长城 - The Great Wall

On July 3rd, PiB took us to the famous Great Wall of China 长城. The portion we visited (JinShanLing 金山岭)was absolutely stunning. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but here's a few thoughts:

- 长城 is truly 长. After hiking for 2 hours in 100+ degree weather, I realized that I had only hiked past maybe 15-20 towers, the great wall probably has hundreds or even thousands of said towers.
- Building the Great Wall must have been tough ... but not nearly as tough as PiB
- When you visit the wall, the Chinese say you are about to 爬长城, which translated to English means to climb the Great Wall. 爬 (Climb) was a well chosen verb.

The best part about the Great Wall was meeting a particularly interesting woman who tried to sell all sorts of trinkets to us. While helping my friends haggle by commenting on the crappy quality or saying how we could get it cheaper by the parking lot, the lady began to furiously yell at me in Chinese. I believe she said it's cheap people like me who deprive her of well-deserved money. I laughed it off saying I was equally poor as I am a college student.

After my friends bought a few things off this lady (at cheap prices after haggling!), we proceeded to hike a few more minutes, then turned around, exhausted after a long, hot day of climbing the wall. When we encountered the same lady, her mood seemed to have taken a 180 degree turn. She was very nice to us, and even offered to show us a shortcut down to the base of the wall. We soon befriended this lady, exchanging life stories, and buying even more souvenirs at very cheap prices.

Assorted Pictures:

Breathtaking View of the Great Wall

I fail at jumping.

Map of the Jin Shan Ling Portion of the Great Wall

I believe this statue commemorate the emperor who thought up the idea of building the wall.

New Friend - Trinket selling lady/farmer

Learning Chinese is becoming progressively harder, and I believe I am slowly slipping down the curve that Kelly and Erica (Light Fellowship coordinators) referred to during pre-departure. It's a little frustrating, but no big deal.

Dumpling count: 78