Guard Tower Ruins

While a lot of the guard towers we passed were intact, this one was completely in ruins. We even saw some ancient wood poking through the wall used for the frame of the once-upright guard house.

Date: November 23, 2008
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF-S Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8
Aperture: f/14
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 200
Focal length: 15mm
Format: NEF

Built on a Knife's Edge

There are sections of the wall that, when viewed from afar, seem like they are literally built on the tip of the mountainside. The ones in this photo are not even the ones to which I am referring. On the other side of the Simatai portion of the Great Wall, there are steps of Great Wall that go up and up, balancing on the lip of the stretch of earth.

Date: November 23, 2008
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF-S Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8
Aperture: f/14
Shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 200
Focal length: 22mm
Format: NEF

Endless Wall

Our recent hike that took us over 10km of the Great Wall seemed like a good romp on this vast network of ancient fortifications. Turns out that should we wish to hike the entire wall, we'd still have over 6600km more to go. The scale of the Great Wall continues to boggle my mind.

Date: November 23, 2008
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Aperture: f/14
Shutter speed: 1/60
ISO: 200
Focal length: 50mm
Format: NEF

The Great Wall at Jinshanling

Finally, here's a shot of the Great Wall in all its glory, seemingly stretching on forever.

Date: November 23, 2008
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Aperture: f/16
Shutter speed: 1/50
ISO: 200
Focal length: 50mm
Format: NEF

The Great Wall of China, in the wild

Catherine and I had a very relaxing and worthwhile weekend escape to the Great Wall Commune located close to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. The Commune is a type of hotel/resort that features Chinese-designed villas that can be rented out to guests. I don't know what the price of the modern and spacious villas are, and you know what they say about having to ask about prices, but we did stay at the Commune's more modest accomodations. The Commune has its own section of the Great Wall for guests to explore. The section of the wall is a "wild" section, meaning that it has not been restored to a Disneyland-esque condition. It was great to hike on this section of the wall, with almost noone else around. The weather was great - some fluffy snow, then followed by clear blue sky the next day.

Date: November 8, 2008
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/13
Shutter speed: 1/40
ISO: 200
Focal length: 18mm
Format: NEF
Shot on tripod