Zip Line Down the Great Wall of China
by Bernard Ablola
Sep 8, 2008 China Study Tour 2008
Great Wall of China
So this is my first blog post in a long time. The last time I posted something was in regards to finally making it into business school several months ago. As you can see it has been keeping me quite busy. But, today is a perfect day to start blogging again. My business school has extended my learning to a different country. I am in China this month for an International Study Abroad Tour. So I will utilize these next couple of weeks on the Ablola blog to keep journal of my trip to this wonderful country.
In the next couple of weeks we will visit four cities Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Shanghai. The trip will have us on top of the Great Wall of China, touring the four cities and visiting some of the major corporations in China including Lenova, Boeing, Google, and Alibaba. We will also get a chance to study with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University MBA students.
The Great Wall of China – One Step at a Time
Today we experienced the climb to the summit of the Great Wall of China. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience for me. It took us several hours, plenty of balance and endurance to finally make it to the top. Because I am generally afraid of heights, each step had to be a carefully taken. There are around 12 towers at Si Ma Tai to climb, with each tower as challenging as the next. The steps were very uneven and small. And most areas on the wall bleed right over to the edge. Scary!! For the most part I only looked at the next step in front of me. Any miscalculation or fall could possibly have been fatal. Being able to focus on one step at a time had a Zen like feel about it. I did not think about anything else except the next step before me, very meditative. The hike itself was a bit challenging. The steps were higher at some points than others. Once you look up there seems to be an endless staircase of history. The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,300 km (4,000 miles). The portion we climbed was at Si Ma Tai created by the early Ming Dynasty several centuries ago. Here is a video of me zip lining it back down.
Great Wall of China - Si Ma Tai
Best Regards,
Bernard
September 8th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Sweet! I hope you don’t have too much coursework to do there while you learn more about the culture. I’m sure its great to have our 510 gang on the trip.
Enjoy!
September 8th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Man! That looks incredible! Which I could be there too bro!
September 28th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Off the chain! It looks like a lot of fun.