A 10K in 3:57:42 - The Great Wall of China

Yes, to any OPRC or runners that are reading this, its a PW (personal worst) for a 10K. And yes, it took almost 4 hours to do a 10K, but my excuse is, it was the Great Wall of China!

So yes, check! Another Wonder of the World seen. Done and done. The amazing Great Wall of China, also known as Wan Li Changcheng, or "Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li, li being a Chinese measure of distance roughly equal to 500m). It stretches for several thousand miles and for anyone that is interested, it was built after the unification of China under Qin Shi Huangdi (around 221BC) as means to separate it from rival territories and barbarians. After Qin Shi Huangdi, other emperors continued to maintain and expand it as more threats arose. So from the 5th century to the 14th-16th, it was considered a priority and was continuously being built and reconstructed. Its interesting because during this time the wall was hated - it wasted the country's wealth and worked thousands to death in building it. It is estimated that over a million workers constructed it during the Qin Shi Huang time, but by the time emperor Sui came, there wasn't enough men left and they recruited the widows of the lost men. That would suck, huh? I found this interesting poem that described it:

The wall is so tall because it is stuffed with the bones of soldiers
THe wall is so deep because it is watered with the soldiers' blood.

The irony of it all is that after all that, the wall never served its purpose. Many invasions continued to occur and cross this 'defense,' and was of little use against the sea power of Japan and later, Europe. But as these things go, it did serve some good, for a route of passage for troops and goods, and more importantly, I guess it restricted the movement of the nomadic people. Or something like that.

So story goes that after the Qing dynasty, the Machus left the wall to fall into desrepair because it wasn't serving its purpose as an obstacle to invasion. It started to crumble, and now in present day its been slowly restored and repaired for tourist means. And by tourists, there are of course, millions that have tramped on it. But helloo? You can't go to China without seeing the Great Wall! We decided to pick a route that was further away from the city than the popular sites like Badaling where everyone goes, and Jinshanling to Simatai is known to be less crowded. BUT, as it happened, we were very very lucky and picked the day before a Chinese holiday to go to the wall so it was pretty empty. We did the almost 4 hour 10K walk from Jinshanling to Simatai, and were to tired to walk another 2 miles to the carpark and did a fun paraglide down a hill, which I've never done before. The great wall is beautiful and... hard work! Lots of lunging and climbing and hiking through steep steps and steep inclines/declines. GREAT to get some exercise and a nice cardio workout! It was a beautiful day though, not to hot. Most people go there in the summer when it is extremely hot, and I couldn't even imagine that. It was fun, and like I said, really really nice that it wasn't too packed with people.

So yes, now I can say that I climbed the Great Wall of China! And here it is (I picked one without me because I was gross and sweaty):