Great Wall of China

Crooked portion of Great Wall

The Great Wall of China.

Just the name alone sounds impressive.

If there is such a thing as a “must-see” in China, it has to be the Great Wall.

The must see almost turned into a no see for us when Olympic organizers closed access to the closest section of the wall on Friday to set up the cycling road race on Saturday.

But resilient globetrotters that we are, we secured a van and rode a little more than an hour early Friday morning to another section of the wall.

This was supposed to be a less touristy section. Could have fooled me or the dozens of vendors lining the road, offering us every kind of knick-knack, snack and libation.

The touristy aspect was one of many surprises about the Wall.

Did you know:

You can take a ski lift to get to the top?
You can take a “toboggan” to get back to the bottom?
Part of the Wall is slanted like a carnival funhouse?
The Wall has graffiti? (Some morons etched their names into the wall)
Vendors with coolers sit on the Wall offering “Cold beer?”
Toboggan at Great Wall