Mao Zedong, the longtime former Chairman of the Communist Part of China once said "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man." Thankfully, I can now say that I am able confirm my manhood (and I guess my wife can now confirm her womanhood and my children can confirm their kidhoods).
Since the Great Wall is so, uh, "Great" there are a lot of places you can go to see it, many through organized tours. We chose to tackle it ourselves and visited a 2250 meter-long section at Mutianyu, which is about 90 km northeast of Beijing. It dates back to the Ming Dynasty and parts of it have been refurbished over the years.
These days it has all of the typical tourist traps associated with these types of sites. It is impossible to get to the Great Wall without being hounded and harassed by people hawking water, soft drinks and every type of souvenir available.
The wall is accessible by cable car and former US President Clinton was here a few years back and got to the Great Wall in the car right before the one we got on (it had a big sign on it indicating this fact)!
Once you're at the top, you get fantastic views of the rest of the Wall. This section is unique because it has several watchtowers along it.
There is also a sign right at the beginning that explains the history of the Great Wall and what it stands for today.
One thing that I noticed about this site (and most others throughout China actually), was the lack of graffiti and other traces of vandalism. Sure, there was a little bit here and there, but compared to Florence, those marks were minimal at best.
Another rare feature about this section of the Wall were cannons that were once used to fire at approaching enemies. Luckily for Max, that didn't appear to be in working order anymore.
I think the next series of pictures speaks for itself: It's part of the Great Wall of China and I took them!
No matter where we were on the Wall, we had a spectacular view!
Also, this is one tourist spot that you can actually let your kids run around at!
There are two ways to finally get down the mountain: by chairlift (the kind you would see at a ski resort) and by a wheeled toboggan ride that slides down a metal track (this is another unique thing about Mutianyu). Joanna and Olivia rode the chairlift and the rest of us took the slide. It was actually pretty fun!
When it comes to the Seven Wonders of the World, there are a couple of different lists. The Great Wall of China appears both on the list of Ancient Wonders (along with Stonehenge, the Colosseum, the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, Hagia Sophia and the Leaning Tower of Pisa) and the New Seven Wonders (along with Petra, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum and Taj Mahal) which was just revealed on July 7, 2007. We still have a lot of traveling to do to see them all, but this was a great start!
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