The Longest Wall in the World!!!

14.02.2008

Lots of information to catch you up on today! We decided to spend yesterday touring around the city and markets, tasting the local street fare and basically just watching how the city runs. We enlisted the services of a local rickshaw to usher us around Beijing. It was a great way to see all the different parts of the city! We just got back from seeing the most amazing site we have seen so far, the Great Wall. We visited the Badaling section of the Wall, located just an hours drive north from Beijing. The Wall was originally a fortification to protect China from the intrusion of northern nomadic tribes and stretches over 6500 kilometers (1). It was huge! With our admission of 45 yuan (2), we were able to walk along the Wall, along with a large number of other tourists. The most popular way tourists see the Great Wall is in large groups as a part of tour, so it was crowded. The Great Wall took hundreds of years to complete and an estimated 3 million Chinese workers died during its construction and it is rumored some of their bodies were buried within the Wall. It was creepy knowing what we may be walking on, but it made standing on the Wall even more exciting. It was recently named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, which makes sense, because we all agreed it was one of the most amazing sights we had ever seen. It was amazing to stand on such an enormous and historic site, It had definitely been one of the highlights of the trip! Tomorrow we’re headed for Xian, so we’ll write more then!

The Great Wall of China
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