"The Wall is overrated, I (Scuba) have 4 in my room"

Today(July 12) was an incredible day of sightseeing with the BOC. We got up bright and early to head out to the Great Wall and looked out our bedroom window in complete awe. Today was the first sunny day we have had since arriving and it could not have come on a better day. As China’s biggest landmark, literally and figuratively, it was only natural that this was most desired place to visit. And I felt as though it was nothing short of incredible, thanks to perfect(although hot of course) weather. When we arrived, aside from the length of wall winding up and down all of the mountains, the most obvious feature was the Starbucks coffee shop at the base. I found this to be a bit ridiculous but got a good chuckle out of it.

Walking along the wall turned out to be much more difficult than I expected for a couple of reasons. To start, the wall is broken up into tourist sections that the public is allowed to walk on. The location we visited was also visited by the Mexican president today. So just for him, half of this section was blocked off making the open half twice as crowded as it typically would be. To make matters worse, increased crowds also means an increase in umbrellas since they are used for shade by nearly every Chinese woman over the age of 25.

The first stretch of 200 yards or so of the wall was one massive bottleneck. Once the crowds opened a bit, we were finally able to enjoy the treacherous hike. Reaching the peak of this section of the wall was incredibly satisfying as I stood there drenched in sweat and feeling as though my calves were on fire while I gazed over the miles upon miles of landscape and the Great Wall running about the hillsides. Our entire group eventually made it to the end and convened for pictures and such. At the time I was so exhausted it was difficult to take it all in, but feeling like I was on top of the world (or at least China) with the rest of the group will be a long-lasting memory. We then enjoyed the long, but satisfying, walk down to the bottom, and although I am definitely not someone to wish pain upon any person, it made me somewhat happy to see people struggling up the wall as I had.