Great Wall

We had a little bit of "down" time Thursday so a few of us took off for the Great Wall. It was an adventure just getting there. We got a later start than we intended. The plan was to taxi to a bus depot then take a bus out to the wall. It's about an hour ride, we were told, and hey--why not catch some "local color" in the process, right? Well, we arrived to the bus depot to see the bus number we were told to look for pulling out just as we got there. D'oh! After being hustled by some locals who wanted us to pay 400 yuan (actually only about $60 US but still a rip-off), we found someone who spoke English who told us that the bus that we saw pull out was the "express" bus and that only "local" busses would be leaving from that point forward the rest of the day. The "local" bus would take 2 1/2 hours since it made so many stops. Double d'oh!

We decided to double back and try another day so we emailed the co-workers to let them know we were coming back in, only to be told that the driver we had for the day wasn't being used so we could ask him to take us out there instead. Woo hoo!

So after a late start, and some negotiation with the driver, we headed out. It was DEFINITELY worth it. We rode a chair lift to from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the hill, walked a decent-sized section of the wall and rode a stainless-steel toboggan track back down the mountain. Besides the fun of the ride up and back, the wall was truly "great". Here are a couple of pics.