The Great Wall of China

Let's all be honest here, today was the entire reason we came to China, to see the Great Wall of China.  The Great Wall did not disappoint, if anything it left me more in awe after I left.  Our tour had us on the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.  I had done some research before we came and it is said that the Mutianyu section is the most child friendly section to do with kids.  We started the tour by going up just a few stairs to wait in line to ride the ski lift up to the wall.

They only allow three people per ski lift, so Kevin went with Monster and I went with Little A.  Little Monster was cold and so very mad, so he screamed the entire ride up to the wall.  

We got off the ski lift and turned right, to start walking the wall to the right of the ski lift.  We could see tower after tower in the distance going in both directions.  The wall was longer and larger then I had ever even imagined, this section alone is a little over 7,300 feet long.  We learned that this section of the wall was originally built in the mid-6th century and then during the Ming Dynasty, construction of the present wall began and was built over the previous wall.  In 1569, it was rebuilt and until today most of the parts are still preserved.  This section of the wall is the best quality among all the sections of the Great Wall.  It really did look pretty.

As we walked the stairs, the kids were excited to be on the Great Wall of China, and we were lucky that they didn't complain.  I am so glad we did this with friends, because it was walking with friends that kept the kids going. I learned that this section of the wall is about 15 feet wide.  It was definitely wider then I was expecting to see.  Kevin and I had talked about wanting to do the Great Wall of China Marathon, and after seeing the wall and walking on it, I am glad we never did that marathon, it would have been awful.

As we passed the first tower, tower number 5, we noticed they had a little rooms in the tower.  The doors were a gorgeous wood door which were not original doors, but it was still cool to see them. We were not allowed in all the rooms, but we were able to walk through the towers.  This section of the wall has the most watchtowers then any other section of the wall.  In all, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall has 22 watch towers.

We came to our first large watchtower, the Zhengguan Tai, which is Tower 4 and we walked all the way to the top to the tower lookout.  The view was spectacular.  The sky was a little hazy, so we couldn't see super clear, but we could tell that the wall just keeps going through the mountains.  It made all of us reflect on the lives of those that had to built this treacherous wall.  They were up in the mountains in the cold, walking by foot and having to fight hunger, thirst and the elements.  Many died, and were just buried straight into the walls. It was humbling and sacred to be walking on these walls. More then 90% of this area of the wall is forest and wild.

Kevin was ready to turn around and call it a day, but I wanted to go as far as possible.  I was super happy when Jason and Brianne Walker said they were going to go as far as this wall allows, which is three more towers.  Since I said I wanted to go, and all the girls also wanted to continue, Kevin consented to join us.  It was after this first tower that the stairs started to get super crazy steep.  At some points I made Little A scoot down on her bum.

We were not allowed to bring the hiking backpack, so Kevin and I took turns holding Monster or holding his hand while he walked.  We played a stair game where we would call the super huge deep stairs 'daddy stairs', the medium steep stairs 'mommy stairs' and the little stairs that were super close 'monster stairs'.  When there were tiny stairs we would let Monster walk by himself and hold our hands, but when they were daddy stairs we had to hold him.  This helped him get super excited about the stairs, especially when they were his size and we let him walk on his own.

The views out of the Great Wall were spectacular.  They had these little dips in the wall where you could look out over the mountains. These dips are called crenellated parapets and they are on both the outer and inner parts of the wall for this section.  We learned that this is very rare feature for the Great Wall, and served the purpose of being able to fire shots at the enemy on both sides.  There were some gorgeous Cherry Trees in bloom and flowers and many wild vegetation all around.  The wall added charm to the landscape.  It was almost as if they had become one over time.

We passed two more towers and finally made it to the last tower open to the public on the Mutianyu Wall, the Dajiao Building, or Tower 1.  The top part of the tower was closed, preventing anyone from going further down the wall.  When you looked out the window, you could see that the wall continued going as far as the eye could see.  We took time to rest our sore legs, and eat a snack. The kids were playing hand clapping and chanting games and just sitting and sharing snacks.  They were still in great spirits and happy to be on this historical wall.

After gaining energy, we started our way back to the ski lift.  We still took our time and enjoyed every aspect of the Wall.  There wasn't anything that didn't seem enchanting about it.

We noticed that there were sections of the wall near the towers that opened up to the ground.  This was where the China army would have access to the wall.  Most of the areas were roped off and had signs indicating not to enter.  We found one outside access that was not blocked off (so much) off the Zhengguan Tai and made our way to the outside of the wall.  We all had spent the last few hours walking on the wall, and we wanted to see the wall in all its glory and grandeur. We laid our bags next to the no trespassing sign, and stepped just a few steps to the right to get a picture next to the wall.  It was so much taller then I had imagined at about 26 feet high.

We finished walking the last of the wall and made it to the ski lift.  For our tour, we were excited to book the toboggan ride down the mountain.  All the tour guides were very much against us doing the toboggan and we were asked multiple times if we were sure we wanted to do it, of course we were!  All of us, and especially all the kids were looking forward to the toboggan ride down the Great Wall of China mountain!  The toboggan ride did not disappoint, we all had such a thrill going down the mountain.  Children under 8 years old are required to ride with a parent, so Monster rode with me and Little A rode with Kevin.  Monster was so adorable while we were going down, he kept whooping and yelling with joy.  He also kept grabbing the speed stick and trying to push it to make the toboggan go faster.  He had the time of his life, and I did too just watching him.