The Great (Wall) Sleep

I think this article has a very interesting spin on it. Definitely think it is short-sighted and only focuses on 'suspicions.' However, it still highlights some things the government is doing to crack down on any potential wrong-doers.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4449148.ece

I love watching the Associated Press news clips, especially their thoughts on the environment in Beijing and preparing for the Olympics. Easily found on google by searching the olympics. Here is the link when I last searched Olympics on the AP website.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/search.hosted.ap.org/
wireCoreTool/Search?SITE=ORMED&query=olympics

Last weekend we went to the Great Wall with the intention of spending the night (see first picture, note pretty sky!). When we entered the Great Wall gate, however, it was pretty clear to the ticket takers what our intentions were. By the time we took the chairlift to the top, the security guards on the wall already knew we were coming and watched us walk around. It didn't help that there were maybe 3 other tourists there. We talked to the security guards (also known as Shifus) and begged them to let us sleep on the wall, but they said since July 26th, they aren't allowed to let anyone stay overnight on the wall. The last people from my school that stayed overnight was on July 25th. Darn. Since the Shifu understood that we really wanted to see the sunrise on the Great Wall, he told us we could stay at his place! So we climbed down the wall, along the way meeting every Great Wall official that stays by the wall, and then went to the Shifus restaurant/house where we ate and played cards. We then went into our rooms and slept 8 to a hard bed, staying up late telling ghost stories. At 3:30 am, we woke up and climbed back up the Great Wall to see the sunrise (see second picture). It definitely didn't compare to Taishan, but it was still an amazing feeling to have the Great Wall all to ourselves as the sun rose in a beautiful sky and gave us a clear view of the wall in both directions (see 3rd picture).

tower to get onto the unrestored section. The unrestored section was especially fun because we had toWe then walked all the way to the east end of the restored section of Mutianyu and climbed through a window opening in the last fight our way through trees and bushes to get to small clearings where we could appreciated the wall in its natural run-down state (see last picture). It is in the unrestored section where I could best imagine an army attacking from one direction and what it would be like to live in such a remote area. The fact that this part is so mountainous explains why it was only attacked once, but the idea of building the wall or living on the wall in such a remote area is still beyond me.