Saturday, February 03, 2018

Day 9 in China - The Great Wall


Sunday, we hired a guide to drive us to the Great Wall north of Beijing. It was a fantastic blue sky day with no wind. I think the cold kept the crowds at home - there were barely any tourists there, and the street vendors at the bottom were very eager to deal. I picked up some Chairman Mao pins for CP for a buck and an "I heart BJ" t-shirt for $3.


The challenge of a border wall is the support it requires. You can't just simply build a wall and expect it alone to keep out the invaders; it must be staffed and maintained. The Great Wall has guard quarters every few hundred yards. I can't imagine the resources that were required to keep this all in operation.


There is a feral cat colony at the wall. They all want attention, but cannot allow themselves to come closer than out of arm's reach.

After visiting the wall, we boarded a bullet train and went an hour (at 180 mph) southwest to Baoding. The restaurant there hat a cat motif on their seat cushions.


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