The Great Wall Of China
The Badaling section of the Great Wall of China. What to Expect.
The main feature of the Badaling section of the Great wall is the gate. The Badaling Gate was the main entrance if you will to the Peking -Beijing population area, which would have had a lot of people even going back a few millennium When you are going through the gate you have to wonder if they built it really thick here to dissuade the Mongol Hoards from thinking that they could huff and puff and blow the thing down, But after looking at the Forbidden city, and some of the other walled city's like Xian, that they really made the walls robust. On the top of the gate they have a cannon from the period, which if you were really determined, maybe in a month or two firing point blank at the same spot over and over again, you would annoy the guards but that would be about it.
I think that some thing they could do would be to put a little more of the history of the place up so that you could read about it or give out or charge for a small program guide. You might want to rip that section out of somebody's Lonely Planet Guide when they are not looking, so you can read up on it while you are there. Discovery Channel is running a program on the First Emperor of China that you might want to watch before you go.
Wear a good pair of shoes! The paths are excellent,t but there is as you would expect a little bit of climbing. My revered uncle is retired and is in decent shape for as young as is, he found the going a little tough, but was able to get up to the level where they award you, If you pay for it, a certificate saying that he climbed the Great Wall. For the youngsters they should be able to get all the way to the top, but really there is no need to go crazy with this as a few guard towers up should give you a real good idea, that being one of the guard here back is the day, would not have been a pleasure posting.
As you would expect they do sell souvenirs from little brass trinkets, to Xian Warrior period weapons made of plastic, which I doubt you will be able to get on as carry on for your flights home. You can also get tee shirt,s which I was tempted to get myself a Mao Shirt that was priced right, but talked myself out of it, as I being a pack rat by nature all ready have 200 of them, most that don't fit anymore. They also have food and drink available, but not a very good selection unless you like cup of soup. If you are the healthy type you might want to bring some food with you, and I would strongly suggest a big bottle of water for everyone.
The entrance fee for the Badaling wall at Beijing was 45 Yuan about $6 USD. We felt that this was a great price; indeed all of the main tourist attractions in China like the Xian Warriors, and the Forbidden City in Beijing were priced in a affordable way, for a quick comparison the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia are $25
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