1/6/12 TJ and Jennifer: Great Wall of China

Getting ready to hike the Great Wall of China

Amazing, jaw-dropping, astonishing, break taking, challenging, scenic, once in a lifetime, top of the world, reaching for the sky, accomplishment, tired, exhausting, incredible, fuzzy, eye opening, impressive, rocky, intensive, profound, life changing, awe inspiring, majestic, beautiful, artistic, bitchy.

These are some adjectives that many of our group members expressed during our trip to the Great Wall of China.  As with many of the other wonders this world has to offer, the Great Wall is one that cannot be easily described.  To say that we walked the wall doesn’t really describe what happened but instead it should be described as surviving the wall!  Beforehand many of us thought that we would be casually strolling atop a well-paved expanse of wall, but instead, we were laboriously rock climbing up hundreds of steps and towers.  The height and steepness of the steps made it seem as though we were climbing a ladder instead of climbing a set of stairs.

In many places we were walking more on the ruins of what was once meticulously placed stones that through the ages have worn away to pebbles.  I know that many of us felt as though our life was potentially on the line because of how slim the steps were with literally nothing to stop us from falling to our doom.  With approximately 5 miles of a true up and down climb, we were all very pleased with how much we had accomplished.  

The descent from the wall left every one of us with very shaky legs but with the feeling of pure joy from seeing one of the coolest and most beautiful wonders of the world.  To say the least the adjectives listed above give us a very true and interesting view of what those of us on this trip felt about our time surviving the wall and braving this great adventure together.

Surprisingly the adjectives above describe the other thing we did today which was going to see an acrobatic show.  Afterward we talked with our guide, “little” Aaron, and he told us that the people in the show were generally around 15-18 years old,  making all of us wonder what we’ve accomplished in our lives thus far…

There were many strangely impressive stunts that as Americans we were rather surprised that they did.  Those stunts included balanced cup flipping, jar juggling with feet, diablos, and kicker straw hat juggling.  In every one of these stunts the acrobats would be jumping up on each others shoulders and still be able to keep doing the tricks.

Peking Duck for dinner! 

Seriously, the coolest part of the show however, involved motorcycles (yes, the plural version) inside a giant metal cage ball.  We got to see 4 people ride in every direction honking the horns like crazy.  Little Aaron told us that the most they normally do is 5 but the world record is a total of 8!

To conclude activities for the day we went out to a fantastic restaurant and continued to discover just how delicious the food in China can be.  Today we saw two great feats produced by mankind – one new and one very old – and each and every one of us experience the sort of magic that such an old and rich culture can provide.  We look forward to the many more adventures to come on our Olympic Quest.






- TJ and Jennifer

More photos:

Dylan & Erik posing on the Great Wall

Here’s Ali with her personal escort. These women hiked most of the Wall with us and held our hands when the climb got tough or held our jackets when we overheated. In exchange, they hoped you would buy a book or T-shirt from them when we finished.