We got up entirely too early . . . 6:00 a.m. . . . and had breakfast in the hotel. Probably the worst breakfast on the trip. We were sequestered in a little room away from the rest of the patrons and served yogurt, bread, and a fried egg. There was also the Chinese buffet in the main room.

After breakfast we headed to the great wall. The great wall started as a number of individual walls around several of the seven Chinese kingdoms prior to unification. Today, there are different sections of the wall, some that have been restored, but many are in ruins or missing sections. The wall is not made of stone, but instead of bricks. The bricks were specially made and fired seventeen times. The bricks are extremely strong and durable. Villagers removed bricks in a lot of places in order to make other buildings. In some sections the bricks are signed by maker. If bricks in a section failed prematurely, the officials would know who was responsible for the faulty bricks.

The most popular section of the wall is close to Beijing, has a McDonalds, and has been restored so that it is easy to walk. It is also frequently mobbed by tourists. We went to a section about three hours west of Beijing and there were very few people there. You have to buy tickets to walk each section of wall, and we walked two separate sections. Who knew? a toll wall! In addition to charging ¥0.5 for toilets, locals provided the normal array of souveniers, water, and soft drinks, and acted as "helpers." The helpers were locals who walked along the wall with you, pointed out detours, interesting vistas, and showed you pictures of where you were in books and on postcards. As luck would have it, they would also sell you these items! Each helper attached him or herself to one walker, except for Ian, who they knew from prior visits.

It was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot. I realized that I had forgotten to remove my umbrella from my backpack and Ian said he would carry it. He had just gotten a haircut, and thought it a good idea to keep his scalp in the shade. We set off on a leisurely six-mile stroll along the wall. We were heading uphill for most of the first three quarters of the trip.

The wall tended to go along the crest of the hills. It seemed almost ludicrous to have a 12'-20' high wall on top of some of these hills. If you could make it up the hill, the wall should be no problem. There are towers every 100-200 yards, about 25,000 in all. The towers have a couple of guards and a few had gates in them as well.

After about 45 minutes, one of our helpers gave up on us and Anne and I had to share a helper. He was really pretty cool. He showed us the sights and pictures of the towers in a book he had for sale, but didn't bother us with incessant sales pitches. After a particularly steep section, we stopped for lunch. We had covered a little less than half of our walk, but a lot of the climbing. We looked back down to where we had started and it didn't seem that far. We could see the wall snaking across the hills and eventually slipping over the horizon. It looked so small compared to the hills.

After lunch we continued up to the top of a ridge and along the crest. This did not mean that the climbing was over. The wall seems to sag between towers as it ventures down into valleys between the ridges. The wall itself is made up of different layers of bricks, which head in different directions or are different sizes and colors. Our helper told us that the grey bricks are new, only about twenty-years old. The lighter, off-white bricks are about 400 years old.

Some of the sections of the wall, especially as we got farther along, were in a state of disrepair. Often, wild flowers grew up through the bricks, sometimes almost blocking the path. Toward the end, with only about ten towers to go, our helper pointed to a path and suggested that we detour around the next tower. We declined, and he told us that there was a big drop from the doorway on the other side of the tower. We were not, however, dissuaded. Sure enough, the far door on the tower was disconnected from the wall and you had to jump several feet from the doorway to the path. Anne, eventually, jumped and then I handed my camera to our helper and jumped myself.

Before the next tower there was another path, which we also declined to take. This time there was a 10'-12' drop after the tower. Once again, I handed my camera to our helper and climbed down, then Anne climbed down. The wall between the third-to-last and second-to-last towers was mostly gone. We went into the third-to-last tower, but were forced to retreat along the detour to get to the next tower. The detour was rather perilous as well.

Finally, we made it to the end. We finished at a new section of the wall, which would require additional funds to traverse. I wonder if the original creators of the Great Wall would eever have imagined that the Wall would function better as a tourist, toll-wall, then as a deterent to the Monguls? The big problem with the Great Wall as a defense was its size. With 25,000 towers it takes over 50,000 guards to provide even minimal coverage. And at least a couple of those guards would be willing to take a bribe rather than try to fight off Mongul hoards.

The last couple of towers, and wall between them, had been restored. After the last tower there was a suspension bridge over what used to be a river or stream. Now there is just a dry bed leading into a pond, with a dam at the end of it. On the other side of the bridge were newly restored towers and some really steep stairs. Ian led us along a footpath that was really quite treacherous. The path wound over hills and gullies, across a 45° slope with water running down it, and through brush. It was about one or two kilometers long, and made us wonder if it wouldn't have been better to simply pay for the next section and bypass this little peril.

Our helper ditched us at the last tower after Anne got postcards, gourds, a picture book, and bracelet for ¥100 ($12.50). This involved two towers worth of negotiations, and Anne walking off with her money at one point. The helpers walk back to the start of the section along a path.

Overall the walk along the Wall was the high-point of the trip. The scenery, and the Wall itself, were incredible. I took about 175 pictures, many through doorways and windows in the towers!

Across the suspension bridge was a ride. You got strapped into a harness and attached to a tow-line. Then you zoomed down the tow-line for a couple of hundred yards, over the pond and dam, ending near the end of our treacherous little path. Anne would have really liked to have been able to go on that.

We got back to the bus and took advantage of the ¥0.5 toilets. I also got an ice cream and some cool water. We got into the bus and headed back to Beijing. On the way, we passed the new city they are creating for the Olympics. As previously mentioned, beijing is both a city and a province. The Olympics will be held in Beijing province, and not in the city itself.

On the way to the Great Wall, Ian told us about China's reforestation project. It is a result of a series of poorly planned projects by Chairman Mao. In an attempt to increase crop production, Mao decided that it was necessary to get rid of all of the birds. The theory was that the birds were eatting the seeds and/or crops, and that by eliminating all of the birds, the crop yields would increase. So, Mao had people go out into the woods with sticks and bang on the trees day and night so that the birds could not roost. Apparently, when you have a couple hundred million people to throw at a problem, there are all kinds of interesting solutions. This tactic worked amazingly well and eliminated the vast majority of birds. However, as might be imagined, there were some side effects.

The major problem was that birds eat locusts, and without the birds the locust population grew out of control. And of course, locusts eat crops. In fact, they devastate crops, which is just what they did. In order to solve the locust problem, Mao had people cut down all of the trees and other vegetation. Another problem solved! Unfortunately, this led, possibly unsurprisingly, to erosion and severe dust storms when the winds blew out of Mongolia.

After Mao's death it was generally acknowledged that Mao did some great things for China, but that some of his policies had not been carefully thought out. So, now China is reforesting.

It only took us 2 hours to get back to Beijing, and the plan was to shower and change and head out for Peking duck (now Beijing duck) at 8:00 p.m. At least we had two whole hours and a working shower this time. When we arrived back at the hotel we headed over to the Business Center to try to get in touch with our local guide and find out about getting tickets to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the Business Center was closed. So, we headed up to the room and took showers. I came back after my shower and the Business Office was open. I was unable to get in touch with our local guide, but I did talk to Debbie about meeting the next morning. I also told Debbie about our airline crisis, so she would be prepared in case we needed additional assistance on that front.

We caught a cab to the restaurant . . . or at least most of the way to the restaurant. The driver decided that it would be a good idea to drive along the road immediately south of Tian'anmen square. This resulted in our sitting in traffic for about 10-15 minutes before we eventually got out and walked the rest of the way. It took us about 20-30 minutes to walk, and we had to navigate back alleys in order to make it to the restaurant.

It was a little restaurant that seemed like it would be impossible to find, but it was full. Apparently they have started advertising and it is a lot more crowded these days. We ate outside in what appeared to be a courtyard of some sort. They bring out the cooked duck . . . and I do mean all of it . . . and then slice lots of little pieces off of it. You take a piece or two of duck and some onion-like things, dip them in plum sauce, and then roll the whole thing into a little pancake. The duck was OK. Although Sally and Ian thought it "brilliant" and "lovely." Of course, being that I am not a big fan of food to begin with, what do you expect?

After dinner, Sally and I caught (eventually) a cab back to the hotel, while Anne and Ian walked. I was getting a little tired of walking and had produced a couple of rather nice blisters on my feet, which I did not want to exacerbate. I also wanted to check my E-mail before going to bed.

The Internet place was about a 15-minute walk from the hotel. It cost ¥6 ($0.75) per hour charged in half-hour segments. I got a note back from Becca that she had also made Law Review. Sweet!! I was online for 30 minutes and handed the guy a ¥5 note. He was unable to find change, so I just left. Oh no, I lost $0.25. It took Anne and Ian about an hour to walk back from the restaurant at high speed. Our plan was to have breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and then attempt to get airline tickets. Then we would meet Debbie at our hotel at 10:00 a.m.

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