Tomorrow I have to go and deal with people in the post office. Hm.

Ta!

Today spent most of my time letting my legs recover from the Great Wall. I slept in, and did absolutely nothing productive. Except uploading pictures.

Ta!

Unless you belong to a tourist group that follows a little Chinese guide with a flag around, you need to pay someone to take you in their car, which is what we did. We ended up paying a lot more, but it was completely worth it. I had seen pictures of the Great Wall before, and the masses of tourists on it. When we made it to the wall after a climb along some stairs for half an hour, the view was absolutely breathtaking. The first thing I said was "Wow!", and then "There are no people here!". Chris and I stood there and kept on turning around in every direction, amazed at the view. Unfortunately, we didn't get the best view on how far the wall stretches towards the east and west, but we did get an idea on how absolutely insane the concept of a great wall is--not to mention building one. After five minutes on the wall, I just had to call Tom to tell him about it. I have a picture to prove it! Kinda crazy, I guess, to be standing on a five century old structure talking on a cell phone.

The wall itself has been in the process of being built, being touched and eroded and destroyed by nature's elements, and being rebuilt. Construction of the wall started hundreds of years before the first dynasty, and existed of stamped earth. There wasn't a single great wall, not before and not now. You won't be hearing a Chinese say that, because the official doctrine is that there is one Great Wall, it's 2000 years old, and it's 50,000 km long. That would basically make it go around the globe once, but hey, details, details. The first dynasty linked a lot of existing sections into larger stretches of walls. The wall that you can see today was built during the Ming (between 700 and 400 years ago). And the sections that you can visit today have been rebuilt and reconstructed for a large part by the Chinese government. So, in a sense, the process of rebuilding the wall is still continuing today. At first I always thought it was a pity that parts of the wall weren't left in their original condition, but seeing it in this perspective, it's pretty amazing that the tradition lives on. And I walked on it. Or climbed on it, because some parts of the wall are pretty steep (as my butt can testify today).

Another interesting point (if you're not sick of hearing about the wall's history yet) is the reason why it was built. Obviously defense against military invasions is one of them. But then you have to think about the invasions that did take place. Three foreign dynasties invaded the north of China between the 10th and 12th centuries, the fabulous Mongols in the 13th century, and the Manchus in the 17th century. Pretty efficient, huh? Some people are saying that the wall might have been built to keep the Chinese in, instead of keeping foreign barbarians out. Since the latter didn't really work, who knows. Chris and I both noted the irony, of course, that while barbarians weren't supposed to cross the wall, we--one hunderd percent barbarian--were walking on it. On the way, there was also a sign that commemorated Clinton's visit to the beautiful and ancient Great Wall. Instead of foreign diplomats bowing to the Chinese emperors, foreign leaders now pay tribute to the Great Wall. Ah, I love the ironies of history.

And what about Chinese taking pictures of us? Well, there were a couple of them. But they asked very politely, and they wanted to be in the picture with us. So we're very likely to end up in the photo album of a Chinese family. I really enjoyed the wall, for several reasons already mentioned. I was also very greatful that the air was so crisp and clean up there. Not so in the city. I haven't tried running here yet, and if I did, I would surely drop dead after 30 minutes because of the pollution. Jk, but still.

Maybe you're wondering why you never hear me talk about school. Good question. I'll let you know as soon as I can come up with a plausible explanation.

I'm putting some pics on the web from this trip (not all of them, I'd like to go to bed before midnight, internet is hidiously slow here). More pics of my tourist adventures to follow at some point in future. Proof of me and cell phone on wall! Skedaddle over to link below.