Sista in Tianjin 2: Great Wall aka Emperor Chen should have his ass beat

OK, I’m a little behind.  What can I say.  Learning Chinese has been kicking my tail.  In fact, I even have a test tomorrow…..and then I’m off for a blessed break in Qingdao --- yes, the place that’s home of the famous beer.  At any rate, here has been the last week’s activities……

Class.  Class.  Class.  Class.  Beijing.  Beijing was CRAZY!  I loved every minute of it.  Incredible doesn’t begin to explain it.  First thing we did was visit the Ming Tombs.  Incredible!!!  Especially the entrance to the tombs…..talk about living AND dying like a king. 

You climbed this huge hill to go down into the tombs.  It was really hot that day, but all of sudden once you entered the entrance to the tombs, headed downstairs, you could feel a cool breeze.  It felt nice, though the number of steps we went down had me concerned about what the stair climbing up would be like.  I’m sure we went about 7 to 9 flights down.  Thankfully, it was a much shorter climb up out of the tombs. 

In the between time, we saw the tomb of both the emperor AND the two wives.  The view once we left was just about incredible.

But that view and the climb up to the tomb had nothing on our next visit.  The Great Wall. 

Of course the real excitement was when I got to The Great Wall.  There is not a picture in the world that could possibly explain the vastness that is the Great Wall.  I don’t know what I thought it was going to be, but all I can say is MY GOD --- The wonder that is man.  On the way there, we could see parts of the wall jutting out on places on the mountaintop that seem to go no where.  I’m not even sure why they even bothered to put a wall there except to give you place to look over.

 (Now why would you do something like this?)

But the real challenge was walking the wall.  The tour guide told us that Mao Tse Tong stated that anybody who climbed that wall came back down a super hero.  All I can say is that I could only get side-kick status.  That wall was no joke.  FIRST of all, the wall is on a mountain…which means you have to walk up a little bit of hill just to get to the base of the wall.  Then you could go in two directions.  Left for the steep side and Right for the longer, but less steep side.  LMAO.  I really want to know their definition of what constitutes steep --- cause the right side was on the straight ridiculous side. 

(starting up the wall and thinking...If I can only make it to the top.....superhero status.  The other line you see on the right going to the top is another pathway.  The path I take actually is the one that goes up and then turns left, and then right, up to the top)

(First and second photos from part way to the top.  In the second photo, I have come from the open square on the lower left side , in front of the short building if you can see it.  The part of the wall you see starting to move upward is the dividing point between the path headed toward the steep, longer side and the steeper side of the wall.)

 I have climbed some major hills, but unless you mountain climb ---- you aint ready…. I don’t even want to know what the steep side is.  I can only assume there has to be some rope involved.

Anyway, I started up this massive wall.  Took my time.  Didn’t rush.  No that aint right…..I COULDN’T rush.  That wall was so steep in many places, the steps looked liked they simply went up as a 90 degree angle.  The whole time I climbed that wall, all I could think was…..who the hell is going to climb this mountain to get anybody that bad.  Because if you manage to climb over it, you deserve to rule over all of China.   I mean WHY did you really need a wall here?  I mean, just how many people were climbing the mountain to come get you…..I mean really? 

Second, I could truly understand how so many people died building this wall.  Just climbing it was crazy….building it must have been purely insane.  Excuse the language, but to put it plain…..Emperor Chen needs to have his ass whipped for building this wall.  I wanted to hit him in the face just for having to walk up this thing, let alone build it.  There’s a line in hell to slap the first emperor of China in the face, and after that walk I am truly prepared to detour from heaven long enough to stand in that line and get my slap in.   After which, I will be in the line for Eve --- but that’s another story. 

As I climbed the wall, I could think is “as long as you see the top you can make it.  As long as you see the top you can make it.”  And I did make it to the top.  What I didn’t know is that the reason it looked like the top, was that the wall dipped down and then back up.  In other words, what I thought was the top was only a little less than half the way.  I thought, “I wonder if I cry will people stop and point.”

(A view from what I thought was the top.  I came from the open square you can see below towards the middle part of the photograph)

Anyway, believe it or not, I made it all the way to the half way point on the way to the fourth tower  (the top is the sixth tower).  We unfortunately had a limited time so I could not take a break and continue forward.  Besides that, my legs began to get wobbly by the third tower and all I could think was….”Can they medi-vac me off this wall, cause aint no ambulance people coming up this wall to get me”. 

Anyway, I managed to get a nice pink t-shirt with a picture of the length of the Great Wall, that said “I climbed the Great Wall”…. Although it probably should have an arrow pointing to some part of the wall and have a line that says, “I got about right here, before I finally said F#$% it!”

After that, we paid a quick visit to the Olympic Village, the Bird’s Next,

and the “Cube” (where they had Olympic swimming).  It was fun!!  

(Called the dragon, this is where many people stayed, including the very wealthy.  The left is the dragon tail, and the front is the head)

Anyway, that ended day 1!  I will get back to you soon on day 2 of last week!!

Fu Shan Ni