Great Wall of China - Pictures from our Cruise Review of the Sapphire Princess

Pictures of the Great Wall of China, another one of those places I never thought I would visit in person, but thanks to Princess Cruise Lines here I am!

The Great Wall of China  was built from the 3rd century BC to the beginning of the 17th century, to protect the various dynasties from raids by nomadic tribes coming from areas in modern-day Mongolia and Manchuria.

After subjugating and uniting China from seven Warring States, the emperor connected and extended four old fortification walls along the north of China that originated over 2500 years ago.

Armies were stationed along the wall as a defense against the invading nomadic the Huns north of China. Signal fires from the Wall provided early warning of an attack.

Several walls were built since the 3rd century BC, the most famous being the Great Wall of China built between 220 BC and 200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang and was located much further north than the current Great Wall of China built during the Ming Dynasty, and little of it remains.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Great Wall was enlarged to 4,000 miles and renovated over a 200 year period, with watch-towers and cannons.

The Great Wall is the world's longest man-made structure, stretching over 3,948 miles, from Shanhai Pass on the Bohai Sea in the east, at the limit between "China proper" and Manchuria , to Lop Nur in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Along most of its arc, it roughly delineates the border between North China and Inner Mongolia.

I was fascinated with the electrical transmission towers.	These were the biggest power line towers I have ever seen.	Just HUGE!  Pictures from our cruise review.
Typical country side on our way to visit the great wall.
		We passed through some towns on the way.
	You can still see lots of people using pedal power to transport large bulky loads.
A sign at our stop to see the great wall of China.	There were small street markets here and there when we arrived at the great wall of China	pictures of street vendors obviously targeting tourists at the great wall
The initial trek to the cable car was quite steep with lots of steps...I'll show more on the way down.	View from the cable car.
There...off in the distance...the great wall.	Our guide took pictures of Kathy and I at the wall.
		Picture of the great wall of China.
Picture taken at the top of the great wall of China	On the top of the wall	Photo from the top of the wall.
	Photo from the wall	Pictures of the interior of the Great wall of China
At the time, the guards lived in these towers on the wall.
	These are some really nice pictures.
Great Wall of China photos and pictures.	Images of the Great Wall	photos taken at the great wall
	Bill Lund at the Great Wall
Kathy with our guide "Jack".  The guides all have English names which seems odd.		I found out that the professors at the universities assign English names to the students randomly.
		Now we go back down.
Lots of steep steps.		Then the cable car ride down.
		More steep slopes down.
The way is clogged with vendors.	More steps down.	And more steps.
Yep, more steps.
Whew...more steps.
	We negotiate for some "Chops" for Kathy's parents.	The dude is carving them.
Still carving.	The shop where we were having the chops made had other stuff too.
		While we waited for the Chops we had some coffee and I bought a couple of baseball caps for my boys.
		Agh!  More steps.
	Country side photos on our return to Beijing.
		The billboards were HUGE too!
A view out the front of the cab.
	Kathy thought these trees were very pretty.