The Great Wall of China; apparently an international symbol of peace, according to the sign at the entrance. It seems that the original purpose of this wall, to defend the Chinese against Northern Nomadic Tribes and other enemies, was long forgotten.
The trip to the wall at Badaling was a little cumbersome. It started with a brisk walk to the Metro; used to get us to Jiangshu. Once there we had to cross a busy motorway to get to our bus stop. It took us ages to figure out where we were supposed to be. Our bus numbers, 877 or 919, seemed to be posted everywhere and queues were randomly forming beside each sign with no bus in sight.
We finally find the correct bus stop, which was a short walk away and get into a queue. Teacher notices another longer queue to our right. We ask a passerby what the queue was for and we get told that it's the seated queue for the bus. 'So what queue are we in?' The standing queue. For a journey estimated to be 2-3 hours long. Great!
Luckily the journey only turned out to be an hour and a half in the end, but it wasn't the most comfortable. We were literally crammed in like sardines in a can.
Finally at the wall. It was a magnificent piece of architecture that stretches for miles and miles. Quite impressive when you think about the era it was built in and what technology people had available to them at the time.
The view from the wall was less impressive. Sadly Beijing's smog had carpeted the landscape and so everything looked a hazy blur.
What was interesting was that for such a big attraction, there were no signs along the wall; describing what the wall had been used for, or any information on who had built it. All that could be seen was a sea of people against a hazy backdrop.
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