China {the Great Wall}

Visiting the Great Wall has been on my life long bucket list as long as I've had one.  It's one of those things that I feel you just can't fully appreciate until you're standing there in awe of it's massiveness.

We took a cable car up to the Mutianyu section of the Wall.  The Wall stretches over 8800 km or 5500 miles and we walked about 1.5 miles of it.  It was built to defend China from the Mongolians {insert South Park joke here} over a 2,000 year period beginning in 476 BC.

The Great Wall was covered in a thin sheet of ice so it was a bit treacherous while we were there.

{I have to give a shout out here to the fabulous Kelly who blogs over at Mrs in Training for alerting me to these boots.  I'd been hunting for new black boots for over a year now and these were PERFECT, comfortable and warm during our trek!  Also a big thank you to my mother for going to Target and purchasing them and mailing them to me so they would arrive before our trip.}

I felt like I was walking on a slant the whole time we were up there.

Some of the sections of stairs were easier descended ladder style.

Sharing the Great Wall with NO ONE {ok so there were a few other people up there but most of the time we were all alone} was a priceless experience for us.

A magpie on the wall.  They're said to bring good news

So Jason really wanted to break this small piece of snow/thin ice over my head.  I told him there was no way that was going to happen so he asked me to do it to him...he's so silly!

Absolutely breathtaking!

This kind man offered to help me down a slippery part of the wall then did the same for Jason.  The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me.

So I'm walking around China with several hundred dollars worth of camera hanging around my neck and everyone kept asking Jason to take photos for them.  I didn't get it.  If I were going to ask a stranger to take my photo, I'd definitely ask the person who looked like they knew what they were doing. 

There is no one else in the world that I would rather share these experiences with.

Climbing the Great Wall

One of the highlights of our trip was this toboggan.  Instead of taking the cable car back down to the parking lot, we chose to slide down. 

It was like a luge made out of metal.

These gentlemen were waiting at the bottom to...decapitate me!?!

Tomorrow we move on to Xi'an.