The Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure in the world stretching 2,150 miles with a further 1,780 miles of branches and spurs. It was completed around 210 BC during the reign of China's first Emperor, Qin. It was originally made from earth and stone but was rebuilt during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) from stone. Some sections have been restored to attract tourists - like the stretch we visited at Badaling, 45 miles Northwest of Beijing.

We had heard that the Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from outer space (some even say ‘from the moon’) so we were rather disappointed when we couldn’t spot it from the ‘plane as we flew into Beijing (it was a clear day and we must have passed over it). Now that we have seen it close-up, we find it very hard to believe that the Great Wall is any more visible from space than, for example, any of the major motorways in England. Whilst these roads may not be anywhere near as long as the wall, they are many times wider.

A quick search on the web confirmed this claim to be just a very widely believed urban legend - it even features in a question in Trivial Pursuit! There are actually any number of man-made objects that are visible at low earth orbit (say from the Space Shuttle) including China’s Great Wall. However, once you get as far away as the moon, none of these objects can be made out with the naked eye any more. In fact, it is apparently even hard to distinguish the earth’s continents at this distance. You don’t have to take our word for it though - read this web site for more information.

Our trip to see The Great Wall was probably the high point of the whole tour. We were taken to the popular restored section at Badaling Gate where the Great Wall rolls over the mountains as far as you can see to the east and to the west. We were given 2 hours to explore the wall on our own. We were told that the west side was steeper but had less people than the east side. Whichever direction we went, we were advised to think about turning back once we had reached the 3rd tower (about the distance you can see in the top left photograph) to make sure that we were back at our coach on time. We decided to take the steep route which was very hard work. It was quite a cold day - we had seen some frozen streams by the side of the road - so we started off our walk wearing coats and jumpers. However our exertions, as well as the bright sun, soon had us stripping down to our T-shirts.

As you can see, the wall clings to the contours of the mountains which can be quite steep in places. Walking was further aggravated because the surface of the wall was highly polished by the feet of millions of tourists and only the very steepest bits had steps which were usually very irregular and could be very steep in places. Despite this, we made it to the 3rd tower in only 10 minutes. Lina turned back to join her Mum (who had gone up the easier, east side) but I (Chris) decided to continue on for the remainder of the first hour and I'm really glad that I did because after only another 15 minutes I reached the 8th tower (about 1 mile from the start) which was at the end of the restored section of the wall (where the top two pictures were taken from). Stretching out in front of me were the remains of the wall from the Ming Dynasty which, I suspect, not many tourists venture that far out to see (there are hardly any visible on our picture).

I still had plenty of time left so I returned to walk up the east side. This didn't seem that much easier than the west side - maybe it wasn't quite as steep but it seemed to go up further (and I was getting tired by now). I caught up with Lina and her Mum who were about ready to turn back but I continued further. This time my progress was stopped (again about a mile from the start) by some workmen who were doing some maintenance on the wall and had blocked a section off. I returned and still had about 20 minutes to look around the many souvenir shops clustered near Badaling Gate where I bought a T-shirt and had a chop made of my name written in Chinese (chops are what the Chinese use in place of signatures).

I had really pushed myself to reach both ends of the restored wall in our allotted 2 hours so I was a complete wreck when I got back to the coach. My legs were like jelly and I really suffered for the next few days whenever we had to go up or even worse down steps - but it was definitely worth it to see an unrestored section of the wall!