The Great Wall

Rick visited the Great Wall today. We have ridden under the Wall, and have seen it from a car, but have not stood on it until now. (This is a shameful admission. We have been in China for a year and a half. It takes an hour on a bus to get to the wall. It is one of the marvels of the world….and we have not visited it. We just are some of the worlds worse tourists, and have trouble gearing ourselves up to spend the time and energy to do things like this.) Rick accompanied our ERRC team leader and a group of 6 students from Prairie Bible School in Alberta, Canada who are visiting us. This is the first stop on their trip to 6 month assignments ranging from places in Africa to places in the Far East. Truthfully, there have been very few times that we have contact with short term teams. I know that I cannot do the walking necessary to tour them around, but I can feed them. So I am feeding 10 people for the next 3 days. Good thing I have a crockpot and an instant pot. I can do this without too much hassle.

Rick’s response to his visit to the Wall is that it was well worth doing….once. He says it is extensive walking, all up hill. He is exhausted and except for eating supper with the team has been in bed. The first wall was started in 700 BC. The current wall dates from 1300’s AD. It stretches about 5,000-13,000 miles and is about 27 feet high and 16 feet wide! The size and erratic wanderings of the wall is hard to describe. The gradient at places on top of the wall involves almost crawling on your hands and knees. The view is spectacular.  We have a friend here who ran a half marathon on top of the Wall. Can you imagine being able to say that!! So, we have lived at 10,000 feet in the heart of the Andes Mountains. We have canoed on a tributary of the Amazon River. We have visited the largest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls. We have been in safari parks in Africa. We have traveled down the Panama Canal. And now at least Rick, has been on the Great Wall of China. What a life!