THE GREAT WALL AT BADALING

With the time difference not many of us got very much sleep that night, but we were excited to get up to ride to the Great Wall at Badaling. Now the Wall is the longest man-made structure in the world at over 3,500 miles long, so we only got to see a very small portion that had been restored. After all, it was built more than 2,700 years ago to protect their territory, and, although it was built of brick and stone, it is falling apart. It seems remarkable to me that they built it without machinery, but with millions of slaves I guess that you can accomplish a lot(just ask the Egyptians).
Fortunately it was a clear and cool day, otherwise we would not have been able to walk on those steep and slippery stones. At one point I had to sit down and scoot down the steps because it was so steep! The views from the 25foot tall walls were incredible-you could see for miles and miles(which is what the guards wanted to do). It is so big that it can be seen from the space shuttle.
We were pretty exhausted from hiking up and down the Wall, but there was still so much to see.
Our next stop was to see the Olympic site and of course we wanted to see the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Cube Pool. We couldn't get inside but enjoyed the walk around.
We found the energy to tour the grounds of the Emperor's Summer Palace at Kunming Lake.