March 22, 2019

Writing this on my couch – on a sunny day in California, while thinking back to the cold, wind, and all of the stairs is a funny juxtaposition to our day at the Great Wall.

The big item on our to-do list today was to see the Great Wall. For those of you who have asked what we will tackle since we completed all 50 states – we are chasing the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

They are:

Great Wall of China (Check!)

Christ the Redeemer Statue (Rio de Janeiro)

Machu Picchu (Peru)

Chichen Itza (Check!)

Roman Colosseum (Rome – September 2019)

Taj Mahal (India)

Petra (Jordan)

We’ve completed two – and we will see the Colosseum this September when we go to Italy. (Yay!) Naturally, when coming down from a trip I can’t help but start planning future trips. I’m not sure which one we will see after Rome – but more to come with that!

Back to our time at the Great Wall. It’s a quick trip from Beijing – and there are many airport shuttles that will take you directly out there. (So if you have a long connection, don’t rule it out! Another couple in our group that stayed in Thailand made the trip in the morning before they flew out in the afternoon with us).

Construction of the Great Wall began in 200 B.C. And was not finished until 1640. WOW! Only small sections have been renovated for tourists – and many sections are considered “wild.” Journey showed us pictures of the portions that hadn’t been fixed up – and the bricks were broken and the walls had fallen down. This section was beautiful – and truly gives you a small grasp on how long the wall truly is.

It was windy. And cold. But beautiful and absolutely AMAZING!

How thick the wall is.A view from the South Side – you are able to see the entrance area below.

A view of the North Wall.

We had two hours to walk around – we walked a short distance on the North Side and then walked a little further on the South Side because Journey advised us that the South Side was less crowded. We would have walked further if it hadn’t been so windy, but we both could feel wind burn on our faces. (And let’s be honest, I was freezing).

Andy had made the joke about walking the whole wall – but in case you don’t know your history, it’s about 4,000 miles long and the longest man-made structure.

They also called this the longest cemetery on earth – so many people died while building it. It was built to protect the Chinese from invaders from the north.

We did some light shopping after the Great Wall – and had a traditional Chinese lunch. (While included French fries – and I wanted to NOT eat them… but I was really missing potatoes). After lunch we made our way to the Sacred Way to the Ming Tombs. We didn’t visit any of the Tombs – but the Sacred Way is a roadway created in 1435. The roadway is surrounded by animals and different officers and ministers. There are 13 Ming tombs in this complex – ranging from 1368-1644. The belief was that the Emperor would return to heaven through this roadway – and he needed everything in heaven that he had on earth, meaning all of the animals and people.

After the Sacred Way – we had happy hour with Joe and Lorraine. We attempted to find the #1 dumpling restaurant in Beijing (which we thought was just on the other side of our hotel), but it was much further away. We attempted two restaurants in the vicinity – and ended up finding another in the hotel next to our’s. The food was cheap – the wine was not. But it was a great last night on our trip.