Day 3: The Great Wall (2 of 3 posts)

Today was definitely an adventure at the Great Wall of China! The cool thing was that we took a chair lift up to the wall which gave us a bird's eye view of the valley. I was not sure how I would do with this, but it wasn't really that bad. The Rock had planned on video recording it, but realized half way up the mountain that his battery was almost dead so we had to settle for pictures today. When we got to the wall we were amazed by the structure, the history and the amount of stairs that were on the wall.

As we went from one tower to another there were many slopes, hills and stairs. When I say stairs, I mean steps that may be two inches at one point then up to two feet at other points. We were able to climb to the top of one of the towers and look down the side of the wall. It is amazing that this was built by many men without machines in the 15th century. It was built to protect their capital, Beijing, from invaders and it is huge!

We did the Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall, which includes 22 total watchtowers. We did four of these watchtowers, but they are over 150 yards apart with a lot of steps. Halfway through our trek I realized that they did not include "Toilets" on the Great Wall and we had to find one. This was my first, and hopefully last, experience with the "Squatty Toilet" (picture below). We had to go down the wall at a farther location to find a restroom and then back up to the wall. My legs and knees were tired, and then I stepped in a hole. Down I went on my knee and twisted my ankle. I realized that a klutz like me probably did not need to do a bunch of the watchtowers and four of them was good :) After spending a couple hours trekking the wall we were able to come down the mountains on toboggan. That was really fun since I was able to control this little car down a half pipe all the way down. However, I kept being worried that I would go off the track or rear ended by my husband that drives really fast. We made it down safely though!

Once we got down we decided to shop a little from the townspeople who set up stalls at the beginning of the wall. I was going to leave the bartering to The Rock, but realized after we paid way to much for a souvenir that I should have done what my momma taught me, shop around and then buy. These sellers would write down the price of the item in Yuan, Chinese Currency, and then we would come back at a lower price while trying to do the math in our head. The first item we bought The Rock should have bartered a lot lower and then walked away when she said no. I learned from this experience and when I find a Cherry Blossom dress for our Cherry Blossom I knew I was not going to pay more then $10 dollars for it. The first price she gave me was 280 yuan, or roughly $48. There was no way I was paying that much so I said my price ($10), said no when she kept going down from her original price, but not enough and then walked away. She chased me down, I got my way and even bought another one in a different size. I only paid $8 or $9 each and saved $40 each. These sellers should have known that they are dealing with the Coupon Queen and I like to save money! From now on, it looks like I will be doing the bartering instead of The Rock :)

There are many pictures below. We both took many more, but I'm realizing that tomorrow is Gotcha Day and I really need to get Cherry Blossom's things together for in the morning.