Even a year ago, I would have never imagined that I would see the Great Wall of China with my very own eyes, let alone climb it.
The day began at 6:00 AM, when we boarded the bus for a two-hour drive to the section of the Great Wall that we would climb. I had no other shoes other than the Vans that I had brought with me, and after contemplating whether I should buy athletic shoes last-minute, I figured it couldn’t be THAT bad.
I was wrong.
We began the trek at around 9:00, where we began at a small village at the foot of the Great Wall. The total walking time up the Great Wall was about 3 hours. No two steps up the Great Wall were the same size, and it was probably one of the most difficult hikes I’d experienced in my entire life. It was difficult to imagine that soldiers used to patrol the wall from tower to tower. However, each view from one tower to the next was different and breathtaking in its own way. At the top of each tower, it was possible to fully take in the beauty of the mountainside and the Wall itself.
At the end of the grueling yet rewarding climb up the Great Wall, we took a lift in order to get back down to the small village. The lift provided a different view of the Great Wall that could not be viewed from the hike. As I watched the stretch of the Great Wall that I had successfully hiked on the way down, I felt a sense of accomplishment of having climbed one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
