Great Wall of China

So today was a bright sunny day, which was awesome. Jerry, our guide said that China has been "guaranteeing" how many days of sunshine to expect in Beijing and that they are only 6 days off their target of 260 days a year. Pretty cool. Here is a picture of the great wall section that we climbed today. We went from below the bottom red arrow to the top of the mountain at the top arrow.



Check out Matt "flying" up the great wall!!




Here is Matt's final step on the great wall. We had been training for weeks for this moment. Matt wanted to stop at many times but he pushed himself. I honestly did not think he was going to make it in the time allowed, so Justin and I took off for the top. On our way back down, he was only 100ft or so behind us, which was amazing because that section was certainly kicking my butt. Many steps are 18" high one after another, which is more like a wall to Matt. So we turned around and finished it together after about 70 minutes of straight-up climbing.




Here is a photo of all of us a the top, taken from just a few steps from the top. They closed the stairwell to the top of the guard tower, so we couldn't get another shot from up there like last time. Bummer.





After the great wall, we saw hutongs in downtown Beijing and took a rickshaw ride. We then ate dinner with two other families at our favorite next-door restaurant, then checked out Snack Street. The kids were all excited to go see scorpions on a stick and such but wanted to leave right away because the smells were pretty bad.