The Great Wall

"This is a great wall."-Richard Nixon
Profound, accurate, and to the point. I think, maybe, he could have come up with something a bit more creative to say, but what the heck. He wasn't exactly known for his creativity, now was he?
I have time to write a quick blog- had to talk to about the Great Wall. We managed to get ourselves there yesterday on some random tourist bus with a tour guide who spoke very little English. It is really quite remarkable, though, how little you need to know to get by. The tour guide would stand in front of the bus and talk for a LONG time (I mean, 10 minutes or more without stopping), and we of course would not understand a word. Then she would come up to us and say: "Meet back here at 1:30. You have two hours". We thought that was pretty funny.
Anyway, after being carted around to some pretty random sites, such as the Wax Museum that depicted the history of the Ming Dynasty- complete with battles scenes and bedroom scenes- we finally made it to the Great Wall.
It was one of those moments when you realize you are viewing some kind of man-made miracle. The Wall is perhaps most impressive in its length, and the spot we went to allowed us to see it stretch for what seemed like miles along the hills. The scenery along the Wall was the best we have seen in China: short, jagged green mountains with intermittent spots of exposed rock. We chose the path less traveled and found ourselves utterly alone for much of our walk, which was a great surprise and made the whole experience that much more mystical. We walked quite a ways, and sat at the "end of the line", where the wall had fallen into disrepair and was not suitable for tourist travel.
As simple as it was, Mr. Nixon spoke the truth: the Great Wall was indeed a great wall.
And now I can call myself "a true man", as Mao Zedong was once quoted as saying "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man". So, if you ever questioned My manhood- or Matt's for that matter- well, as of yesterday, we are both TRUE MEN. Thank goodness.
Now we are done with the major touristy stuff and we are set to wander around Beijing all weekend and see what happens.
As always, stay tuned!