The Great Wall at Last

On our last day in China we finally visited the Great Wall of China, something I'd been looking foward to the whole trip. I have to say, the Wall definately lived up to the "great" in it's name. Although much of it was built over 500 years ago during the Ming Dynasty, it still remains the longest man made structure in the world. Visible from space, it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.



I was surprised to find that climbing the wall felt like as great a feat as building it. For over a half an hour we staggared up hundreds of stone steps that wound their way through the humid jungle. When we stopped to rest, feeling like our limbs were on fire, we were swarmed by huge bugs surfacing from the tangled undergrowth. The agonizing journey to the wall only made it more amazing when I stepped foot on its breezy summit.




































The Wall was spectacular. Only about ten feet wide and punctuated by watch towers every so often, it snaked and dipped across the mountians, dissapearing into the mist. As we climbed over the weather-worn stone I marvalled at how, even after hundreds of years, something built by hand could have lasted so well. Though we profess we've come so far as a society and have built such amazing things beyond the wildest dreams of ancient architects, they have not been built to last. In a hundred years our skyscrapers will probably be crumbling, but the Great Wall will still stand.
























A top the great wall, backdropped against a seemingly endless expanse of jungle, the film crew recorded the last of its promotional ads. It was amazing to think that another student would soon be watching me standing in such an incredible place, proclaiming "this is my classroom," and would be inspired to travel with EF. On tour I really learned the importance of travel, of how it can truly open a person's world view and provides learning through experience that is unequivocal in textbooks. All students should have the opportunity to travel; I know I never would have been able to visit a place like China without aid from a scholarship.