A Mediocre Fence?

There is a satisfying feeling that you get when you check something off of your bucket list. For me, that thing is the Great Wall of China. Today, after being less than 90 km away from it for 4 months, I finally set foot onto the Great Wall. Now, let me say, there are some things that people exaggerate. Some people insert extravagant adjectives, where only meager ones are called for. Let me be the first to tell you that this is NOT the case when talking about the GREAT Wall. Aptly named, it pretty much encompasses, what used to be, the borders of China. If I were in an army marching toward this gigantic structure, I would be instantly disheartened.
It was a beautiful day that I travelled, with 5 of my female coworker/adventurers to experience this marvel. The sun was shining, there weren’t too many people, there was not an inordinate amount of fog. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if it had not been -3 degrees Celsius outside. That did put a slight damper on the whole day. Not enough, however, to deter us completely. This trip was sparked by one of my co-workers who is leaving to go back to America for good on Thursday. She told us, “I can’t go back until I see the great wall.” This is absolutely true. You just CAN NOT return to America, after being in Beijing, without seeing it. Some of the Chinese students have told us that, “you’re not a real man until you hike the Great Wall.” That’s right people, they call your masculinity into question!! It’s outrageous.

About the actual Great Wall:
It is very strange to walk the wall because not a single stair on there is remotely the same. We all joked that the engineer had to be a man with one short leg and one long one while suffering from cataracts. We thought that he stood there on one of the many uneven spots, and with his juxtaposed legs, concluded that they were, in fact, even. A bunch of us were also confused as to the reason that the wall does not go in a straight line from A to B. Instead, it weaves like a serpent from A, to C, around Q, dipping through L, before coming to a pause at B. It turns out that we had lots of questions, coupled with just as many hypothesis, but no real answers. We kept walking and joking to mainly avoid thinking of the pain of it all.