Saturday, April 05, 2008

Mae Guoren on the Great Wall at Simatai

Wo shi Mae Guoren (Pinyin for: I am American, pronounced: whoa-sha-may-gwor-in), and I was on "The Wall" at Simatai, China yesterday! It was more awesome than words can describe or pictures can show, but I'll try.

However I'm having severe difficulty uploading photos to Blogger right now, so I'm sorry to keep you in suspense. As soon as I can get them through I'll continue the post and share the photos.

I will at least let you know that the section of the wall that we visited was 2-1/2hrs taxi ride away, and it took us 5 hrs to walk the wall. The walk was scenic, historic, and very physically challenging. I would compare it to working out on a "Stair Master" for 4 hrs straight. OK I admit I've never actually done that, but this has got to be as close to that as you can get!

My legs were burning by about the half way point (I have a picture that I'll share when I can) and I felt like I wasn't going to be able to make it, but the group of new (very young!) friends I was with were patient and encouraging and helped to divert my attention with good conversation, which helped keep me motivated and I did walk the entire route.

I apologize for this unplanned teaser and will keep trying to get the pictures uploaded! It looks like there's extremely heavy traffic on the internet tonight for some reason and it's causing alot of hickups in my connection!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have pictures of your legs or the half way point? LOL! Can't wait to see them. Sounds like there are going to be so many things to see and so many new people to meet when I get there! Two weeeks from today!
Love,
Lightnin

Anonymous said...

How long is the wall? And/how many miles did you go? jaf

Anonymous said...

Hi Buddy, just letting you know that KU just crushed UNC to get into the final...it was pretty awesome. Just spent a week in FL on business and we are going to edisto for spring break now. I'll bet the Wall was fantastic. Hope you are doing well; your wife is ready to see you! Love, Dave

Thunder said...

Lightnin - You said it! Everywhere I go I meet more people who give me more tips on what to see and when. I can't wait for you to get here. I'll set up the driver this next week!

JaF - There's several sections, 3 of which are within a couple of hours drive from here. the section we were on was about 10K (6 miles) which we did in a record pace of 5 hours!

Davie - That's awesome! I could have watched it at the bar at 6AM this morning, but I opted to try to sleep instead! When is the final game?

Anonymous said...

great pic.so wase the first 1/2 fun & the socond 1/2 tourcher to the old body. or was it just a walk in the park. S T E B