The Great Wall of China

Mark returns to the U.S. tomorrow, so we took an excursion today to the Great Wall at Mutianyu (about 90 km, 2 hours outside of Beijing). We also saw ruins of the Great Wall outside of Dunhuang, many thousands of miles west of Beijing, during our vacation. Its hard to fathom that this wall stretches across all of northern China and some of it has been standing for over 2000 years. Mutianyu, like many spots along the Great Wall near Beijing, is a Disneyland spectacle with hawkers, food stands, and cable cars. We rode a cable car up, walked along the wall for a while, then slid all the way down on a tobaggan. Sliding down was great fun! The photos show Mark and I on the wall with a watchtower in the background and the Great Wall stretching into the distance.

Close to Mutianyu, orchards and u-pick-it farms line the road. Dates seem to be in season, but we weren't too keen on picking dates. On the return trip through town, we stopped at one of the "farmer's restaurants" and had lunch. We had the option of fishing for our own trout in the cement "lake" in the garden, but we opted to have the kitchen staff catch ours for us. The bar-b-qued trout was spicy and wonderful.