China- Beijing Day 2, Juyongguan Great Wall Fort

Day two, our most anticipated day since booking the trip. Today we would set foot on one of the greatest wonders of the world, The Great Wall of China. A week or so before the trip, I looked up the weather to see how to pack. When I saw possible snowfall in the forecast, I may have squeeeeeeed and shrieked with excitement. You can imagine the smile on my face that morning, along with the kids, when we had awoke to the first snowfall of the year, for Beijing.  As we got up and dressed for the day, we realized we had forgotten tights for M and I. These items I had made sure to set aside while gathering clothing to pack because I knew it would be way to cold to wear just pants. We knew we were going to be cold up on the wall, but we had no idea of the story we'd have because of the snow on the wall.

Every day of the trip started early, with breakfast at the hotel and everyone loading on the bus. On the bus ride to our destination, Sunny would become an encyclopedia, giving facts about the places we were passing as well as a few phrase/words. Here are some of the interesting facts we had learned in the past 3 days:

*The language in China is a complex network of Chinese dialects and other languages. Madarin is the official national language and is referred to as Pŭtōnghuà (普通話, Common language). 

*While China covers five times zones, the country only has one: Beijing Standard Time. This wasn't always the case, until 1949 when Chairman Mao Zedong wanted to create unity within the country.

*Beijing limits their license plates by official decree. This is done to help aide in congestion within the city but has also created a "black market" for illegal plate making. 

* Our language lesson: “hello” is “nǐ hǎo” or 你好, Xièxie (sshyeah-sshyeah) 谢 谢 is Thank you. Shì is used to mean "yes." 

On the way to the wall, we were able to pass the Birds Nest from the 2008 Olympics, the rest of the park and the Olympic village. I wish we could have stopped to do a little picture taking, but I'll take the drive by. The bus ride to the wall took about an hour, so I caught up on some reading. 

We finally arrived at the Juyongguan Great Wall Fort. Our first glimpse of the wall was spectacular. The slight snow dusting made it even more gorgeous. We were here! We were finally at the Great Wall of China!!

As we got to the ticket entrance, we all stood around. For some reason the gate was close and our guide Sunny was in a "heated" conversation with one of the workers. We later learned they were trying to tell us that they were not going to open up that part of the wall because of the snow fall. After a few mixtures, they opened up the gate and let us through. M was already complaining about being cold, so we stopped at the little shop and got some hot chocolate. Of course, it was too hot and she wouldn't drink it. ey, ey ey! So of course I was in charge of the hot chocolate. It made for a fun circus act of trying to juggle the cup of steaming hot chocolate and taking pictures. 

I snapped a few pictures while Shane and the kids began their ascent. With every step, the wind got stronger and stronger. The picture above is at the bottom step of the wall, take note of the structure on both sides of the walkway. As you can see, there are also no steps until further along the wall, starting the trek with a slight incline. This design has deemed this part of the wall handicap accessible. In spring or summer, that description would be right. On this days covered in snow, it was far from accessible, let alone for the handicap. The trampled snow, mixed with the cold temps and the incline made for a fun first 20min on the wall. We made it with a little struggle to the first guard lookout. 

This is the first section of the wall. Here you see our guide sliding. TK is to the left of this picture holding to the wall, trying to make his way up.

 It was at the second inline that things got hard. The right side of the wall had a gutter and was a little safer to use to make it up to the landing. However, because of the gutter those descending were using it, creating quite the predicament. The right side of the wall had the castle wall design, which ended up helping us. Shane took the lead, then TK and them myself. M, the odd man out, made her way to the top on her little knees.  As we all tried to cling to the wall, there were many people still attempting to make it up the walkway on the icy stone path. A gal that continued to try would get within inches of the top, lose grip and come barreling down with no ability to direct herself. There were quite a few times on her way down, that she took people out on the right side of the wall (to include a little girl and her mom who was also had a baby strapped to her). For this reason, we chose to climb the left side. So we climbed and climbed. When M made her way to the top on her knees, I attempted to follow. I made it a good distance away from the boys when my jeans and gloves froze over and I slipped. Just like a scene in the movies, I began to slide down the path with nothing to grab onto. Shane reached out his hand, I managed to catch it and clung on as his pulled me into the wall. I wish we had video of this as it was quite the event. My hero <3 again.="" ahold="" all="" along="" anchor="" and="" ascend="" best="" between="" bottom="" boys.="" closer="" could="" d="" decided="" do="" done="" finally="" for="" getting="" go="" grab="" hand="" he="" him.="" him="" himself="" hole="" i="" inched="" incline="" it="" just="" let="" lock="" m="" me="" of="" our="" out="" over="" p="" probably="" pull="" push="" reach="" s="" shane="" so="" stick="" t="" that="" the="" then="" tk="" to="" top="" tried="" up="" us.="" us="" using="" waiting="" wall.="" wall="" was="" wasn="" way="" we="" where="" while="" with="" would="" yet.="">

This is the gal who continued to use the walkway. This is probably the only time she did not slam into someone as she got to the bottom.

We had finally reached the stairs. The steep icy steps, with only an icy railing to aide us. To say it felt like a death trap, was an understatement. M was in front of me and would slip and my hearth would jump. We made it to a look out point and stopped to catch our breathe as well as snap a few pictures. The gal who was sliding down the wall was with her family and it was here that I was asked to video them for a "mannequin challenge." 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNELr0zAobj/

It was also here that M was done climbing. Her pants were now wet from her crawl up the first part of the wall and the wind was ripping through all her layers. There was no way we were going to make it any further, but the boys wanted to continue. So we stayed at the lookout spot with her hurdled into the corner under her blanket, the boys took my camera and kept going. While M and I were hunkered down, another family from our group passed by. Their daughter was also freezing and exhausted. She had even less layers them M and just wanted to be done. I had her cuddle up with M and her parents continued up in the same directions as the boys. I sat with the girls for a little bit before I remember we had passed a small off shoot trail that said there was a tiny shack with coffee. I grabbed the girls in death grips and we descended down the icy steps to the shack. The girls sat huddled next to the space heater while we waited. About ten minutes passed and the girls parents passed by. I bundled the girls back up and we climbed back up to the main trail. The boys made it down to us as we got back onto the main walkway, Shane let me know he lost my lens cap and we made our way back down the wall. As we reached the incline we saw it had been dusted with dirt and I couldn't help but laugh. Everyone that came after us would know nothing of our struggle. The kids and I decided to slide down the wall while Shane walked along the dirt path and took pictures. We snapped a few family photos, a few snapshots of the fort and then were ushered back to the bus. When we got on the bus, Shane and TK were talking with other and realized they had made it the farthest along the wall. Apparently after they passed through a section, the workers had roped it off. When they were making their way back, they had to climb over it. I joked that if they had continued, they would have made it across the river.

 After almost being blown away by the wind, we made it back onto the bus. The bus pulled away from the wall and our biggest adventure of the trip. I couldn't help but frown knowing that we made it to the Great Wall of China and would probably never be back. I always wish I could just live in these magical places we visit. Our next stop for the day was lunch and the Jade factory.