The hills are steep and the steps small and other things I learned at the Great Wall....

Yesterday was taken up by a trip to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. There are lots of sites near Beijing to witness the Great Wall. This section was chosen for several reasons. First, it is a little less touristy than the other sections meaning that it has less vendors and the terrain is a little rougher. Secondly, it has a cable car tram to the top of the wall for those who don't want to do the strenuous climb up to the wall and then walk up and down the wall. Thirdly, it has a wicked toboggan ride consisting of a plastic sled and a metal chute like track. But more on that later....

First to the hike up the wall....I'm outta shape and all those steps kicked my butt. My walking partner Lindsay and I took lots of breaks on our way up, but were pretty tired by the time we got to the actual wall. We probably should have taken the cable car tram so next time, that's what I'll do. But once up the view was spectacular. We didn't get to much of the section which required some very steep steps and lots of scrambling up and down. I elected to check out one of the many watch towers and then made my way to the toboggan run.

The toboggan was thrill itself. Whoever thought up the idea was not Chinese. When Chinese folks went down the track they went very very slowly almost coming to a complete stop. We were ready to get up as much speed as possible so we waited to give some space much to the anger of several folks behind us. However it was worth the wait. I took some footage from that trip and I'll try to post it when I get it on the computer. It was enough of a thrill that several of us took the sky lift back up for a second run which was much faster and even better. We really need one of those in KC.

Here's more pictures from the Great Wall to put the scope of the whole thing in perspective: