The Great Wall

Here we are at The Wall itself (well, here the guys are; I didn't make it into any pictures yet). Peter and Nate:

Nate and Drew, with The Wall stretching out below them:


The section we went to is a little less touristy, mainly becuase it's a pretty tough climb, as you can kind of see from the pictures. Parts of it reminded me of Cirith Ungol, with the ancient, broken, stone steps going almost straight up, with hundreds of feet of empty air below you if you fall. It's really amazing how the wall is built along these knife-edge hilltops, winding away into the distance as far as you can see. Also interesting was how low the wall is -- in some places no more than 4-6 ft. high. Which is why it didn't really keep out the Mongol Hordes. Apparently its main benefit to the Chinese was as a reliable road for commerce and communication, rather than as a system of defence.