Through some reviews on the Internet I found a guide named Simon Xiao and arranged to have him pick me up from the airport and go directly to the Great Wall so that I’d be able to get some sightseeing in on the first day. Simon was fantastic and was a great guide. Not only with information about the Great Wall, but general China how to information to make the trip a bit easier. Thanks Simon!
This was definitely one of those things that you just have to see with your own eyes to appreciate the magnitude of it. Seeing the size of this wall, and knowing how far it extends was just incredible. Thinking about the manpower required to build this, and all by hand without modern equipment, just boggles the mind. As I walked around it and looked down at my feet, I was thinking that every single foot of it probably amounted to several peoples entire lifetimes worth of work.
Simon told me that the lettering on the side of the hill say “Loyalty to Chairman Mao”
