Friday, July 15

Simatai is a less touristy section of the Great Wall known for its beauty and steepness. Located approximately 120 km north of Beijing, we had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get there on time. Much mist-ery was experienced up on the Wall:

After much sweating and legwork plus a constant drizzle of light rain, we arrived at our destination, the tenth watchtower. For some of us, a fraction of the journey involved crawling up the stairs on our hands. The view at the top was amazing but the thought of going back down on the slippery stones was not.

 

The Wall had strategic holes for defense during wartime:

What was upsetting though was the amount of waste that tourists had accumulated near the watchtowers. A splattering of plastic bottles lines the greenery nearby, ruining the efforts to preserve this World Cultural Heritage Site.

Of course we had to take a few selfies along the way. Princeton represent! Credits to the long-armed Oliver Hsu: