Great Wall: Great or Not Great?

On at least some level, the reason I flew last minute to Beijing was to see the Great Wall.  So I licked my wounds from the long con and woke up at dawn for the day trip to Badaling.  Our tour guide, Michael, showed us to the center for holistic medicine on the way up.  Here a Chinese doctor tapped my wrists for maybe two seconds, and through a translator told me, "You have stomach problems.  Buy this medicine."   I was impressed, but I was still reeling from the con job.  I passed - I'm sure that'll come back to haunt me at some point. On to the wall. 

I amuse myself by recording impromptu interviews with Chinese tourists, asking them what they think of the wall.  The results are hilarious, but my recording kinda sucks [video coming soon].

On the Wall:  The scope of this thing is staggering.  Everywhere you look, there is wall, wall, and more wall.

I'm sure that's why Badaling is the place to go if you want to come see it - this is where the wall loops and comes to a sort of crossroads, and as such a fortress of sorts was built here.  The result is that the viewer is surrounded by iterations of the wall from all angles.  I find two very simple ideas most interesting:  one, the height of the wall is actually great enough for it to be an effective barrier to keep out invaders - this sounds dumb, but I find it impressive to witness in person - so I'm sure my photos don't capture it. More interestingly (to me at least) is the fact that this was a "wonder of the world" built strictly on the basis of function.  Not to praise some notion of god or gods, not to be co-opted by the religion du jour, not to strike one's eye with beauty of design or intent.  We're all here to see this massive wall that had been built just to DO something, to keep invading Mongols out, and it's since become a symbol of human (and maybe governmental) achievement.  I thought that was pretty cool. 

The two Costa Rican women in my tour group took a bunch of pictures of me on the wall, but I lost their email addresses.  So, I guess, someone find me those pics, or something.  Thanks.  At least I got this keychain:

That's right.