Larry's wife is sick. Unfortunately, she's got a high fever and had to be hospitalized. This is all the more miserable since they have a young son who is only 8 months old. It wasn't the kind of thing I like doing, but we had to leave the customers' place early so Larry could get back to Beijing. It seems obvious where his priorities have to be.

This left me with an odd situation. My flight doesn't leave until Thursday and I came back to Beijing on Tuesday night. That meant Wedensday was a free day. I have one of those odd days when I can do anything that I feel like!

I decided it was time to visit the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall is about an hour's drive North of Beijing, so I've never really had enough time to visit it. We've only been able to sightsee when we could squeeze in a few hours here and there. I figured if I didn't go now, I might never get the chance again. I was going to browse through the bus/train schedule and figure out a way to make it to the wall, but I finally gave up. It was too complicated and I was too tired. I signed up for the tour at the concierge desk.

This is another one of those things that you just have to see to appreciate. There is no way a few measly pictures could do this monument any justice. The first thing you have to understand is that the Great Wall was meant to be a lookout for any armies trying to invade China from the North. (i.e. Mongels) As such, they chose to build it directly on the peaks of the mountains to get the best view. Understand, when I say "mountain peaks", I am not exaggerating in the slightest. This wall extends from peak to peak to peak.