Trip to the Great Wall, page 2
To the left, or west I think, the wall snakes away towards Tower 20 in the distance, beyond which is off-limits to tourists. We're going to the right.
Inside tower 14. Walls in here form rooms, each only a few square feet, but with these arched windows in all directions.
There was really great cross-ventilation through those windows, and some people would set up their lunches inside the towers, but for me I was just passing through, so onward to the next tower.
Our guide explained that the width of the wall is that of 5 horses. On the other hand, the height of the stairs is very small, only about 3 inches above the previous one.
Speaking of our guide, that's her, Jesse (her Americanized name), in the lower left, below.
Many of the towers have stairs to the ground below, and there are paths, some better than others, marked WAY DOWN, but we had tickets for a better way down, as you'll see soon. Anyway, these are the steps from tower 12.
This little girl was posing for a picture for her mother, holding a small doll between her hands. She's sitting atop a cast iron cannon, one of several between towers 14 and 6.
You know it's hot when people open up umbrellas on a sunny day. This is the view approaching tower 12, which has an ornamental roof, unlike most of the others.
Turning around towards tower 13, do you see anything unusual about this picture? (Hint: it's what the guy in the center's doing with his hand)
Having been advised to avoid trouble, I continue on after taking a self-portrait.
A closeup of the carvings of dragons and other animals on the roof of tower 12.
A look back at #12, 13 & 14.
This is tower 11, which kind of runs off on it's own and dead-ends. A colleague put the bright idea into the heads of some American college students that they should try to climb up on top of #11. They did.
One more self-portrait.
These craggy peaks not too far away are also walled, with towers.
Another cannon.
The Wall & I.
The top of tower 7. This one had stairs to the roof. None of the others we saw did; just a hatch in the ceiling.
This is where we got off. After a couple of hours in what had to be 90 degree heat, we were ready to get back on the bus and head for lunch. In the picture below you can see another cable car ride, and a shiny silver slide at the lower right.
It's a toboggan run, only without the snow.
This beats a cable car any day. You ride a small sled on this 1.5 km run. There's a stick to push on for brake release. I shot a brief video, but can't post it here, so you'll have to settle for this driver's-eye view of the track on the way down.
At the bottom, I asked these two where I could get some good Chinese take-out. Was it something I said?
That's it for now, but there's more on the way.
back to the JeffBaker.us homepage ©2002-2008 Jeff Baker.us All Rights Reserved.