The Great Wall of China

What can you see from the space station, from miles (or kilometers) away on earth, climb, walk on, and marvel at the construction of?

The Great Wall of China, of course!

And what was the Captain lucky enough to climb and walk on?

The Great...did you say lucky? It was exhausting! 

Well, that too, but didn't you think it was a really amazing experience to walk on something that was begun a few thousand years ago!

Unfortunately it took a lot of people to build it. The estimate is that 400,000 people died building it and are buried in the wall. And they did it without any cranes or bulldozers or elevators. It would have been nice if they'd had an elevator!

Some parts of the wall are natural barriers like mountains, rivers, and such while other parts are earthen mounds. The stone parts are the most impressive.

And it's not just a wall! It's a road between watch towers. There were barracks, stables, and watch towers at various points along the wall. A square building with a flat roof was a signal fortress. Round buildings housed livestock or were the stables. Then the square buildings with slanted roofs were the barracks and watch towers.

I visited the Juyunguan Pass (Or Juyong Pass) outside of Beijing. The steps are really uneven going up. Some were just an inch or so above another while others were 12, 14, even 18 inches to step up! That's why it took us awhile with our short legs. Once up on the flat part, it was easy, even if the ramp was a bit steep.