The Great Wall was at the top of my must-see list on my first trip to China as a tourist in May 2014. Over the past seven years, this wondrous engineering miracle and historical landmark has become my most frequently visited treasure on China's long list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

For my introduction to this world marvel of engineering, I traveled out several hours from downtown Beijing in a hired car with my husband. We parked in a small, paved lot on the edge of Mutianyu Village in the capital city's northeastern suburban district of Huairou, where we were dropped off to walk up a path lined with food and souvenir stalls, to get to the ticket booth and then to find the aerial tramway that would transport us up the side of the ridge.

When we boarded our cable car to the summit, rather fittingly, the car that swung up to us had lettering on the window: "Mrs. Michelle, wife of American President, rode the car to climb the Great Wall on March 23, 2014," indicating I was in the very car that had two months earlier carried Michelle Obama and her daughters up to see the Wall during President Barack Obama's state visit to China. The very coincidence probably contributed to my continuing fondness for this restored section.

After we exited the cable car and climbed the last stairs to the actual Wall, I was astounded to see it spanning mountain ridges as far as my eyes could see. It didn't stop, but kept going into the distance, snaking pathways interrupted at points by turrets and towers.

After walking the steeper section that ends on the top of a mountain, I knew that the soldiers who were originally stationed along the Wall had to be in tip-top shape. I was winded and I only wore casual jeans, while they would have been dressed in armor and carrying weapons while walking up the steep stretches and multiple stone stairs. There were many things to admire and at which to marvel on these stone pathways and beautiful vistas from every angle.

After this trip, I eventually joined my husband on the campus of Tsinghua University, where he co-directs a special business journalism program, and was hired to work at Beijing Review. My proximity to so many UNESCO World Heritage sites was a gift of which I took advantage as often as I could. Little did I know at that time, that I would walk along this Wall six more times and two on other sections of it.

During the time of my six visits to the Mutianyu section, the edge of the village had been transformed into a large area with restaurants, souvenir stalls and a huge underground parking garage where our hired car would park to wait on my companions and me. And instead of walking up to the ticket booths, we now catch an air-conditioned bus that drives up to just below the original parking lot where visitors head to ticket booths and the Wall.

I saw modernization and prosperity through tourism transform what used to be a small, dusty village to one with colorful farm stays and restaurants, new stores and homes, and an expanded and modern tourist information and amenity area that now welcomes the many visitors to that section of the Great Wall. 

(Print Edition Title: One President, One First Lady and One Great Wall)  

Copyedited by Ryan Perkins

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