China’s Great Wall was pictured in the early elementary school readers as one of the wonders of the world. Who could believe, as a child, that actually visiting the Great Wall would ever become a reality? An outstanding Grand Circle tour of China in 2002 fulfilled that dream. We wanted to tour China before the dam was completed filling the Yangtze River Gorge with water. The wall and the gorge were both spectacular, two events separated by a couple of thousand years. This visit was to the Badaling section of the wall about an hour out of Beijing. What do you do on the wall? You walk up and down, take your pictures, and shop before and after walking the wall. What else??
Then you visit Beijing Square, the Forbidden City, the Spring Palace, and the Hutong section of Beijing near the Bell Tower. Any questions?
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- First view
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- Picture two
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- WWII veterans: Nurse and PT
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- Shop first!!
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- Walk the wall
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- Wall on the other side
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- Wall walkers
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- Joints in the wall
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- Walkers, walls, and joints
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- Merchants along the wall
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- Merchant lady: She won!
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- Through the joints
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- View through the joints
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- Wall between the joints
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- Trudging up the wall
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- Walls across the valley
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- Up or down a steep wall
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- View from a joint
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- Down a steep wall with a hairpin curve
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- Shopping after the wall walk
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- Wall history in the wall