My Dream ~ Walking The Great Wall

It was my dream of walking The Great Wall that brought us to China ~ Andy decided he could make my dream come true.  It was quite a thrill and a highlight of the trip!

This was our first glimpse of the Wall...
The weather started out cloudy and hazy but by the time we made it up to the first peak the skies were blue and beautiful.

As you can see, many come to see the wall...most were Chinese.  We didn't run into any other Americans, just a few Germans and a couple of Brits.  The Wall has been opened to foreigners since the 1970's.  About 10,000,000 have visited every year since then.
One group tried to strike up a conversation, but it just couldn't work beyond saying hello.  One of the ladies signaled she wanted to touch my hair!
I stopped to take a picture of two young girls as they were making their way through a bag of treats next to a monument.  Their Mom, Grandmother and other assorted friends and relatives gathered around and wanted pictures of me with the girls. 

Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, started the wall about 2,200 years ago to protect his people from invaders.  About 1500 miles were completed, most of it made with tamped dirt.  None of that is around today.  He died in 210 BC.
The Ming people built the wall we see today.  Ming leaders ruled China for more than 275 and wanted to keep the Mongols out.  Millions of handmade mud bricks make up the wall.  It is often called the Sleeping Dragon because of the long snakelike shape.  It is estimated that 1,000,000 died making the wall and were buried in the trenches along the wall. 
The wall is 4,000 miles long and about 1,000,000 soldiers stood on the tall watchtowers to protect the country.
In 1987 The Great Wall was named a World Heritage Site and will always be preserved and protected

We did a scenic section that is not very crowded.

 

You can get an idea how steep the stairs are...and how worn the stones are close to the sides where millions  have walked up and down, holding the rail.

Enchanting, mysterious, awesome, and breathtaking...

It is not a surprise to me why this was considered one of the world's seven wonders in medieval times!
Neil Armstrong who manned Apollo said the Great Wall is one of the two construction projects on the earth that can be seen clearly from space.  The imposing Great Wall has long been the symbol and soul of China. 

A rich cultural heritage mingles with natural beauty in Changping County, situated  at Juyong Pass.  At some spots there are cableways that whisk tourists up and down the Great Wall.  I was glad that we went to a spot where we had to climb the whole thing. 

There was a ravine hemmed in between two mountains that provides impregnable protection to northwest Beijing.  Walls descent from the top of mountains on both sides of Juyong Pass.  Genghis Khan had once been here during one of his many battles.