The weather was amazing. Cool, but sunny. There was almost no haze from the smog which is typical in the Beijing area, because the wind had come in overnight and moved it away. And, as you will see from the photos, the autumn colors were still very much in force in the area.
I was given the choice of whether to walk up the trail to the wall, or take a cable car. I chose the cable car, knowing that my body was not likely to be able to handle as much climbing as my younger friends.
Speaking of my friends, here is a photo of Jim and Jun Feng, in the cable car. We were together for the whole day and had a great time.
From the bottom, we could see the Great Wall above us. What a sight!
Once we reached the top, we got many wonderful views of the Wall, but we also were treated to views of the nearby mountains. Spectacular!
Once at the top of the cable car route, we still had a long way to climb to reach the edge of the restored Wall. Here are a couple of views of where we were headed.
Hmmm, OK, that doesn't show enough of the entire trek. Here's a more complete shot. We were going to walk very close to the top of what you can see in this shot.
That first shot might not show it, but there was a LOT of UP!
No, really. It was UP!
But I did make it to the top, stopping quite a bit along the way to catch my breath.
You can get a feel for how steep the final climb was by noticing the person in front of me on the way down again.
The walk back down to the bottom had some amazingly beautiful views, as well.
It was a wonderful time. I have been to the Great Wall of China twice now. The magnitude of this structure is awe-inspiring. I thank my friend and colleague, Jun Feng, once more for hosting me on this trip.
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