India on the Great Wall of China

Reporting from Beijing, this is India Stewart, filling in for Cindy "Momma" Stewart-Birdwell as she was a wee bit under the weather.

I felt pretty bad about leaving Momma at the hotel as we went galavanting off to one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. I don't actually know that it is one of the Wonders, but it outta be. I fell asleep as the bus left the hotel, looking out o'er the mass of cars and bikes and people squeezed in between huge buildings and smog. I woke up to mountains of green, the classic landscape that is featured on those Chinese silk paintings. The lush, jagged peaks were lost in the mist (well...smog, either way, the effect was nice). As our bus navigated through a sea of other buses, I struggled to see past the light poles and street signs, trying to catch a glimpse of that thin white line squiggling up the mountainside. That's the crazy thing about this country, epitomized at its most famous landmark. Everything is so insanely mashed together. The Great Wall of China, an amazing piece of history that can be SEEN FROM SPACE, is crawling with tourists and hawkers and scary bathrooms, BUT IT IS STILL INCREDIBLE!! As we start up the first of what someone counted as more that 1500 steps, we're all the same. You and me and the African men in their suits and the monks in their robes and the German, French, Italian, and the who-knows-where-else families all. We're all trying to make it as far as we can. Climbing up, I had to keep my eyes down, watching where I was going, trying not to stumble on the uneven steps. Breathe deep, keep going, make it to the top. Every few minutes, I'd stop and look back at how high I'd come, how far I had to go. I could see the hordes of people moving upward, heads down so not to stumble. Stopping and sitting on the steps to breathe, gulp some water, snap some pictures, and just take it in. We're climbing the Great Wall of China, can you believe it? Everywhere, faces of all different nationalities doing the exact same thing. Keep climbing. The higher I got, the less people I saw. The Climb weeds out the men from the boys, the women from the girls. Someone whooped from up ahead. "The one thousandth step!!" Keep climbing, can't be far now. Those Chinese guards who manned the signal fires must have been some seriously buff guys. Gotta keep them Huns out ya know. Keep climbing, can't be far now. The Climb is deceptive, you think you're almost there then, oh! there's more. But nonetheless, we keep climbing. Keep breathing and for goodness sake, keep taking pictures. The view from the top is just fantastic and it is the Great Wall of China for pete's sake.

I brushed my hair on top of the Great Wall of China. Countless others have carved their names into the rock. Chinese characters, English, is that Finnish? As I wandered around taking in the view (honestly, trying to make my legs stop shaking), I couldn't help but think, "Dude, this is the Great Freaking Wall of China, how insanely cool is that?" How many languages does that translate into?

Keep Climbing.