The Great Wall of China - what can I say? Wow! The bus took us on an hour drive outside Beijing to see the Wall. Our tour guide told us we had 1 1/2 hours to do whatever we liked. Well, Mao Tse Tung said, "You are not a real man until you have climbed to the top of the Great Wall." - how could I resist?

It took me the entire time to climb to the top and back down. Only one other person in our travel group made it (go George!). The hardest part was the altitude - living in Texas, I am not exactly used to being more than a couple of feet above sea level. The Wall is in the mountains - climbing to the highest turret is sort of like walking up a mountain with stairs.

But the view was well worth the trek - you could see the wall stretch away from you on all sides. The mountains there are beautiful, and I was able (or maybe required - I was pretty tired!) to pause long enough to appreciate the scene. I bought a little certificate at the top that said I am a "plucky hero" for climbing to the top of the Great Wall. When I got back to the bus (just in time!), I got a round of applause from our group!

Our guide told us a story about a man who was called away from his wife to work on the Great Wall. Like many others, he was pressed into service, forced to leave his family behind. His wife took a beautiful jade comb from her hair. Breaking it, she gave him half. "Keep this close to your heart" she told him. "I will wait for your return." The man took the broken comb, and went to work for the emperor.

Many months passed, but still the woman's husband did not return. She gathered her small belongings together and, clutching the comb, began the journey to the Wall. After a long and arduous trek, she finally reached it. She stopped a workman, asking for her husband. His face told her that she was too late. He had died a few months before, the broken comb in his pocket. He had been buried, with the other dead workman, within the Wall. Devastated, she turned from the Wall, tears streaming down her face, weeping for her lost love.

Just then, the emperor came by, reviewing the progress on the Wall. He saw the woman and was immediately struck by her beauty. He wanted her to be his concubine. He approached her, offering her this great honor - to be the concubine of the emperor. She dried her tears, looking into his eyes. She told him that she would gladly accept this honor, on three conditions. 1 - He must remove the bodies of the workmen, buried within the Wall. 2 - He must bury those workmen in a special cemetery with a memorial to all those who gave their lives for the Wall. 3 - He must make a speech, glorifying those who died here. The emperor, taken aback at this request, thought long and hard. But the woman's beauty was great, and he met her demands. As he finished his speech, the woman, smiling with triumph, threw herself into the sea and drown.

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