It's hard to show just how Great this Wall is, though we'll try. In the above shot, if you look above the watchtower near the center, you'll see the wall as it runs to the horizon. Unfortunately, the dirty air obscures matters. As usual, we have a link to wikipedia here, though of course there are tons of info available elsewhere. it is estimated that 2-3 million people died while building it and some call it the world's longest cemetary. 

  This is a panorama of 5 pictures and is squeezed horizontally. As you can see, there are actually 2 walls visible, though they are connected about where the picture was taken. The wall runs along the mountaintops to the horizon. Altogether, the wall is 8800km (5000mi) long, though some parts are not in good repair. The really impressive sections, like this one, generally date to the Ming Dynasty.

  This is the part that joins the panorama above. As you can see, it's very steep. We get tired just looking at it, as it was pretty exhausting climbing everywhere. This segment of the wall is never level. We wanted to get away from the throngs of tourists, 99.9% of whom were Chinese, but the effort involved and our lack of time here prevented any decent exploration. We though this would make a great overnight hike. You can see John on the stairs to the right with the red backpack.

Here we see a hiker who hit the wall, literally.

How'd we get up here? By cable car.

  We regret not being able to spend most of the day here. One problem with a guided tour, even a private one, is that they devise an often grueling schedule, which is usually built around visiting a restaurant and/or "Friendship Store", a government shop where you are expected to buy stuff. In this case we arrived here with only 2 hours to look around. 

  Speaking of grueling, our gentle readers will now have to get ready for yet another outing, this time to the Summer Palace.