So long. So steep. Centuries to create. One of the Eight Wonders of the World. Our group arrived at Mutianyu base with access to a portion of The Great Wall, walked through shopping stalls then hopped onto chair lifts to get to the top. Two of our group planned to ride toboggans down.

The Great Wall is not contiguous in total. It consists of many smaller subparallel walls, built using different techniques and materials through time. Mostly, it runs along ridge tops, capping the steep mountains.

Our guide told us the eastern side from where we were dropped off by the chair lift was more challenging, while the west was less steep. Almost all of us started toward the more difficult side to begin.

The steps on the wall varied in height and spacing depending on the grade, making for challenging walking. Rocks varied from granite and gneiss to dark basaltic volcanics. It is difficult to imagine the immense effort to build these walls centuries ago.

The cats looked well fed. Perhaps tourists gave them snacks, or maybe lots of small rodents were available.

Brian walked up to the lookout at the top of a hill, pictured below. He said that the view from this lookout was obscured by trees; the lower one had better views.

Photographs cannot capture the immensity of this human-made entity. We walked a tiny portion, overwhelmed.

People from all over the planet, speaking multitudes of languages were visiting while we were there. The wall is a gift to humanity.

Up on a face of a mountain, five large Chinese characters remind people of their duty to the government.

We both took dozens of pictures, and they didn’t seem enough. The mountains in the area we visited were magnificent as well.

We re-met everyone at the base, ready for a lovely lunch. Then a bus ride back to Beijing.

We wandered around Beijing for our last evening in the huge city. Spying crowded food stalls in an outdoor mall, we inhaled unusual scents and eyed delightful food temptations. The fresh fruit looked perfect, both here and at other street stalls.

The food mall was found by accident. Our goal was a craft brewery that Nick and Mikey had visited. We found the Great Leap brewery and had a couple of delicious beers.

Dinner was strange but tasty pizza at a cute hole-in-the-wall spot near our hotel.

Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) is the main passageway to the Forbidden City. The famous Square was a place of many political rallies and protests. We visited both.

Near the Forbidden City, we were again subjected to three police searches and identification checks. Going through Tianamen Square, knowing some of the history through the Great Course we watched before arriving, Clare felt a bit subdued, awed perhaps. So much happened here, and our guide was not allowed to talk about it. We wandered for about 45 minutes through the square then rejoined our group for the Forbidden City.

Since Peter told us this was our only chance to photograph soldiers but to ask permission first, Clare asked a few young men (mostly using gestures) if she could take their pictures. About half said no, but some were OK with it.

The center of the square is empty, ready for another rally? The edges were full of decorative flowers and sculptures.

The giant balls of flowers are actual bushes, replaced with other bushes as soon as the flowers fade.

The flag that flies in Tiananmen Square is changed daily. The old flags are used to honor veterans at their funerals.

And now we see the forbidden.

Beijing Central Axis, a UNESCO Heritage Site, includes Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and many other buildings along this meridian, including those we walked to on the hill yesterday.

The name forbidden makes humans curious, wanting to see it. This is a popular destination. We passed through the Gate of Supreme Harmony into the inner parts of the city, where the emperor, empress and all the concubines and eunuchs resided, each in their separate sections. The movie, “The Last Emperor,” is the only movie actually allowed to film at this site.

The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms. Powerful.

After lunch we hopped in a couple of cars to ride to an acrobatic show near the Olympic Park,

After the fantastic acrobatics show, which concluded with 5 motorcycles riding inside a steel mesh sphere, we hopped on a city bus to ride to the center of the Olympic Park. Here is a video from seats on the second level.

To make Olympic Park, the government started in 2000 to clear people’s houses and businesses out of the large acreage needed for the games. The people had no choice but to leave because the land belonged to the government and they were renting from the government. But one old temple remained. The story is told that when government workers tried to cut down the building with large machines, the machines broke down. The temple was untouched. So, workers with sledge hammers were sent in to flatten the temple, but a tornado blew them all away. The story made one person in our group name it the “Temple with a Tempest”.

Brian and Clare shared dumplings for dinner after a busy day.

25 million people. We got a feel for that this day when we went to a park with a hill and lots of good views of Beijing.

On the walk toward our park we passed beautiful buildings and interesting monuments.

At Jingshan Park just across the street from the Gate of Divine Prowess, we were willing to pay the entrance fee but they waved us in, possibly because of our age. The ticket agent looked at our passports carefully.

What a gorgeous park! The wide variety of trees was exotic to us. Some smaller bushes and plants were likely native, but many were recognizable European species.

We started up the hill to see the pavilions, all built in 1750. The trail was steep in parts but well made and not too long.

The pavilions were similar but not the same, and the views of the city were certainly worth the hike up the man-made hill.

Outside the garden, we walked through the area near Beijing University, seeing buildings that could have been dorms and some classrooms or research centers.

Our hotel, the King Parkview, was very hard to find! It is in an older area on an alley or hutong. We walked up and down all the adjacent alleys before finally finding where we would stay. Later, we saw this nice sign obscured by bamboo.

After meeting our fellow travelers and guide, we all went out for Peking Duck. The chef is carving two roast ducks for our table.

Half way around the world.

Yesterday evening we arrived in Beijing after a quick visit in Vancouver BC to see Checkers and their family. In the plane, we noticed that the path started on a Great Circle, shortest distance between points on the surface of a sphere. But as we went further west toward Asia, we deviated off the circle. It seemed we were avoiding flying over the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula by angling south. Another small deviation seemed to avoid North Korea. Neither of us knew how long such air traffic deviations have been occurring. Data from past flights appears to show that this is routine for this route.

Crossing the International Date Line was fun to watch on the phone. Suddenly, Saturday disappeared into Sunday! Or, more accurately, the date changed from 6 to 7 in a flash. This happened after the 12.5 hour flight.

We took a train part way then walked about 40 minutes to our hotel and had dinner at the hotel. So far, understanding English with Chinese accents shortly after weeks of French accents has been bemusing. Our ears will surely improve.

Later, we noticed there is no fourth floor in our hotel. In Chinese the pronunciation of the number 4 resembles that for death so it is avoided. Tetraphobia shapes everyday life in China..

In the morning, we followed a walking tour here in downtown Beijing.

Outside St Joseph’s, we met two teachers who spoke English well. One taught English and both taught art. They took our picture in front of the church and told us many things about Beijing. They brought us to an exhibition by their students and teachers from their school. The original artwork, paintings, calligraphy, embroideries and glassware painted on the inside were for sale. We felt welcomed to China.

We liked that the Earthly father (rather than the mother) of Jesus was honored here. After we toured the church area, another teacher started talking to us. He, too, was informative, telling us what we were looking at (otherwise many photos would not be labeled) and walked with us along the tour we had planned. One fact, in front of St Joseph’s Church was that this church symbolized Eastern Christianity rather than Western.

This pedestrian mall has many smaller indoor malls on both sides. The entrances can be ornate.

Then we walked towards the Forbidden City, which was closed for the day. The huge police presence around that famous place stopped us twice just for walking by. We had to show ID (electronic picture of passport worked) and the small backpack was searched. Police tents were on almost every corner on the wide street where an entrance was located.

So we turned onto a small street and parallel the edge of the Forbidden City. This street featured many tiny stalls selling trinkets or food.

Lunch was at Siji Minfu, a fabulous restaurant famous for roast duck; we ate half a duck with bean sauce wrapped in rice pancakes. A server showed us how to eat this delicious dish. Later, we learned that there can be hours long lines to eat here.

“Peking Duck” is not the same as you might find in the U.S.