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| Unmaintained portions of the Great Wall |
Tired from a 20 hour-long train ride and hiking
up and down thousands of stairs, the sign declaring "游人止步" (tourists halt) should have been enough to
keep us from continuing. But with the adventure
of exploring the original Great Wall
only a hop over a short stone wall away, we couldn’t be stopped. So much of
what my friends and I had already hiked, of what every tourist at the Great
Wall hikes, was simply a reconstruction, a remodel of the original. The real
thing is broken. At times less than a foot wide and covered in trees, the real
Great Wall is in ruins. And standing on those crumbling walls, I've never
felt so free.
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| Climbing up the Great Wall with friends |
I remember sitting on the ledge of a watch
tower, staring over the hills. Everything felt so ancient—old walls, old
wilderness. But everything felt so new—new friends, new city. I imagined the men
beginning to build that tower two millennium before. They had no idea how
people from across the world would flock to touch what they built. They had no
more idea of what was in store for them than I did of my future. I still don’t
know everything that my future holds, but I know one thing. Just like those men,
whatever future I’m building, it’s going to be Great.
