Great Wall

The Great Wall was the most thrilling and not to mention exhausting experiences of my entire life. First, we woke up from camping in a valley below the wall. DSA provided us with new tents, sleeping bags and sleeping pads. It was as if we had our own town!

Upon waking up, we packed up camp and sent everything down in the "buick." We ate and Ping (our chinese mother) took us through some really fun chinese stretches. Sean pointed at the mountain we were going to hike on and our initial reaction was "what?!" but we made it to the top! Our first glimpse from the tower was compete shock. We were surrounded by brush covered mountains that stretched for miles. First tower down, 39 to go!

We hiked for a good 2 hours till we got to a section where the military blocked us from continuing. Uh oh! So we climbed down the wall and started hiking through the brush and forest. It was a good thing I wore pants because I did not know what I had coming. We hiked up and down, through brush, corn, trees, rocks, cliffs and thorns.

When we finally got to the wall we had already been hiking for about 5 hours! I had never been so challenged! At this point we were so ready to get back on, but there was only one way, up. We scaled the wall only holding onto the bricks! It was so intense!

The last part of the hike was mostly up and down the wall, it seemed like we were rock climbing, but compared to the rest of the morning it seemed like a piece of cake. Finally we had reached the tourist area! We were almost kissing the ground as we got off, but looking back it was all worth it. I chucked my 7 empty water bottles in the trash and we headed straight for food. Although it was a rough morning, I would do it again in a heart beat. As the chinese say, "One is not a hero until he climbs the Great Wall."

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