The Great Wall of China

Don’t you love finding cheap airfare for the upcoming weekend that just so happens to be free of any plans?  Now that I have all of SE Asia at my fingertips for low cost plane travel I find that when I am bored I don’t surf YouTube, but airline websites.  On such occasion, I found cheap tickets to Beijing for the upcoming weekend and decided on a whim to buy them and go see the Great Wall. 

After a three hour plane ride, an hour cab ride to the hostel and a good night’s sleep Elise and I woke up at 5:30am to meet the driver who was taking us the two hours to the Wall.  Upon recommendation we decided to get to the Wall right when it opened so we would be the first and only people up there.  We made good time to the Wall and were indeed the first people in line to get aboard the cable cars that take you to the top.  A wave of excitement went through my body as I spotted the Wall trailing the mountain ridge in the distance.  A surreal feeling crept over me as I anticipated climbing this historic and famous piece of Chinese culture. 

You know the quiet you hear after it snows?  Atop the Great Wall the sound was deafening.  I looked around at the Wall covered with a fresh blanket of snow and felt so at peace and calm.  That lasted about two seconds and then I was jumping for joy because I was standing on the Great Wall of China!!!  How had I gotten here?  If you would have asked me a year ago if I thought I would ever come to China and go to the Great Wall I would have said no way, but here I was doing that very thing. 

We hiked the Wall with no interruptions for an hour and then the crowds started to arrive.  We ended up hiking for three hours and then headed back to the car with plans to come again in the spring and hike for an entire day.  The rest of our stay in Beijing was filled with seeing the Forbidden City, the Olympic Park and walking around, but nothing compared to the Great Wall.  The mixed feelings of excitement and tranquility of being on the Great Wall is one that I will cherish forever and look back upon as something that brought so much joy and fulfillment to my life.