Great Wall at Jinshanling, China by T. E. Smith-Lamothe

Towards the end of a five mile hike along the Great Wall (which we began at the village of Jinshanling) the wall's structure had not been renovated. The paving was uneven, battlements on one side were missing, and the towers we passed had lost their roofs and parts of their walls. Although this made for more careful and slower going, the ruins added to the mysterious and lonesome ambiance of the place --- where, for hundreds of years, soldiers kept watch at all hours for the approach of invaders from the west.