One of the things that made the day at the Great Wall so special was that we rode horses up to the wall. Something I didn't think about before getting on a horse to take to me the Great Wall: it's kind of built on a mountain, meaning I was literally riding a horse up a rocky mountain trail (actually trail would be using the word incorrectly, we kind of just rode through a forest and hoped the horses knew where they were going). Regardless of the fear for my life, the ride up was pretty cool and definitely an original way to see the Great Wall for the first time. I don't think I've ever been happier to see a national Chinese landmark than I was to see the Great Wall.
One of the benefits of riding the horses up was that we got to visit a more secluded section of the wall that wasn't as touristy. When Bill Clinton visited China as President he actually visited our part of the wall while Ronald Reagan visited the more touristy area during his visit. The views were spectacular, and walking along stones that were built by sheer manpower in the 5th century(!) was unbelievable!
To make the day even more fun, we all bought tickets to toboggan down to the bottom of the wall. The toboggans were theses little plastic things with wheels and the course was a winding metal slide that ran down the mountain side. Oh man was it fun! You could control your speed, so naturally I was speeding down, I had to keep slowing down so I wouldn't hit the person in front of me. (I really wish I had some pictures from this experience)! After our ride down we decided that we really wanted to ride down again, and we wanted to experience more of the Great Wall. So we took a gondola back up the wall, this was a far less terrifying way to get up to the Great Wall and afforded some pretty spectacular views. (Seriously though, I couldn't recommend the horse ride enough. It was super fun and original.)
We walked quite a bit on our second time on the wall, but man was it fun! My friends and I had fun touring the Ming dynasty guard towers (Mia I'm looking at you), and the stairs at the Great Wall were better than any stair master.
This experience was unreal. All it takes to make you feel incredibly small and human is to stand on the Great Wall looking over at the towns and mountains in the distance.
On a completely unrelated note, Harry Potter is out today. I could not be more excited to see it! The kids I babysit for showed me this hilarious Harry Potter trailer, check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MahTKZDHXaA
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