The saying goes, 'Old Guys Rule' but today the granddaughter rocked! But more on that later. We disembarked the boat shortly after 8am in what was a very smooth and orderly process. There were lots of immigration officials and afterwards we surrendered our passports back to ship personnel.
The terminal is huge and appears to be a major port for Costa and Royal Caribbean judging by the signage. Outside it was a bit of a wait until our 'Guide' Potter found us. It seems that our English speaking guide had a family emergency, and a young non English speaking fellow would accompany us. It was then a three hour bus ride in silence in the hazy conditions to the wall location east of Beijing. The initial half's drive was on very modern but highly unused new freeways. The area around the port is under massive redevelopment with lots of high rises and vacant land and roads. It seems to be a policy of 'build it and they will come'.
The second half was on secondary roads through little towns, rural and stark country and up into the mountains. It was sort of the China I pictured before coming here. In a lot of ways it's very much like Central and South American small towns and villages. Finally the Great Wall came into view. To say it's impressive is an understatement. This location at Huangyaguan has been restored and there are two sections of the wall that can be climbed: a very steep eastern section and a steep western section. We chose the latter!
At the base is a complex of structures resembling the old city and garrison quarters. There's a very cool labyrinth to solve that was part of the original entrance plus gardens and guard towers. Then there's the wall! Its about twenty feet wide with 4-8 foot walls on each side above the walking surface. Then there are the stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. Some with a low rise, but many with a high rise approaching 12 inches. At times I found myself climbing hand and foot up the stairs due to their steepness. And to think that every rock was hand carried on the backs of Chinese laborers over the course of hundreds of years.
My wife and granddaughter took off and ascended the stairs much faster than I could. That's how the granddaughter rocked it! My wife went all the way to the summit with a few others but I passed on the last really steep section and waited for her to come down. We then descended the wall together (passing some crew members who had arrived and were ascending the wall) and met up with the group at the restaurant at the bottom. But Anastasia was nowhere to be found. So my wife went back with Potter and found her waiting at a location on the original route that we didn't take on our shortcut descent. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice multi-course Chinese meal before the 3 hour ride back to our ship.
Yes it's a long drive to see the Wall, but it was worth it. And I do have the tshirt saying, 'I climbed the Great Wall' because it is literally a climb!
Back at the ship, the Lido was open later than normal, so we grabbed a light bite to eat. There's only movies tonight so I am going to relax and do nothing but update my blog and relax.
We have a walking tour of Tianjin tomorrow. Stay tuned! And while the destination is important, remember to savor the journey.
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