Apr 2, 2005 - Day 270 in The Great Wall of, China

Sarah writes: During breakfast with Charles\' sister Laura, I worked hard to restrain myself from insisting that she come with us to the Great Wall. Charles and I took off for the Great Wall on our own at 10am. Charles chose a spot on the wall that is very secluded and few tourists travel to this spot since it is further from Beijing than some of the well known scenic spots. This same place had been recommended to us by Rob and Paula as well, which was when Charles brought up the idea of having a picnic on the Wall. When we got out of the car Charles asked ¡°are you nervous?¡± I thought it was a strange question but figured he doubted my hiking abilities. There was a clean trail leading to a place where we could mount the Wall and so we followed it. We were met on the trail by an old lady with a sign that said ¡°private road - please pay¡±. We had heard that some crazy people try to charge you to get on the wall but they are just villagers. This woman had a sickle in her hand so I was willing to pay the 15 cents. Charles was feeling principled and decided that his NOLS Course (like outward bound) had equipped him to be able to surmount the Wall by breaking trail himself. He stomped down the many thorn bushes in my way and made a path where we mounted the Wall ourselves (like I am sure the Mongols tried to do in ancient times). But we were successful. Charles saved me from the crazy Chinese lady - my hero! We had a rather strenuous hike along the wall for a few hours and it started to approach lunch. I told Charles I needed to eat soon and therefore started to point to random spots saying ¡°this would be nice¡± but he seemed to looking for something different. Around 1:30 we got to another ¡°crazy lady check point¡± and this time we decided to subscribe to the pick-your-battles philosophy and pay. Other tourists must have been reluctant to pass this lady so there were even fewer tourists around. We immediately found an amazing level place on the wall perfect for a picnic. We laid down the checkered blanket and drank wine and ate fancy cheeses (I never knew Charles was a fan of Camembert cheese) with a glorious view of the wall snaking up the mountain on the horizon. During lunch Charles seemed to oscillate between a mood of affection and contemplation. He even quoted Confucius at one point. Charles said he had to go to the bathroom and I asked him to please not let anyone see him going near the wall. He came back in seconds. After a few more moments of chit chat Charles leaned in for a kiss and when my eyes were closed he put a small velvety box in my hand. I opened my eyes and saw the ring. Charles asked me to marry him on April 2nd (3rd) at 2:35pm on the Great Wall of China and I said ¡°YES¡±! Then Charles revealed that Laura had spent the day moving our things to the Red Capital Residence. It¡¯s a boutique hotel set in the 1950¡¯s communist era. We were driven up to the hotel on a 1950¡¯s bicycle rickshaw and arrived at two very large red doors. This small hotel has only 5 rooms and Charles and I had the Chairman¡¯s quarters. The room was decorated with items from Chairman Mao¡¯s reign. It was totally cool! The three of us celebrated the most memorable occasions of a lifetime over a fantastic Chinese meal. Charles writes: This was the big day, I had been planning for more than three months. I decided to ask Sarah to marry me on the Great Wall in China because she would least expect it there, and it is the only man-made structure on earth that can be seen in space. As the day approach it was great having my sister Laura around to help in the planning and arrangements. The spot was selected from the guide book, because it is so secluded, with very few tourists there. This site was confirmed by Rob and Paula, the couple we met the week earlier on the Yangzee river boat cruise. I was nervous, while I was pretty sure what the response would be, I really wanted the day and event to be romantic and memorable. Laura helped out all along, and on the day by moving us to while we were at the Great Wall. My biggest regret was not having Sarah¡¯s family in proximity to celebrate with us, while her brother and sister knew it was going to happen, it would have been great for them to be around. We¡¯ll be in Rochester soon enough to celebrate with her family. It was a great day, quite memorable.