adventure: The Great Wall of China

On Saturday of our trip, we woke up bright and early to head to the Great Wall. There are a few options of portions of the wall to see, but we decided to go to the farthest one away from Beijing. This part of the wall (hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai) isn't quite as touristy as the parts closer to Beijing, and the wall isn't restored.

A bus picked us up at 6am and we drove 4 hours to Jinshanling. From there, we took a cable car up to the Wall and set off on the four hour hike to Simatai. I was blown away as soon as we stepped foot on the wall. It was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was absolutely gorgeous, stretching miles into the mountains. It also was just awe-inspiring to be standing in a place you've read about since childhood.

The hike was definitely not easy. It was very steep and parts of the wall are falling apart. It was worth every second of it though. We ran into some friends while hiking, and even saw the couple from Missouri we had met on the flight! We took a "Missouri" picture of all of us: 2 from MU, 1 from Stephens, 1 from SLU, and 1 from Truman.

At the end of the hike, you could either walk back down to ground level, or take a zip line. Although I was a bit nervous, I did the zip line and it was awesome. My friend Kristina and I went down together, and she took a video of it. As soon as I get it from her, I'll post it on here :)

Basically the whole experience was absolutely wonderful and definitely is up there on the list of best travel experiences ever.