China Part 2 (Great Wall)

Our second day in China we headed up to the Great Wall at the Mutianyu section of the wall. It is supposed to be the least crowded and we had to convince our driver that this is the area that we wanted to go to. It is quite a distance away, but not as many tourists go there and so that was our choice. Which makes for a longer day for the driver. We were able to take the ski lift up to the top of the mountain and saved ourselves the 40 minute hike to the top. It was such a beautiful day and we chose the perfect day to go. The views were breathtaking and we had a blast exploring the wall. We were told that this section's construction was started in 200 BC. They have just had to maintain it so that the visitors can enjoy it now. There are some areas of the wall that haven't been maintained and so no visitors are allowed to climb. Our section was amazing and to think that there is a marathon on the wall makes me cry for them. They would have to train stairs because half of the wall was stairs and uneven ones at that. The boys had a blast and there were times when we all just had to stop and rest. There were even remnants of old weaponry and where they were able to guard the invaders. We hiked for about 2.5 hours and were definitely pooped by the time we were finished. This day the boys didn't get their photos taken by the Chinese; it was by their mom, and I just couldn't resist, they are just too handsome. We also were able to take an alpine slide ride down to the bottom which was the highlight for the boys. We were also taken out to lunch and to three different factories: the pot factory, silk factory and the pearl factory. We were even taken to the Olympic bird's nest. We had a great day and definitely slept well that night!