Great Wall

The first time I went to Great Wall is 8 years ago, when I was a freshman in college in Beijing. I went there with my boyfriednd who is my hasband now. So in my memory, Great Wall is such a romantic place.

Beware the locals trying to sell their tourist stuff. They’ll follow you up and along the whole stretch of the wall and expect you to buy something – or pay-up anyway.

To see the great wall and walk along..
The scenery would be mesmerizing to say the very least…

I want to see it as I’ve never seen it before, take good pictures of landscape and have fun in general as a treat!

Badaling (sp?) is the refurbished part of the wall that they trot the tourists out to. Nixon was here. It’s cute and antiseptic and you can buy an orange soda on the ramparts.

Simatai is much better. The walls are crumbling and the views of Mongolia are great; hundreds of feet up and there’s no guard rail… which is fun but bring boots with traction because the stairs have gotten slick after thousands of years of human feet smoothing them out. Oh, and don’t talk or make eye contact with locals selling postcards unless you plan to buy. They will follow you for MILES, undaunted by your “no thank yous.” The best part is the lift that takes you down from the height of the wall to the waystation in the valley below. The thing is creaky and rickety and definitely could induce the weaker among you to poop your pants.

Go!

It was impressive because it was so long. But actually it didn’t give me that feeling of awe. It had graffiti all over. Not spray paint – markings etched in the stone with knives. And it was tiring to walk up and down te steps. Probably it would be dangerous to climb the wall if it were wet. And it smells like urine. The bathrooms at the entrance…you have to pay, they’re squat toilets, and there’s no toilet paper.

How the hell will all those Westerners handle it when they come for the 2008 Olympics? No doubt many of them will go see the Great wall while they’re visiting Beijing.

Still worth going to. I saw it once and I’m never going beck again.