The Mount Rushmore of China

When I went to China in 2002 I was so bummed that I flew that far and didn't get to see the Great Wall of China. Isn't it supposed to be one of the 7 wonders of the world? So I was really excited when I heard that my next trip to China would include a visit to the Great Wall. Two weeks ago I began a bus ride from my hotel just outside of Tiananmen Square up to the Great Wall. It was a longer bus ride than I expected. We finally got there and I was so sad to see all of the t-shirt vendors and people yelling "Hey Lady, do you want some chopsticks?" Like everything else in the world, they have turned this into a money making deal. It is hard to enjoy the beauty when there is a monorail going up the side of the thing. Oh well, we bought our tickets and jumped on the monorail. When we got up there it was pretty. We walked up to the top of the wall and took a few steps and a few pictures and then it hit me....yep that's what I thought it would look like. The anticipation was so much greater than the actual experience. I immediately thought of the summer after my junior year of college when my family drove for hours across South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore. We finally got there and stood at the observation deck for about 30 seconds and then looked at each other and got back in the car. It looked like the postcards we had all seen. It was quite the disappointment. I don't know what we were expecting then. I don't know what I was expecting at the Great Wall. Wouldn't it be so much cooler if you had never seen pictures of these places and then stumbled upon them. Even if you had always heard about them, but had never seen them. That would be so cool. Well one thing that I had never heard about did happen that day. You can take the monorail back down or you can luge down. I was a little terrified, but I determined that something about this experience was going to be exciting and memorable. So I got on the little sled and down the Great Wall I luged. How awesome is that!