Welcome to Badaling - the easiest access to The Great Wall from Beijing. Cute little town, don't you think? The Great Wall is directly behind me...

...and of COURSE, there's a market. Then again, among the touristy items are essentials such as hats, gloves, and warm coats. It gets really cold and windy up here.

Check out that senior citizen discount! Adult, Student, and...? -_ :)

The Great Wall obviously stretches in both directions from here - and as it crosses mountain peakes, it gets STEEP!

...up, Up, UP, and away.

Did I mention that it gets STEEP? Sometimes it feels more like climbing a ladder

As the wall drops and curves to the left in this photo, you can see where we began our climb (from the square "castle-like" entry.) Look into the distance... See how high the wall climbs as it spans the mountain peaks? We are actually walking the other way because the wall gets steeper and climbs higher in this direction. Call it foolish-pride of the "I think I'm still young" - we were told that the wall climbs higher by heading off in this direction, so off we went. We'll be questioning that youth in about 30 minutes. This REALLY IS a climb.

Yet another example of how pictures don't do the real thing justice.