes, which most people did. We saw multiple fender benders in our short stay in China. 

Okay, Okay - I know everyone has been asking about the Great Wall, so here it is!

 We visited the Badaling part of the wall - this is the most popular site to visit, hence the horrible crowd. But it's also the highest point of the wall within Beijing. We had to ride these cable cars higher up the mountain side to reach the wall. They were a little terrifying! 

 Here we are!

 Ok, now I've heard that the wall is really steep, but I never could have imagined how steep it really was! I was so grateful I had worn my dorky tennis shoes instead of my flip flops, or else I'm positive I wouldn't have made it to the top.  I had to stop half way through because I was so out of breath, felt incredibly dizzy and thought for sure I was going to throw up! And the last thing I wanted to do was leave my "mark" on the Great Wall of China! But I saw old ladies passing me, I mean really old ladies, so I couldn't give up.

 The pictures don't quite do it justice... Also, you can see how crowded it was. We could barely stop long enough for a picture or else we would be trampled by crazy Chinese people.

 Finally, a dream come true! 

Now let me just add a P.S. to this post - If anyone is planning a trip to the Great Wall, do NOT hire a tour guide. It was a total waste of money and we spent maybe 45 minutes total there. Although I am thrilled that I got the opportunity to go, I was disappointed by my experience. And if it didn't cost so much to get there, I would have gone back the next day to spend more time there.

After the Wall visit, we went to Ming Tombs, this where all the Emperors of each dynasty are buried. It was a rather boring place and we spent even less time there than we did at the Wall. I'm not even going to post a picture - just imagine all those red buildings from the Forbidden city, that's what it looked like. 

Then.... we were taken to lunch, in a booby trap Jade Factory! The lunch was mediocre, and the jade sculptures were interesting.  We bought a few souvenirs here, but ended up spending more time here than at the wall and tombs put together! (this is why you need to skip the tour guide, I think she got commission off their sales)  David told he me he has never been on a tour in Asia that doesn't end in some sort of factory. 

After this, we asked the driver to drop us off at the Silk Factory. This were all the Americans get attacked by crazy Chinese ladies wanting your money! It was a fun place to shop around with all sort of different things to buy - electronics, clothing, toys, jewelry.... and it's fairly easy to talk them way down in their prices.  But they are brutal and I left feeling such an animosity for those people because they just won't leave you alone! I didn't even want to stop and look at most things because the ladies were ruthless. One lady even had David pinned by the leg in her booth trying to talk him into buying something he really didn't want. Oh, the experience! 

I was completely exhausted after this day - I was grateful the next day was Sunday.