The Great Wall of China...........the original stairmaster!

So on Saturday, September 15, we woke early and ventured out to the Great Wall of China.  We went to the Mutianyu section of the wall which was originally built in (550-557) and was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty in1368-1644.  It was built as a protective screen to guard the capital and imperial mausoleums, but is known now for it's breath taking scenery.  It also has cable cars to take you up the mountain side to the wall, and a 'sled' ride named 'speed' to take you back down in one fell swoop!  We decided to take the cable car up, which was a great idea, because it is several hundred steps to even get to the wall.  Once we were on the wall the view was amazing, but I knew I was in trouble immediately, when I saw the first set of stairs to hike.  HELLO, genius here decided 2 days earlier to start a new work out called cross fit.  (Ya ever heard of it?  Well if you enjoy being mobile, I don't recommend it.)  Not only do we have a million stairs in our house that were agonizing, but hey, lets go hike the Great Wall of China so I can do a million more.  I could barely go from sitting to standing without moaning and groaning, much less having to use a squatter (that could have been the death of me).  Anyway, we made it as far as we could go on our hike.  We even went out to where the "old wall" was and hiked through the rough terrain to watch tower 22.  It really was breath taking......literally......they needed to have oxygen masks up there in stations to help a sister out!  It was definitely a work out but so worth it!  We all had a great time, enjoying each other and the view.  I figure if some of these women I saw could hike this baby in high heels and a kid on their hip, I could surely tough it out! 
We took a lot of pictures, that I will share with you, and had a few pictures taken of us with Chinese admirers.  We are somewhat of a novelty here (especially the girls)!  There was even a local that had his 2 year old daughter teetering and standing on the edge of the wall, with a couple hundred foot drop off, just to get the perfect photo.  Kelly and I turned and decided not to look and see how that one turned out.  Can you say CRAZY??????
We were going to hike farther to go down on the toboggans, but the girls were over it by that point and just wanted to get back down.  We will save that for another time because I heard it is really fun and a bit of a rush!!  We had a lovely day together on the Wall!!!

The map of Mutianyu

This was our cable car, it said on the window that President William Jefferson Clinton took this car up the Great Wall.

Enjoying our cable car ride!

Julia

Ella....and yes we hiked that whole thing!

We hiked to the top of that beast!

Oh thank goodness, we are going down for a change.

The view was breath taking!!!  LOL

OK...this part of the climb sucked.....the life right out of you!!

Another watch tower.

Ella taking a breather!

I can't even explain how steep this part was!

This nice local lady selling junk on the wall said "You nice people, I take your picture......then you come back and buy something."  Always a catch here!

Oh look more stairs.

Kelly, Valerie, Julia and Ella were here!  I promise....it was just scratched with a rock it will wash away in the next rain.

We hiked where not many others venture out to.  This is the old wall, and it was a bit dangerous in spots.