Our second day started with a trip to the Great Wall at Badaling Mountains. We drove north and the ground was pretty flat until we got to the Badaling Mountains, then the land rose steeply to about 2,500 feet elevation. I would say that these mountains are not very tall but they are quite steep.

Once at the Great Wall, we had a choice of which direction to hike. One direction was more downhill and one direction was more uphill. We opted for the more uphill direction since less people went that direction. The day was overcast and hazy which made the hiking cooler but didn’t help my photos. There was still some snow on the ground in places. The farther we walked, the fewer the people. By the end of our walk, and the end of the wall, there were only about twenty people within our sight.

The Great Wall is easy to describe but hard to imagine until you walk it. The mountains go up steeply and down steeply and so does the wall. It’s about 20 feet high and 20 feet wide. There is hardly a flat surface on the wall. We had to watch just about every step that we took. The stair steps are almost entirely uneven in both depth and height. Over some short periods of steps, the steps must rise at an angle of over 60 degrees and they twist as they rise. Even on the most flat areas of the wall, some rocks protrude. It’s an OSHA nightmare. I loved it.

Most of my thoughts were about the soldiers and the battles and how they would work. It would have been very difficult fighting for both sides. Running up and down the Wall could not have been easy. It’s hard for me to imagine the Great Wall as a project that was begun in 221 B.C.

Another aspect of the Wall that impressed and amazed me was the intricate design work put into the wall itself. It wasn’t just a protective wall, it was architecturally pleasant. Some of the work in making designs in the rocks was incredibly impressive. The designs below were repeated over long distances and all done exactly the same. I don’t know who made it that way or why but it was very impressive to me all the same.

We walked the wall in the uphill direction all the way to the end. You can see that in the last photo below. I don’t know if they have plans for refurbishment but it will never be an easy project. We then walked back to the start and walked in the other direction too.

Walking the Great Wall was a tremendous experience for me. It far exceeded my expectations. Seeing photos and reading about the wall doesn’t do it justice compared to actually walking the wall. You can’t really appreciate the steepness and the difficulty that had to be involved in the construction of the wall until you have walked it for a distance. I, of course, kept a constant lookout for any invading Mongols.