Monday, December 11, 2006

Manny's China-Palooza Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of Manny's China Palooza: The Great Wall, Mutianyu

Standing on the granite wall, built during the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644).

This section of the wall is less comercial than the highly touristic section at Badaling, and is famous for the multitude of Ming Dynasty guard towers along its length.

Manny sits in the window of one of the guard towers, admiring the view.

Posing in one of the archers' defense holes

Manny gazes at the steep wall of steps at the end of this section, trying to decide if he has the energy to ascend the near vertical stairs. (You can see the steps starting from near his right ear, heading towards the horizon)

Half-way up the steps. Near enough is not close enough for this intrepid adventurer.

Resting proudly at the platform at the top of the stairs! This is the last Guard Tower before the Wall disintigrates into ruins. Not many people realise that only relatively small parts of the wall have been preserved/restored, and the majority exists as ruins.

Gazing back to where we came from... and where our tired souls (and our tired soles!) have to walk back to.

Until next time...

xxx Manny

Just Another Manny's Monday

1 comment:

Girl Clumsy said...

Hi Louise!

Sorry to not keep track of you for a while...but I loved your photos of the Great Wall. Brought back extraordinary memories - particularly for my legs. ;)

We climbed the section at Jingshanlung (spelling?) to Simitair - 10kms in total, with all that up and down factor. Youch! Still, very proud to be able to say I climbed the Great Wall lived to tell the tale.

My overseas odyssey comes to an end in the New Year....do you ever plan to return to Oz?

Cheers, Natalie.