The Great Wall, Great Company

Saturday morning, April 18th I was waiting at the airport visitors from Finland to arrive, which also did mean receiving some Finnish chocolate and “salmiakki” (salty liquorice) to give a good boost for my studies here in Beijing. Week was planned full of various kind of activities and one highlight absolutely was a visit to the Great Wall, one of the seven wonders in the world.

There are many ways how to get to the Great Wall and we picked to take the train. It was an experience of its own as there was need to be at the station 30minutes before train departure to queue in order to be able to get into the train.  When the gates were opened to the platform people went completely insane, it was like being in the middle of 100 meters world championship final race. Everyone were running like it would be the last train to catch before the worlds end because they wanted to get a seat in a train. I decided not to run and still managed to get a seat, luckily I have long legs so walking fast worked out as an option for me, even that I have to admit that never knew that those small Chinese no matter what age they are can run so fast… This same phenomenon happened on both ways, giving a good laugh both times.

Day was brilliant to visit a great wall, sky was almost cloudless and sun was shining. It truly is now spring, or actually summer if someone would ask my opinion… While entered through the gates to the Great Wall it seemed like there was two options, walk along the wall either South or North and for some reason the Northern section of the wall seemed to be really crowded but Southern one much emptier so of course that was the option. After walking a while I realised what was the reason for that, Southern section was much steeper than Northern one including for example steps rising almost in vertical dimension. The highest peak of that section of the wall was almost 900 meters from sea level (which only several hundred meters less than highest peak in Finland).

But views were really stunning. There was a possibility to see as how the wall continued as far as it was possible to see. It is amazing to think how on earth people have been able to build something like this, especially on the time it was built as the construct work have been based only in human labour. The wall has been built during the time of many Dynasties reaching the total of almost 22 00 kilometres which means that if the wall would have been built in straight horizontal line, it would reach halfway around the globe (length of equator is about 40 000 kilometres), of course majority of the wall has collapse during years have passed and common estimate of walls length is 6 000 – 9 000 kilometres long. At same time, the wall is around 6 meters wide and 8 meter high so I just wonder how many bricks there have been laid down on structures… like I said AMAZING! And now I do not wonder anymore why it is said that the Great Wall is the only world wonders that can be seen from the space.