Bengali in Beijing - At Changcheng...

...or at the Great Wall of China. Had to go. Went. Saw one of the greatest - if not the greatest - structure of the man-made world. Did a story. Came back with an experience to last a lifetime.


Above: The first sighting of the Great Wall. From the ropeway that takes you up from Mutianyu to the Great Wall. It's a bit scary actually...but worth it entirely.

Strangely, no photos of me during the ropeway ride. This one's of Shantanu Pusalkar, the upright and honourable Times Now reporter who was travelling with us.

Soon after reaching the Great Wall. Not quite up on the Wall yet. It's behind me in the picture. But I need to turn to my left, walk up 12 steps, and then set foot on the structure proper.

At the Wall. Looking out one of the lookout points. See, the Wall built to keep away the Mongols and the Manchurians around the northern border of China. So there were a million-and-a-half soldiers guarding it. Which meant there needed to be lookouts.

Quite unnecessary, you would think. Seeing, that these massive mountains would ordinarily keep most attackers away.
Tourists - me included. The interesting thing about the Great Wall of China is that while it's absolutely spectacular, formidable and many other adjectives, you get only one, or two, photo angles. Because, simply put, it's just a wall. Which means that all 6,400 kilometres of it look the same. The views are awesome, but the wall itself doesn't offer too many varied backgrounds.