Saturday, November 8, 2008

Tourist Wall

My eyes were half open as our tour guide Lee gave us a history on Chinese culture. I propped my head up and saw something winding up the mountain in front of us. Right off of the highway there it was- the Great Wall. It snaked its way up to either side of us, broken by the highway leading out of Beijing.
The wall was packed with people from all over the world. We were two hours from the city center but the spot was a complete tourist trap. It took us two hours to climb up the uneven stone steps of the wall. But as we got closer to the highest tower the crowd thinned and snowflakes started floating down on us. 
At the last tower I slipped my way up the eroded steps to the second floor. I finally felt sure that the hike was worth it. The Chinese graffiti etched in the stone meant that hundreds of others, probably thousands, had felt the same way.

This sure isn’t jersey because… the tour ended with a hot spring bath that “released the gore and dissolved liver fat.”