China Day 43: The AMAZING Great Wall of China..... and Dan climbs it!

Today we will have a picture show of the Great Wall Adventure by Dan and LaNae (and our new friend Gary!) We are exhausted from our trip out – Dan is resting on the bed getting his daily IV's which probably won't be done for a long time as we were on the go most of the day. We went out to the Mutianyu Great Wall site, and trust me – it was NOT handicap accessible! I don't imagine many of them are, but this one was not. The driver of the car most likely thought it would be a good spot as it does have a cable car service – but the trick is getting up to the cable car! ... and then after the cable car ride, there are also a lot of steps! Gary was a real trooper though – he helped push Dan up a very, very steep incline, and then when we got up to the top of it – we found there were a lot of steps to climb up before we could even get to the cable car! True – there were a lot of Chinese guys trying to sell us a service to hand carry Dan up the mountain in a chair with two long sticks on it.. it would take 4 men to go up the incline, but they wanted 200 RMB per person – and so we told them no way. That would have been 800 RMB for four of us and 600 RMB for three. So we just bought our tickets (which alone were 95 RMB) and ventured up alone. I never could have done it on my own... bless Gary ... he is a fine young man.

Here are some pictures of our adventure--

Dan's swollen right leg... I mentioned this in yesterday's blog - thought you might like to see it... not too good.


Our group ready to go in the van! (L to R) Shirleen our wonderful nurse, our driver (don't know his name..), Judy's caregiver, Gary (the hero), Judy and Dan.


The Olympic stadium that we passed on the way to the Great Wall.



A camel – I realized after I took the picture that if you want a picture with the camel, you are supposed to PAY for it.... oops.


The VERY steep trail that we pulled Dan up in his wheelchair!


The stairs before the cable car ride!


The stairs after the cable car ride! Dan climbed all of these - and more that you can't see!



A map of how far we had come to get to the top...


Dan on the Great Wall of China! Wahoo!!!!
Dan just emerged from some VERY steep steps to get up on the wall...


Looking the other way – much better view.



Someone was kind enough to get us BOTH in the picture – see I was there too!



Cool picture from inside one of the buildings up top the Great Wall.



This is inside the building – a little Chinese girl was playing hide-and-seek with her Grandma in here... it was really cute!


Dan holding up the Great Wall... sure glad he is there...



Dan and his buddy Gary on the VERY STEEP steps up to the wall.


Gary helping Dan down the steps. (I took a cool video of this event – however I turned the camera sideways and so you have to watch it sideways! Sorry about that.... )


Dan checking out the scenery on the way back down in the cable car....


The Great Wall of China!


Be happy for this great team accomplishment today!