The Great Wall, Spring 2006

 


This is the bottom of Juyong Pass which is part of the Great Wall. It is one of four passes.
Juyong Pass is called "The Place for Poor Laboring People" sounds like everyone I know.
This is the pathway leading to the base of the Great Wall.
Many people are buried inside the Great Wall. The Great Wall was rebuilt several times during the Qin, Han and Ming Dynasties.

Many of the older sections were originally built with local materials such as tree branches and mud. The sections rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty used stone slabs, bricks clay, stones and sand.
Here I am at the bottom of the steps eager to begin my journey on the wall.
Here is Aunt Alice, also ready to start climbing!
Here is the beginning of our journey on the Great Wall. We were determined "to get to the top" whatever that was supposed to mean. We soon found that there was no real "top" and the wall just seemed to press on for ages winding its way over the mountains.

Today the Great Wall is about 3,000 miles long. Here is a view of the wall winding along in the opposite direction behind us.
A view from behind us again. When Qin defeated the other 6 states in China he united them under one empire naming himself emperor. He is the same emperor who was famous for the terracotta soldiers. His dynasty only lasted two generations when it was taken over by the Han dynasty.
Looking back again a little higher up.
We could see a small temple on the hillside and were determined to get to it. It turned out it was off on another path and a bit out of the way. Still it kept us motivated on our way to the "top."

Here is Aunt Alice climbing the mighty Great Wall stairs.
Here is the first tower that we passed. There were two kinds of watch towers on the Great Wall. Notice how worn down the stairs are in certain places.
Inside of the tower. Towers were built on strategic locations all over the wall, especially around turns and twists. Some towers were watch towers. Others were beacons.
Messages were sent by fire at night and by smoke signals during the day. According to the puffs of smoke they could relay how many enemies were attacking.

Here is a place not too far up on the wall where you can puchase a certificate that says you climbed the Great Wall.
The second tower is in view.
Looking back at the first tower we passed.
Another view of the first tower from above.

Here I am taking a break. Although we were determined to climb as high as we could, it WAS rather difficult and the steps were steep and uneven (like all the steps I seem to encounter in Asia - yes even modern ones).
Here are some of the mountains off to the side of the wall.
We could see ridges cut along the mountains. I suppose they might have been (or still are?) used for farming.
Here is Aunt Alice making her way up the wall.

Now we are looking back on two towers. The weather was very favorable the day we climbed the wall and I even began to sweat under my winter coat x_x
After passing another small trinket shop. We saw some lovely Coca-Cola tables that offer commercially sponsored repose. It's a weird world we live in sometimes.
Here I am leaning over the edge of the wall. The outer wall is higher than the inner wall -- which makes sense.
At one point in the wall the uneven stairs disappeared in favor of a short ramp. This actually felt worse than climbing stairs believe it or not.

After we got up past another tower the tourist crowd thinned out dramatically. Which was nice. It was more or less just me, Aunt Alice and a few others from here on up.
As we got up higher I couldn't help but think about all those poor soldiers trying to drag themselves up all those stairs while carrying equipment and wearing armor x_x I was having a bad enough time hauling my lazy body up the wall :p
This area was the first rest stop we found on the actual wall (not counting the one at the very bottom). This was about 45 minutes up the wall. We were just about out of time and had to start heading back soon.
The other side of the building had this lovely wooden porch. Here is Aunt Alice standing in its doorway.

Here is one last tower. I can't remember if this was on the way back down or if we climbed up to one last tower. I think it was the latter because I found another picture of the previous building saved after this one.
Here is one view outside one of the tower windows.
Here is another picture from the tower.
Unfortunately, we found that the Great Wall just kept on going "up" and we had no hope of making it to the "top." It seemed that with every tower we reached, we could see two more higher ones in the distance.

Here is another view of the previous picture, I couldn't decide which I liked better.
Aunt Alice on the wall as we make our way back down.
Aunt Alice waves from her vantage point.
By now we are almost back down.

Here is one of many holes along the Great Wall. The holes were for shooting arrows or throwing rocks down at the enemy.
Once again we are looking at the Great Wall winding off in the distance on the way down.
Aunt Alice trying to climb down the stairs. I think we had a harder time coming down than going up. I suppose the idea of falling up never seems as painful as the idea of falling down <_<;
Here is a picture that my aunt Alice took showing how uneven and worn the Great Wall steps are.

There was a bunch of neat random stuff at the bottom of the wall. including some replicas of terracotta soldiers.
Here is a close up of the terracotta copy.
Here I am standing near the soldier.
Aunt Alice takes a turn near the soldier.

Another picture of Aunt Alice.
Here is one last look at some of the buildings near the base of the Great Wall.