The Great Wall of China

Yesterday we went on an all-day tour to the Great Wall of China. The part we went to was about 90 minutes away, and the entire drive we were treated to great storytelling by a guide named Pan, who is 28 and grew up in Inner Mongolia. She was just short of anti-Communist and had lots of interesting stuff to say about her country. One of my favorites is that she said China's one-child policy is creating an entire generation of people who are spoiled and can't work in teams. They've been pampered their entire lives and are unwilling to start at the bottom and work their way up to a better job. So when the graduate from college and can't find a director's position, they go back to school and get a master's degree. When that doesn't get them the coveted top job they aspire to, they go back to school and get a PhD. She said she has a policy that if any of her friends get a PhD, they're not her friends anymore. In her view there are three types of people: men, women and PhDs.

The Wall itself was quite spectacular and so humbling. It's amazing to just stand there and look out at the wall stretching as far as you can see in both directions. All the work that went into creating it is just beyond imagination.







Quinn did really well on the tour, but he was a little grumpy and unimpressed by the wall. So we stopped for an impromptu apple juice picnic and that perked him right up.