Odyssey in Asia: The great Great Wall

We took the overnight train from Dali to Kunming and then a flight from there to Beijing. While overnight bus = horrible torture, overnight train = luxurious joy. (That and perhaps our standards of “luxury” have diminished slightly seeing as when we boarded a recent economy flight, we were amazed by the vast legroom!) This is by far the best long-distance travel we have done yet. And to top it off there was a driver waiting for us at the airport to take us to the Hope Foster Home in the village of Shun Yi, about thirty minutes outside of Beijing. Friends from Danville work closely with the home and suggested we stay here for a few days when visiting Beijing. The Foster Home is an impressive facility that houses approx fifty infants and toddlers, many overcoming correctable medical issues while awaiting for their future home. We are grateful to the Hasenbalgs for the suggestion and the staff at the home for being such generous hosts during our stay.

The third day in Shun Yi we went with a couple of the nursing staff to tour the Great Wall. We toured the Wall by arriving in Jinshanling and walking about 10k along the Wall to Simatai. This is the least popular (and least crowded) of three common sites to tour the Wall from Beijing. The second most popular, called Mutianyu, offers a luge ride down the wall (!!!) at the end so we made quite a sacrifice going out to Jinshanling to avoid the crowds. It was worth it. To say that the Wall is impressive is the understatement of the year. It winds up and down and around the mountainous landscape for miles on end. The Wall was difficult to even walk (many many stairs), let alone build about 2500 years ago with primitive tools. The whole experience is mindblowing and every bit worth the hype. Though I’m pretty sure you can’t actually see it from space…