The greatest wall there ever was

The highlight of our trip was our visit to The Great Wall.  Most of my Great Wall knowledge came from Mulan and I think Disney accurately captured the majesty.

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headed to the Badaling section of the great wall.  It is (apparently) the most visited section of the great wall, built in 1505 during the Ming Dynasty.

The great wall actually “ended” for us pedestrians, so we turned back around.  At this point, we were the first group of people to head back.  We were on a time crunch but we thought we could make it up the flat section as well.  I’m not competitive at all…  So we took a quick shot at the end of the steep section, throwing down a few Japanese peace signs, and headed back.

On the way back down, Nick decided to slide down the railing.  I rolled my eyes.  Then we saw another guy doing it and Nick points at that guy and gives the gesture like, “see, everyone’s doing it.”

We then headed up the other “flat” section.  Lies I tell you!  Perhaps it was because we had already climbed the other side.  But this side felt equally steep and a little bit longer.  And because we were in a bit of a hurry, I started skipping stairs, taking names, you know the drill.

BUT the views were amazing, thanks to the sunset.  I took advantage.  I could have jumped higher had I not been wearing about 8 articles of clothing.  I just want to put that out there.

And the money shot.

So…..yeah.  Even though I may get emphysema from breathing the air in Beijing, the Great Wall is one of the coolest things I’ve seen thus far.  In my life.  It should be on everyone’s list.  It’s awesome.