China, Day 2: The Great Wall

...or, as Tessa said it should be called: The Great Stairs of China 

Driving to The Great Wall. Sadie passed out. Jet lag was rougher than we had anticipated. 

The ticket office for The Great Wall

Outside the ticket office. The Great Wall is on the mountains in the background, too small to make out from this picture. 

Shuttle to get us closer

Small walk to get us even closer

Chair lift to get us closer

You can start to see wall in the background

We made it! 

Playing around in the forts on the wall

Amazing to actually be here. 

Not sure if it is evident but the wall is far in the background; it is the straight'ish line along the ridge, down from the peaks. The point is, the wall stretches all over the place. Absolutely incredible. 

So many stairs.

And so steep! 

We were sneaky and went out to a section of the wall that has not been restored.

Trees are now growing in the middle of the wall. 

The wall runs all the way along the ridge, on top of the mountains, and you can even see it wrapping around on the far mountain. 

Heading back down

Sadie liked all the small engravings in the bricks

Stairs! 

Waiting while Jacko takes Jodi and Autumn to the section of the wall that has not been restored. 

Just playing around. 

Dragon statue that Sadie liked

In-line for the toboggan ride down

Sliding down, Autumn right behind us

Jack in front. This is the only time I saw him. He was yelled at all the way down by the workers to slow down. He didn't. 

End of the line.