i climbed the great wall!

i thought that the great wall was just going to be a long walk, wrong. jane and i chose to go today which happened to be too foggy to see anything outside of the wall (which is actually good, if i could have seen what i was about to climb i may have just sat down and cried). by the end, after being lifted down from one of the towers by jane and some polish dude (each with a leg in hand) and climbing down another one with a number of onlookers coaching me on the footholds i was happy to reach the end, where it was snowing. besides the fact that it may have been a more challenging climb then i was ready for, it was fabulous to occasionally find myself alone on the wall, sans tourists and hawkers. scarily enough, as the bus got back onto beijing roads, jane and i could both feel the pollution. i am ready for chengdu and environs!