stand on the Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China? You can’t just stand on the Great Wall of China. There’s so much to do and see. But first bring hiking boots—it’s a long wall and built on top of a mountain. Bring water too.

And when you are there look for apple trees grown by people who have thrown their apple off the wall with beautiful effect—who said litter was always bad.

..to another text from Action-Mom. She is sitting on a wall in Tianaman Square. Its a ‘good’ wall, apparently, but not a ‘Great’ wall.

..yesterday. My Action-Mom has landed there having been in Shanghai for the past few days and will be seeing The Wall today. Its obviously no substitute for seeing it yourself but it makesthe whole prospect so much more attainable when someone close to you manages to do it.

My mother is going to China in 2 weeks and is going to do this very thing. She’s a real ‘go get ‘em’ mum and is always scooting off somewhere or other. Cant wait to hear how she gets on. Its fun to have an “Action-Mum”

One of the problems with this goal is expense, so…if i could qualify for the Olymics i could go for free! Track and field are out; in fact anything that requires fitness is out. Horse-riding might be an option, after all, that just involves sitting down and hanging on, but the last time ireland entered that their horses got done for doping. Not the riders…the horses!
I should perhaps concentrate on something that Ireland isnt traditionally very good at, though that would include most things, as any genuine level of competion will plainly cause problems. Something obscure that is as yet untroubled by any recognisable level of achievement. Nude cheese-rolling…something like that.

Heard about people who walk the Great Wall of China for charity and find that it sits a little odd with me. I have no problem with anybody raising money for charity at all, it just seems like a curiously enjoyable way to do it. Its like giving someone money for going on holidays. How about they give ME money and I go on holidays! In fact, I shall investigate.

don’t get me wrong, standing there looking out at the landscape of China was amazing but even better would have been spending an entire day hiking a section of it.
I was with a bussiness associate Mr. Zhang and he described his experience as a kid, camping out there on the Wall and I’ve to say I was jealous. Plan to go back and hike it for a few hours rather than the touristy, stand on a section thing I did.

Its about being part of the world, isnt it? Joining in. god knows when or how i will do it, but knowing that some day I will gives me a good feeling inside. Besides, they obviously put a lot of effort into it. It would be churlish not to have a look.

You have to do it to understand.

At the Great Wall, I bought a red t-shirt that says “I climbed the Great Wall.” It is tacky and touristy and cheesy and not of particularly good quality, but I love it. (I also SWEAR Dave Grohl wore the same one when the Foo Fighters performed on SNL last year, but that has never been confirmed.)

Anyway, climbing to the Great Wall is an exhausting thing. I’ve spent my entire life in the Midwest, which is a notably un-mountainous place. The Great Wall is not that. It is an exhausting climb to the Great Wall, but dude, it’s the GREAT WALL OF CHINA, so it was obviously worth it. There’s a cable car you can take if you want to, but that, I think, is cheating. Climb it. It makes it more worthwhile.

There is also a weird bobsled-type thing that you can ride down. I took it because I thought my ability to walk anymore was probably very impaired. It was out of place, but pretty fun.