Wandering the Forbidden City and The Great Wall - Part 3 of 4

From the Friendship Store, we made our way to The Great Wall at Badaling. This involved a drive up steep, winding mountain highways reminding me of drives through the mountain passes in Washington State. Skies were overcast and it seemed damp with a bit of fog in the air.

Our national guide, Wendy, told us that that there is a saying in China stating that a man does not become a man until he has been on the Great Wall. Each one of us would be receiving an official certificate indicating that we had accomplished this feat.

The bus dropped us off at a shop below the entrance to The Great Wall. From there, it was a wheelchair ride of about 15 minutes up or so up a bit of a hill to the entrance to the wall where there were more shops. It became apparent that Rodney would not be able to navigate the steps leading up to the top of the wall, so a picture was taken at the bottom of the steps to prove to all that Rodney had actually reached the wall.

Next thing we knew, a nice Chinese lady accosted us with a camera. We were not sure what we were getting in to, but she wanted to take our picture. The next thing we knew, she was asking for money. Apparently, we would be getting a copy of the picture. This sounded good to Rodney, so he pulled out a few yuan. She asked us to wait for the pictures. In the meantime, it was a bit chilly being up in the mountains, so we went inside the shop for coffee while we waited. I monitored the situation just to make sure nothing funny was going on. But all was fine, and next thing we knew we had a certificate with our picture on it, and then Rodney wanted a couple more.

While Rodney was drinking coffee, I also took time to go on top of the wall itself. This was quite the cardiac workout. I walked for perhaps about 15 minutes, but due to the steepness and the fact that I was a little out of shape, it was an easy decision to turn back. After all, I still needed to reserve some energy to assist Rodney for the rest of the day.

Coming back from the wall to where the bus was waiting, we encountered more vendors. For some reason, Wayne’s experience with the vendor was negative, I didn’t catch what was said between them. However, I got myself a t-shirt for a Great Wall souvenir for a much better price than at any of the shops I had visited, and I was happy with that.