"Hello, you want postcard? Magnet?"

  As for the expected, we knew the place we had to go while in China was the Great Wall.

  So on our first morning in the land of so-called communism, we woke early, knowing we had to inject ourselves with energy in the form of our Hostel's breakfast (more on that later), as it would soon be stripped from us by the blistering cold like mother nature by the Chinese, quick and in its entirety. We navigated the city with the ease of experienced travelers, with the only minor snafu coming in the scowling form of a female bus worker who didn't understand Chinese (as I spoke it). It was nothing which could diminish our determination to see the Wall, though.

  Our point of entry, which goes by the name Badaling, is one of the most well-taken care of parts of the wall. While it have would felt more authentic to look upon crumbling bricks that now resemble only frames of their former selves, fragile enough to scatter when pressed upon by the strongest winds as if choosing to give way to the inevitability of time, being able to walk upon the wall as soldiers did for hundreds of years was pleasing in another sense. Despite the fact that same sense was continuously bombarded by the mountain winds, determined to turn our blood to ice, our awe outlived the brevity of the mere hour we could spend hiking before having to travel back down before we ourselves crumbled in our frames of gloves, hats and scarves.

  As this section of the wall wound up, over and between mountains that better resembled gigantic piles of boulders than jutting spires of rock, the hike proved to be challenging. In our hour, which seemed closer to two given the frigid conditions, we managed to scale our fair share of the wall, brushing off a pair of persistent adversaries in the cold and souvenir sellers. It would have been the latter, with their excellent abilities to force conversations using their three-word vocabularies (hello-magnet-postcard), who'd have forced us off the wall in warmer weather.

*As always, more photos can be viewed on Photobucket