10/6 – Xingang – we’re going to the Wall!

Sailing into Xingang early – we’re out on the balcony just watching. This makes the Panama Canal look like the James river! There are so many ships out here waiting to go into port, it’s crazy. And the Pollution! Oh man. There was another huge ship in front of us – and it just disappeared into the Pollution haze. Lovely!

Got organized and headed out to the Princess theater to wait about 2 hours while the Chinese officials mess around with us. Let some people off, stop letting people off, let some more people off, stop letting people off. Sheesh. We’re finally on the bus by 10:30 and worried that we’ll not have enough time at the wall.

Boarded the bus with Murray and Ro – the guide we have is absolutely adorable. Jessie is her “English” name – she speaks better English than we do. Has a very cute way to describe the different things here in China, like the cultural differences, the bathrooms, etc.: TIC – This Is China. Yep – that’s right! So get used to it! She also had a very cute story about a little girl wanting to go to the bathroom and using the word “pee” which her grandmother didn’t like. So she started calling going to the bathroom “singing a song”. It’s a long story, but all day long we called the rest stops – song rooms – or going to sing a song! So, needless to say, the trip went smoothly enough – 3 hour ride there – not so bad with the cute guide.

We start out in the industrial port and the sides of the road are landscaped like crazy. Trees, bushes, all sorts of foliage, not for the Olympics, but to reduce air pollution. At least they are trying something! It was interesting watching the cityscape with all the building (100’s upon 100’s of construction cranes all over the place – and we’re not even close to Beijing!) turn into country and farm land.

Went past a sports complex that was the “institution” for sports athletes or something. It looked like a prison complete with fencing and what looked like a guard’s post. Yep – guess that’s where the athletes train.

Finally began seeing the wall snaking up along the cliffs in the hills – really amazing sight! We pulled into a lot with a huge turret that we walked through to get to the restaurant where we’d have lunch. 10 to a table, family style, food so so – not a lot – it all looked kind of the same. The best part was the broccoli which was very good – everything else – eh. Kind of cold and bland food. Gave us French fries too – nasty cold! We stuffed down what we could in less than ½ hour so we could get the maximum time at the Wall.

Followed our group leader to the entrance and climbed up steep stone steps to the entrance to the wall. It was pretty cool – but only after you walked the whole 4.2 km of this part of the wall section so you could get to the original sections (the yellow stones, not the grey/green stones). It was a hard walk – either   steps, or a brutal incline. But we were rewarded with great views across the tops of the hills and other sections of the wall meandering up and around peaks across the valley. The Wall is an amazing feat of engineering – or at least construction. To think that this wall (at least the original sections) were built by hand so many years ago and for such a long distance. The whole experience would probably have been better if there weren’t vendors everywhere trying to sell you t-shirts, Wall junk or coke/beer. But – it’s not protected like Machu Picchu, so you have to kind of tune that all out and just concentrate on the Wall itself.

 

Of course, you also have to wonder how they get all that stuff up there too! Just walking up to the top of the this section slayed us – how do these people haul all their junk up there? There are horses at the top (that of course you can pay to ride down – not!), so maybe they’re used to get the stuff up there. It was a beautiful day, with lots of picture opp’s – so we took advantage of our 1 ½ hours up there and enjoyed the view, the exercise and the whole idea that we were actually walking on THE Wall. Too cool!

 

 

Back on the bus – a little nap, a rest stop (I’m getting good at Eastern toilets), spending yuan on  dumb snacks – and we’re back at the ship before we know it. Shower, dinner and then to bed – we’re zonked on all that fresh air (in the country) and the walk/climb/crawl on the Wall.