The Great Wall

Well, we made it to The Great Wall and it is awesome to see and hard to imagine how difficult it was to construct.  Many people were forced to work on the wall and many were entombed there (some alive) so it has an interesting and serious story.  Now, it is a big tourist attraction.  This is one of two 7-day national holidays for China and all are on vacation which adds to the congestion. We were at the Huangya Pass where there were people selling fruits and vegetables and arts and crafts, also pony rides for kids and a few amusement park rides. The natural scenery was beautiful and it was great to be there.  The steps were very steep and with no hand rails, it was challenging to climb. It was a 3-hour bus ride to get there which was pretty exciting.  The area by the port, Tianjin, is reclaimed land, formely salt flats is now being turned into an industrial area.  The streets are very wide with wide green belts and thousands of newly planted trees.  There are new buildings, expressways and bridges that go on for miles.  The massive scale of this undertaking is hard to describe.  The homes of the farmers were destroyed for all of this, but they were moved into new high rise condos for which they are required to pay fairly high rent.  Our bus driver was pretty aggresive which helped (I guess) to get up the mountain.  It was two lane except for when someone wanted to squeeze in a third lane.  There was lots of honking and craziness.  Farmers sold their crops along the roadway.  Others waved bright flags trying to get people to stop at their houses to eat.  We did have a nice lunch close to the Great Wall which was like American Chinese food.  While it was served very traditionally, the food was recognizable, thank goodness.  Earlier, I browsed in a shop and Brian waited by sitting on a small stool in the shade.  A Chinese shop owner pulled up a stool and joined him.  They couldn't talk to each other, but has a pleasant visit nevertheless.  Brian introduced me to his "new Chinese friend".  It was hilarious and I wish I had taken a picture of that.