hitting a wall.

when i was in grade three my class did a unit on china. this was with my very favourite elementry school teacher, ms. marie tait, and she led us through a fascinating discovery of this far away land. we made chinese passports out of red construction paper and had to get them stamped in the hallway before coming into class each morning. we made noodles with peanut sauce in the staff room kitchen. we gasped when we heard about an emporer who had his soldiers entombed- still breathing!- along with him. and we learned about the great wall.

the great wall of china is one of those places, one of those things, that everyone knows about. maybe you saw it in 'mulan'. maybe you dream of going there. maybe you know that it is the only man-made structure visible from space (though that, in fact, is false. guess you learn something new every day). whatever you know, you know something. chris and i both knew dribs and drabs about this giant fence, but like most phenomenons and wonders of the world, you simply can't prepare yourself for what is coming. we thought we knew, but really, how could we?

after a bleary-eyed 5:00am wake up, a three hour, knuckle-whitening minibus ride, two police checkpoints (replete with machine guns and shifty eyes), and one driver who spoke perhaps less english than we spoke mandarin, we arrived at the drop-off point for our trek along the simatai great wall. chris, ever the optimist, was certain that it was all a scam and that we wouldn't actually get to set foot on the wall. fortunately, we did. and fortunately isn't a strong enough word.

there have been moments in my travels when i have been brought close to tears by the sheer wonderment of what i am experiencing. the stars on fraser island. standing under jim jim falls. and standing on the great wall of china, turning to the west and seeing the crumbling stone of a centuries-old wall snaking its way over lush green hills, the low-hanging mist laying like a blanket over the horizon. the wall is old- it smells old, it feels old, it is dilapidated in places and terrifyingly exposed in others. we thought we would be going for a leisurly stroll along a raised footpath. instead we were scrambling up incredibly steep ascents, wobbling on whisper-thin ledges, slipping on the well-worn steps. sweating. exhausted. scared, perhaps, in some moments at least. but exhilarated. joyful. overwhlemed by the scope, the magnitude of what we were, if only for a moment, a part of. we were on the great wall of china for pete's sake. and we loved it.

our time in beijing was an experience to say the least. there were parts of it that threatened to sometimes tip the see-saw towards unpleasant- the unrelenting smog, the eternal noise of the snarling traffic, getting lost on the way to tian'anmen square, bean curd - but then we went to the great wall. and then everything was, well, great.