The Great Wall Of China

       We were up early today – just after 5 am – as we were to catch our off on our tour to the Great Wall of China at 6:15. There were plenty of people up at that time as there we many early transfers from the ship. They wanted everybody out quickly so that they could do another “deep cleaning” to rid the ship of the virus. 8:00 am seemed to be the magic hour for vacating the staterooms. About 400 people are staying on and I think everyone was on tour. The Captain did announce yesterday that the number of cases had dropped below the allowable “2%” for a ship with nearly 4000 passengers and crew. I predicted that about 5 days ago. In that way when we have another outbreak he will announce that it was brought aboard by an embarking passenger.

        The trip from Tianjin (the port for Beijing) to the section of wall that we were going to visit was 3 hours by bus with 1 short comfort stop on the way. Our guide was a bit hard to understand. At one point as he described the crops we both heard that the fields were growing beans and “pork”. We did not see any pork! We did see plenty of fish ponds with many more being built. There is a new cruise terminal and it not anywhere near the location when we were here last. In fact they have reclaimed a massive area from the sea and are developing it with hotels, ports, housing, etc.

On The Way Up

Up The Great Wall

Steep Section

         The section of the wall that we stopped at was not the same one as on our last visit. That was good since we had a chance to experience a new section. This section of wall was quite steep and it took some effort to get all the way. Part of the section had the nice brick that you usually see in photos. The next section had just the bare rocks that underlies the capped sections. Then the next section was just a series of rock steps. They went on for about 300 steep steps. All this was after walking uphill for about 45 minutes. I managed to make it all the way to the top. There were only 4 other people there when I finally arrived huffing mightily! After that there was just a dirt trail that lead up over the mountain! That was a trail too far! Of course I was snapping photos all the way. There were blue skies this time as opposed to the grayish ones from the last time. I was happier with the results this time.

Down The Uncapped  Section

There is no graffiti on the wall at all. In fact there we passed 2 workers cleaning it. However they

have allowed vendors selling tacky, plastic souvenirs in many places. I thought that they should be confined to the area where every tourist must pass. This section of the wall crossed a river valley so there was a defensive fortification at the bottom currently filled with sellers. There were old rusted metal freezers on the wall holding beer and other drinks. They all seemed to be selling the same things. How many times can you say no to a resin model of a budda or the wall, etc? It seems to us that a national treasure should be kept nice and clean. Sellers around the bus is par for the course.

      We did stop for a Chinese (what else) lunch served in the traditional large round table with a lazy susan way. They bring a small plate of an item so that everyone could eat a little. There were many courses and we just kept on eating. There was one English speaking person (nationality “unknown”) who folded his arms and sat there through every course. He refused to eat

anything. All he did was drink beer that was suppose to be shared by all at the table. That was OK because we managed to eat his portion of the dish! We all ate with the chopsticks although his wife ate with a fork. I was going to jerk his chain a bit but thought better of it. I am sure he will complain about the food on that tour!

      We did get back to the ship around 4 and the rest of the night was spent resting after the early start. There are about 1700 new passengers on board and it seems most are going through to Vancouver. We did sit at our new table with the people we met in Thailand. The other couple did not join us for dinner. A brief show ended the evening.