The Great Wall of China

The second day we went to the Great Wall of China. The first day I told Danny that he didn't have to smile or be in any photos the whole entire trip as long as I got a good photo of our family at the Great Wall. The first day Justin and I snuck a few photos of him and when he caught us doing it he was really mad. That whole first day was terrible. After McDonalds for dinner Danny was much happier and slept well. He was excited to go to The Great Wall and for whatever reason, he told us he wanted to lay down on The Great Wall. Danny was a superstar there. Lots of people wanted to take a photo of the little white boy. On the right are girls from South Korea. They gave him candy so he would take a photo with them. After that he was all smiles for the rest of the trip. We walked and walked and walked. I didn't try to count the number of stairs we climbed. I stopped at the second tower but Danny wanted to keep going so Justin took him half way up to the next tower. The guide told us that the wall extended all the way into the desert and Danny wanted to walk there to get warm. The wall was built in 220B.C., is about 5,500 miles long and each stair is built at a different height. The step down may be 8" or 2". This made it hard to climb and I was worried I would fall the whole time. Luckily they installed hand rails and I didn't fall until the last day walking out of some one's house (story to follow). The genius about the step height was that invaders couldn't run down the stairs very well or they'd trip and fall. I imagine it would look like dominoes. One really cool thing is that right before we left Danny leaned down and picked up a tiny piece of rock that had come loose and gave it to me so we have a little bit of The Wall with us. After our hike we got our souvenir magnet then proceeded to the Ming Tombs and the tea shop and Jade factory.