Sept. 30- Great Wall Hike and Donghua Arrival

Once again we had a 7:30 wake up call and we ate breakfast around 8. The food wasn't what I would eat for breakfast, it was more like lunch food so we didn't eat much. We boarded the bus and headed to the Jiayuguan Pass. The weather was chilly in the morning because we were in the desert. The fort was huge and the view of the dessert leading to the mountains was really cool. We climbed the wall and then walked up the steps to the sentry level and walked around the wall. The view was incredible from all angles. They had arrows that you could shoot down to the first level at targets and stuffed models of warriors. Of course, all the boys jumped on this opportunity with gusto. They even had soldier stand ins that walked around the wall in armor. After we walked around the entire upper perimeter we headed back to the first level to sit and wait for the rest of the group to reconvene. While we were sitting there random Chinese people, mostly men, walked up and wanted to take their pictures with me and Jess Fay. They just came up and with each photo more and more of them came around to take one. Jess and I considered charging for the photos. It was like we were the tourist attraction and not the fort. They also took pictures of our entire group when we walked around. It's very strange to be stared at all the time.

After the fort we headed to the Great Wall. We visited the western most part of the wall and it looked like it ended at the point where we were. It was a very long way to the top. Walking up the stairs reminded me of running bleachers in high school except 50 times steeper and with much thinner air. Bill and Kyle B. ran from the bottom to the top and we gladly walked behind them and watched. Once we got to the top we could see for miles and felt a great sense of accomplishment. On the way down we walked down stairs next to the wall and Selina and I were worried our legs would give out from underneath us. They were definitely shaking the whole way down. We went to lunch after the Wall and then began our 5 hour bus ride to Donghua through the Goby Desert. When we got to Donghua we checked into the hotel and went to their famous night  market for dinner. We had a local favorite, a chinese hamburger, which is chopped up pork with peppers and onions in a kind of pancake. It was incredible! I also bought a wood carving and an old Chinese book for souvenirs. After the market we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Climbing around on the fort and the wall wore us out :)