Ok, you should see my face…I am still smiling and my eyes have this special sparkle that I ususally only get when I talk about Africa!

Spending time at and walking on the Great Wall was simply amazing!

Several dynasties of Chinese emperors have contributed to the 8851km long Wall starting with the Qin dynasty 200 BC. Even though The Wall – reaching from the border with North Korea in the east to Lop Nur in the far western province of Xinjiang – was supposed to protect China from enemies this was hardly possible as it was never one continuous structure. The Wall had many gaps where invaders got through. Today, some parts of The Wall are well preserved others have been destroyed.

The Mutianyu part of The Wall, where we went to, is a renovated stretch of The Wall about 90km away from Beijing. And unlike the Forbidden City and Summer Palace it was not very crowded! We went up to The Wall by chairlift and then climbed up and down the really big steps for about two hours. It is a beautiful landscape around Mutianyu and – if you ignore your own heavy breathing after climbing up and down – simply a very peaceful atmosphere. Maybe you see some of it on the pictures. I could have easily spent the entire day up there, but we had to get back to the city.

This was the last part of last weekend’s sightseeing activities. We will see what the next weekend brings.