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September 21, 2000

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When I was in China I had the GREAT fortune of getting to go and see the
Great Wall. This is me standing there on the wall.
    What an amazing and astonishing structure.
    On the drive up there, just outside of Beijing, I noticed that I could
see the wall off in the distance up on the hillsides. But there along the
road there seemed to be quite a bit of construction. There were people all
over the place building structures that looked alot like the Great wall
itself.
    I was very curious so I asked my friend Li Wei what they were doing. She
told me that they were building and adding onto the existing wall.
    Now by this time I was really getting confused. By building and adding
onto the OLD wall I thought it might seem a little difficult and actually a
little disappointing to tell the difference between the REAL wall and the
NEW additions.

    Then I asked Li about the origin and history of the Great Wall.
    She told me that they originally built the wall to protect the Chinese
from, and keep the Mongols out of China.
    So I asked the stupid question that I already knew the answer to, "Are
the Mongols still a threat to China?"
    She replied, "No."
    So then I asked, "THEN WHY ARE THEY STILL BUILDING IT !?!"

    She said to me with a little grin and chuckle, "I guess there are many
Chinese.............
        And many rocks."

    Anyway, I loved the adventure and the experience. But let me tell you
that after a few miles on that thing I thought my legs were going to fall
off.
    If you look in the background of the picture you can see how steep parts
of the wall are.

    It is said that the Great Wall is one of only two man made structures
that can actually be seen from the moon.
    Does anybody know what the other one is? I'm not sure but I think that
maybe it is the great pyramids.