Great Wall of China

Yesterday, we fulfilled a lifelong goal... to go to the Great Wall. It was just fantastic! Instead of going where most tour buses go, we went to another section, from Simatai to Jinshanling. We hiked 10km along the Wall and there was hardly anyone else there! I think it was a combination of its remoteness and the chilly below freezing weather. We just loved it. Not easy walking all the time, but that made it an adventure! We really felt like a traveler instead of a tourist. It made it even more special to know that Grandma and Grandpa, Laura and Julie had already been there. Pretty cool, I'd say.

There were some local villagers that joined us along the walk. We weren’t quite sure who they were or what they were doing for a bit, but then we figured out that they were going to try to sell us something at the end. We didn’t really mind, though, because they were great tour guides, friendly, and spoke some English. We learned stuff about the Wall that we wouldn’t have known without their help. They also helped take pictures so Mike and I were actually in the same picture instead of how it normally is (Mike takes a picture of me and I take a picture of him). At the end of our journey with the villagers, we ended up with some chopsticks and a book about the Great Wall (I wish I got the T-shirt instead…).

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring Flat Stanley, so to make up for it, we spent the rest of the time taking pictures of iconic places in Beijing with Flat Stanley. We were really kicking ourselves for that.

So we finished up crossing a swinging bridge (we seem to do that quite often in our travels- crossing a swinging bridge that is), and headed down to the town of Jinshanling. We passed a reservoir that was largely frozen, and upon closer inspection, we saw a man fishing on the ice right near some open water. When he was done for the day, he got on his motorcycle and rode ON THE ICE back to town! Yeah, we got it on video.