It's a great great wall and defying gravity

Right now we are feeling the effects of "scaling" the Great Wall.  Being there this time around brought back a lot of memories, mainly the sight of a big blond white man sweating profusely while holding a sleeping dead weight small Chinese girl with no hair (who was also sweating profusely) while people were taking lots of pictures.  A great discovery I made this time around is that there is a more "gradual" way up. It's still difficult, but not as bad as what is in the picture.



Here Sissy is heading down the steep part, while the poor woman in the picture is struggling mightily.



We look happy here because it was before we started on our trek.



It was worth the view.  It's hard to see, but there are a series of guard towers in the distance.  All I know is that those Huns were some pretty serious people to be crossing these mountains.



I wasn't sure if I was going to get away with this picture, but I thought it was so funny that these military guys were covering up the sign that said, "Please don't climb."  I guess they figured no one was really going to tell them to stop.



Sissy thought this building looked like a face so she posed in the "mouth."



Here are some words of wisdom we found along the path.



On the way back from the Great Wall and lunch, we passed by some of the venues used in the Beijing Olympics.  They may look familiar to you.  The one that may not look familiar is the "viewing tower" that was not finished in time for the Olympics and which is still not done.  It is supposed to be open to the public soon (unlike the "Mao-saleum, sorry, I just had to say that again).



Our last touristy thing for our time in Beijing was an acrobat show that was much more than your run of the mill tumbling exercises.  The acrobats seemed to dare gravity to have its effects on them.  It was funny that the name of the act was displayed on a screen, in English even.  I suppose that was to answer the question that was in people's minds..."What in the world are they doing?"



When I watched this guy do his act I thought, "I am so glad I am not his mother."  Followed by the thought, "Thank goodness Monkey boy isn't here, because he would try this at home."  By the way, after I took this picture, the guy added two more chairs on top and balanced the same way.  At least he didn't say, "Look Ma, no hands!"



Yes, I purposely took this shot of this guy standing in the middle of the aisle.  He had been talking on the phone.  Apparently, silence is not golden around here. 



Tomorrow we leave at 6:30 am for the airport to fly into Zhengzhou (which I discovered I have been mispronouncing for quite some time).  One step closer to the girls!

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