It's definitely great. I had so much fun today. I got up at seven to pack a lunch and then the buses (it was a school planned trip) left at 8:30. It takes about an hour to get to the Mutianyu section. I ran up many of the stairs that you need to climb to get to the wall, and then made my way through the trees along the base of the wall where there are fewer people. but I did run into a donkey.
I expected the wall to be much less fun. I thought there would be maybe a quarter mile that we would take pictures next to and then leave. But it was much longer! And I spent 3 hours running/walking/climbing stairs across it. After walking up the mountain I entered at the middle of the section, went to one end and then turned around and ran/walked/climbed stairs to the other side. Really fun. The amount of stairs is pretty visually shocking, like when cartoon characters are confronted with long staircases. You also get a little bit of vertigo when all you see is stairs. But falling on Great Wall stairs would have serious consequences, so I'm glad I didn't fall.
One photo is of the pleasant path right along the base of the wall. Another shows the view of the whole section of the wall that we were allowed to walk on. If you look to the upper left there are some fuzzy characters written in the side of the mountain. If you go right you see where the wall drops down. It goes slightly left and then where it turns slightly right is the first end that I climbed to. I was standing on the other end when I took the photo. And when you look out you can see it snaking along the mountains for many more miles. The other photo shows you how steep it is, it seems funny to me that they still laid the bricks parallel to the ground, but it is certainly prettier and snakier that way.
I also used the day to christen my Camelbak that I received for my birthday from WIllIe (THANK YOU BROTHER). I still used bottles of water but it was an excellent backpack for leaping along THE GREAT WALL and I think we'll go far together.
So it was a really good day and the Great Wall is genuinely great. I'd love to see it in winter when there's snow everywhere and fewer people.
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