Now the Great Wall can be checked off my list. I have to say that I was not as impressed as I expected to be. The bus ride was long to get there and the walk up to the wall was very tiring. The wall itself was cool and provided really nice views of the scenery, but it’s still just a giant wall running through the mountains. However, I was curious about how they went about building the massive wall because it is engineered well and obviously took a lot of time and effort to build. Then, after walking around a bit, the group split up. Some went to see more of the wall while the rest of us took a gondola down the mountain and shopped. The shopping experience was just like all the markets we’ve been to before, but I decided to get a bunch of things today to take back as gifts. I also couldn’t leave without an “I climbed the Great Wall” T-shirt.
We then went to lunch at a restaurant near the wall. There were cute dogs there that walked around our feet. The food was really good there. It was the first time I had pork that reminded me of Chinese food in America. All the other food has been different so far, but the one dish of pork was sweet and sour pork and was delicious. There was also a pond of fish at the restaurant where you could catch the fish you eat. We played around there for a little bit before we left to go back to the hotel. Once we got back, the tradition of hospital visits continued. My roommate had to go to the hospital for a small eye problem, but at least he got to have the experience. He said it was a very western style hospital that was very clean, and there was no wait to see the doctor. Luckily everything ended up ok.