The Great Wall

Thanks to Kevin Colburn for these images… he writes:

“Hello again James-

This was my first Saturday excursion to the Great Wall when I arrived
to Beijing. We went to HuangHua (‘Yellow Flower’), meaning in the
summer there are alot of yellow flowers along the countryside. It is
an hour drive north of Beijing. I was there in March, hence the
lingering snow.

As of April 22, they are currently having a longer winter than
expeceted in Beijing. According to the locals, it should be
short-sleeve weather by now. Flowers are starting to bloom, however.

Unfortunately, it has been in the mid 60’s with a 10-20 mph gusts at
times, giving wind chills in the 40’s. Believe it or not, I still
goto work in a light jacket in the mornings.

You will see how we got into this part of the wall. An old makeshift
ladder through a window in the tower, after the 700 foot ascent by
‘goat trail’.

This part of the wall has been rebuilt/restored in some places.
However, the granite base is quite amazing. This wall is over 600
years old, so they used primitive tools to carve out the granite from
the mountainside. You can see these cuts/carvings next to the wall on
the mountains-terrace-like in shape. In addition, to make the mortar
stronger, they used rice, yes, rice, and it still is in alot of the
mortar joints in the wall, even after all of this time.

There are 55-60 degree inclines up the wall, which is unbelievable.”

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