Beijing pt 1

BEEEEIIJJJJIIIINNNGGGGGG!!!!!!

beijing was... amazing! Basically to tell it all really short, we had a 20 hour train ride there AND 20 hours back... whiiiichhh i never need to do again in my life :) it was kinda miserable at some points, but really it wasnt TOO bad. it was a good experience... to have once. hahaha. thankfully there was about 15 of us travelling so we had fun and got to lay all over eachother.

we were the entertainment on the train....

we finally made it to Beijing. even though we only got a scattered 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there of sleep that night we were stoked and ready to go!
This is our cute little hostel down a random alley we stayed in.

i luh hostels.

crowded subway

DUN DUN DUN... and here it is folks. the best part of it all.

the great wall of china.

to say that is was awesome is the biggest understatement. i cant really describe to you how breathtaking and epic it was

these pictures are gorgeous right? doesnt even do it justice!
here goes......

we took the tram up to the tippy top

the market

tada! our big group on the great wall

my feet on the great wall of china :)

...look how ginormous this stairway is compared to me climbing them

the wall

this was a moment i dont think i will ever forget. looking out from the top of one of the watch towers and seeing for thousands of miles the Great Wall on these mountain tops. it went on and on for as far as we could see

we went into a "No Trespassing" area and this was really mythical to see. it was obvious it was a portion that wasnt being well kempt. Most of the wall was eroding and falling apart, and there were trees and weeds growing out of it.
but this was maybe the best part to me. it was so amazing to see the original parts of the wall, and the view from where it took us... ..

well see for yourself....

stunning, amazing, beautiful... right? i was on cloud nine being up here. i was filled with so much peace, freedom, happiness, gratitude, and awe being there.


and heres so more pictures

i dont have any idea what this guard was trying to do to me..

DID YOU KNOW?:

• The Great Wall being a continuous wall built all at once is a myth! The wall was a discontinuous work of wall segments built by various dynasties
• While being built it was called "the longest cemetery on earth" because so many people died building it. Its said to have cost the lives of over a million people
• you can NOT see the great wall from the moon
• When the wall was being built the people believed that a helpful ancestry dragon traced out the course of where to build the wall to keep invaders out
• During the Ming Dynasty nearly 1 million soldiers would be in the watch towers to defend China from barbarians and "non-chinese"
• it is said that in the 17th century every family had to put their family name on a piece of stone on the great wall, and if that stone ever broke the head of the family was killed because it was weak