We were able to wake up at a decent time to meet our guide in the lobby and started to head to the Great Wall of China. The drive was longer than it was supposed to be because we got caught in traffic for an hour so we had to push the end of the tour later. Once we got there we walked up a hill to catch a ride to the top. We had to literally jump onto a ski lift which seemed faster than others (they don't slow them down for you to get on they just tell you when to jump) that was headed to the entrance to the Great Wall of China. We rode up and up the mountains until we saw the Great Wall of China for the first time.
It was so big. It stretched onto the horizon as far as the eye can see and a lot farther. We jumped off the ski lift and were rushed to get out of the way of the next one coming. We walked onto the Great Wall of China. It was 16 feet across so it could hold up to four horses side by side which helped moving soldiers across the border. And as if a huge wall isn't enough defence they had strongholds set up on the other side of the border. So to get across they would have to defeat a stronghold and get over the wall to invade the country and if they did they would also have to beat a ton of soldiers that would travel over the wall after getting the warning. They had a great system for warning the rest of the wall when the enemy was coming. There were guard posts every so often down the wall with big towers and a torch so if there was an attack they lit the fire and the guard at the next tower over would see and light his fire and so on until the whole wall knew. We entered at one of the guard posts and headed out along the wall.
The view across both sides were beautiful mountain ranges. Across the whole wall all the stones fit together perfectly, not as perfect as Machu Picchu but still really well. We walked from guard tower to guard tower on the beautiful wall. Most of the way was up and there was a lot of stairs. Sage was getting a little tired but we made to the end of the safe section of the wall (the other parts are a little damaged and dangerous to walk on.) We climbed up in some of the towers to see the view and what it would have been like to be a soldier guarding the wall. We walked all the way back and said goodbye to the beautiful Great Wall of China.
On the way down we had a choice between going back on the ski lift or tobogganing down the mountain. Of course we chose to toboggan down so we grabbed some toboggans and got in line. The guy working the toboggan slide was really nice and was showing Sage a video of a panda from where he was born. He also showed us that one of the mountains was a face if you look sideways. He did all of that without us really able to understand him as he didn't speak much English. After the people in front of us stopped taking selfies and actually went we got to start our way down the mountain.
The toboggans went really fast but we had to stop all the time because the guy in front of us was taking selfies which is not allowed on the toboggan ride. Zaddek was the first one and was behind him so he had to keep slowing down. But a few times I let Zaddek go ahead and I got to go super fast. It was still very fun in the end and we all had a great time.
After we left the Great Wall of China we continued the tour and got some lunch. Lunch was a typical Chinese lunch with all food placed in the middle on a turning table and after we finished they made us take a jade tour. The jade was really nice but quite expensive so we didn't get anything. For a little tiny carving it was 30 dollars. Zaddek was quite upset about that.
Next stop on our tour was a burial tomb and we had a choice between a good emperor that everybody liked or an Emperor named Dingling who really was a dingaling. But the good emperor's tomb had a lot that was closed to the public because he was respected but the Dingling's was raided because he left a stone that had the exact location of his tomb. Also Dingling's tomb was 80 feet underground. We chose Dingling's tomb because you could see the actual tomb and our guide suggested it. The entrance to the tomb was really nice and had a nice courtyard with a bunch of ancient trees that had been there for hundreds of years. We walked over to the tomb part and went way down into the ground and came out into a huge underground tomb that looked more like a giant garage with huge cement roofs way above. It was gigantic. We went to the burial spot where the thrones were covered in money people had thrown in for good luck. There were also a ton of huge red boxes, one was for the Emperor and two were for the Empress's tombs. (Emperor Dingling was the only Emperor to have two Empresses.) The other boxes had treasure they thought they would need in the Afterlife.
Once we left the tomb we left the courtyard and the guide told us to say something in Chinese so we could walk out of the spirit realm as we walked through a gate or we would be trapped in the spirit realm forever. We all made it through and headed back to the van. Once we got back to the hotel we had dinner and settled in for the rest of the night.
Total ski lifts: 1
Total toboggans: 1 each
Total vans: 1
Total miles walked: 6 miles
Total flights of stairs: 52
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