We had the day off today and visited the Great Wall of China before leaving for Shanghai on an overnight train. It was a beautiful, clear day but it was extremely cold day. The day’s high temperature reached a cold 27 degrees F with strong wind gusts.
The Great Wall stretched out to the horizon as far as the eye could see. This particular section of the Wall was built on jagged mountain terrain. Climbing the wall was challenging at some points given that the steps were about one-foot high each, and at some points were at a 70 degree incline. We walked for about an hour up the Wall until finally reaching the highest point on the Wall in that area. The wind gusts were strong enough to knock someone over. The wind almost blew the gloves off my hands! It reminded me of those river-flood rescue videos in which the people getting rescued lose half their clothes while getting pulled out of the raging rivers.
David Mantilla 