Huanghuacheng, China

Despite the obvious appeal of traveling to the third largest city in the world (Shanghai being the largest), with its 25 million residents, 5 million cars, and an expanse which takes about five hours to cross through, Beijing was to be our home for the rest of our trip, and the launching pad for our trip to the Great Wall.

The Great Wall was built initially by the Chinese emperor, the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang, to protect his newly borne Qin Dynasty in the 3rd C. B.C. It traverses over 13,170 miles of Chinese landscape, and has withstood and been constructed, repaired and demolished over 2000 years. Millions of slaves were used to build the Wall, using rammed earth technique. And while the Wall never really served as a true deterrent against warring attacks, it did serve as psychological warfare to those who threatened the Empire. Truly, to this day, the length of it boggles the mind and compels the viewer to see the Chinese as something otherworldly in their quest for securing their homeland. The amount of effort it took to build it just cannot be calculated. But we can try. 

Here's some facts about the Great Wall: 

• The Wall linked 15 provinces of China
• Only 8.2 percent of the Wall built during the Ming Dynasty remains intact, 74.1 percent is in poor condition, and in some sections only the foundation remains (www.dailymail.co.uk)
• It is generally built from east-to-west line historically built to protect against invasions against nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe. 
• Besides defense, the Great Wall served as a port of call for the Silk Road, allowing the Chinese to charge duties to transport goods through the Empire. (thanks, Wikipedia)
• The Wall is built shorter on the interior Wall, with an average height of around 20 ft in some places, and the exterior Wall is built much higher, at around 60 ft, to again avoid infiltration by invaders. 

Along the wall are watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations and signal fire pots.

The plan for our first full day in Beijing was to go see the Wall. Beloved had hired a driver, Mike, who picked us up. By the way, breakfast at the hotel was delicious....beyond the requisite boiled rolls and Chinese vegetable dishes (still delicious) there was more European flavors represented. I discovered this amazing granola/oatmeal combination whose name is escaping me. It's oatmeal, apple juice and yogurt and it's refrigerated overnight and then served with cut up Granny Smith apples in the morning. That and two cups of coffee in the morning was my constitution. There was a proper name for it, but if you Google 'overnight oatmeal' there is tons of different combinations you can try. 

The drive to Huanghuacheng was about an hour in length, we were driven there by Mike in a minivan, and at first I thought he was trying to shine us on. The roads we were taking were not main thoroughfares for the trip, but little dusty dirty country roads for the most part. We past by many agricultural fields of (guess what)

corn

Mike was yet a charming host and was very helpful in getting us to our destination, which was a relatively unknown section of the Great Wall that we were TOLD not many tourists knew about. The minivan stopped in front of this dilapidated house on this asphalt roadway, across the street was a low row of reddish buildings and one separate building which looked like a storefront. 

this was the public restroom for tourists. No window or electricity so door must be kept open to see.

Embroidered tablecloth hanging on the line.

Our first close-up view of the Wall.

Bridge we needed to cross to get to the trail.

Beautiful dog

Beautiful dog left in horrible living conditions :(

The dog lived in a suspended cage with his one sole constant companion a pig

 Doe shows Mike the new camera filters she bought for her iPhone. That and her selfie stick made for some pretty spectacular pictures.

 hiking down to the river

 I think this was some sort of restaurant. It was empty.

 Not at all unstable was this suspended bridge. Mama brought up the rear ;)

 walked past some homes in the hillside above the restaurant.

 My daughter standing by the Great Wall of China. :)

 Trail leading up to the Wall. This was about a twenty-minute hike at a steady incline.

 Steps on the Great Wall. The steps were quite tall, about 7-8 inches high, taller than your average stair step.

 My babies. What a great experience for us to share together.

 Careful Tank that's a death fall behind you...

 Guard station, one of many posted along this section of the Wall.

The amount of trash at each of the guard stations were beyond comprehension. Apparently no one thinks to either clean up for themselves or the fees we paid do not go towards maintenance...

 Dutch men traveling who took pictures of our family for us. They were being picked up at 6 oclock by their driver and had planned on traveling

The children and Beloved chose to hike up a section of the Wall that I did not trust. It was a vertical climb with broken steps and crumbling chunks of concrete that would drop and shatter at intermittent times. So he climbed up with the kids to the next guard station/outpost. It took about 30 minutes.

Beloved said he was glad he was in front of Bumpo because the stones were crumbling and breaking off leaving shards of step to use on the decline.

Despite all of the pictures, you just couldn't capture the experience. Even today, nearly a full year later (yes dears, this post is a long time coming) I still can't really process the fact that we were there. With our family. And that among of the Seven Great Wonders of the World, the HIWMCA crew has tackled one.