The Great Wall

Okay, finally made it out to the great wall today. I opted for the hiking option, rather than the cable-car one. I suffered for it.

Turns out I am grossly out of shape, and the altitude is pretty mean, and the day was humid. Many thousands of stairs lay between us and the top, at a pretty steep clip. Based on the signs, I think our vertical ascent was close to half a kilometer. My legs burned, and there were many periods of rest. But we made it to the top!
Drenched in Sweat
Catching My Breath

A few more steps, and we were inside the defensive structure of the wall, ready to fend off Mongolians/Manchus/Japanese.
No Mongols Coming Through on My Watch
"Okay, Still Tired, Take Another Picture"

The rest of the morning-and-early-afternoon consisted of hiking up and down the great wall, checking out some of the defensive architecture, talking about restorations, etc. Very interesting stuff. There is not too much story to tell, so I will explain pictures from here on in. One of my favorite photos (giving me a brief sense of "Good gravy, I'm actually here").
Hand-Made in China

More good views of the great wall:
It Got Brighter

Another one of my favorite shots:
Many Tourists with Many Languages

We noticed the wall really went long distances to assure that it was on local maxima of the mountainrange, maximizing irritation for invading armies without any consideration of cost:
Very Irritating Indeed

The valleys ran deep, covered with foliage even at the time of construction, at least on the "enemy" side--assaulting this thing would have been a challenge.
"Why Don't We Go Around?"

You'll notice two holes here: one for arrows, one for oil/refuse/rubble, whatever you're dropping on scaling enemy soldiers. Very European-style defense. I don't have much in the way of arch pictures, but the defense tower interior very closely resembles Roman Empire architecture:
"We're Out of Oil, Sir!"
"Then Throw Down the Souveniers!"

Here's one of the best examples of a defense tower. They were very 150 meters or so.
Leaning a Bit to Get This Shot

We ran into a single canon--very small, and not terribly well-constructed. No good way to know just how long before the advent artillery this was put in place, but it doesn't seem as impressive as many European designs, particularly given that it's stationary... But the whole construct is a bit confusing; there is clearly concrete renovation for this, but it looks like the concrete is holding the canon in place--what held it in place before that?
This is Not an Excuse to Photograph Rear Ends

On our way back down, a deslightful sight: Beasts of Burden!
Donkey!

And with that, we trotted out--going down seemed so much easier than going up, except that I almost slipped to my death. After sweating, drinking, and then sweating all of the water in my body and my backpack, everything felt a fair bit lighter, too. Left with a bit of a headache from the strain, but got back, got some grapefruit juice in me, and was ready to go.

Tomorrow: Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War Museum (as my mother said: "No political correctness necessary"), which is the name of the war the stuck during the propaganda campaigns of the 1930's, and maybe even some Chinese Acrobatics (I have seen enough Peking Opera on TV that Acrobatics is currently more exciting to dish out the big money for).