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The playful wall became our secret world; we were free to roam wherever we pleased. We began scaling the many steps and barracks with nothing to hold us back, total freedom. The trials of the day seemed to melt away as I saw nothing but smiles on my friend's face, we had earned this: our Great Wall adventure. As we climbed our way over the Wall, through its steep crevasses and its guarding watchtowers, we really started to appreciate the world around us; the sun began to peak through the clouds, and everything was perfect.
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頑皮的城墻成了我們的秘密世界；我們自由自在地漫步于此。我們開始攀登層層臺階，沒有防護欄，反而感到非常自在。一天的考驗似乎結束，當我看見同伴的臉上滿是笑容，我們收獲了我們的長城冒險經歷。當我們爬上了長城，陡峭的裂縫和敵樓，讓我們開始真正領略到周圍的世界。撥云見日，一切都很美好。
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The first signs of life we came across came in the form of a huge white wedding dress, not a very common site to find while hiking around in Jinshanling. The blushing bride was taking wedding pictures in one of the most romantic spots on the planet. William and I looked on in amazement of the whole production. I couldn't believe someone actually carried that dress up all that way, they are real champions. Wanting to avoid messing up the set up, we cautiously moved past the couple and continued on our journey.
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我們碰到了一對新人，面帶紅暈的新娘身著寬大的白色婚紗正在地球上最浪漫的地方拍攝婚紗照，要知道來金山嶺的徒步旅行者也很少能夠走到這個地方。威廉和我驚異地觀看拍攝全過程。我無法相信這些人怎么能夠一整天穿著這身衣服，的確很厲害。為了避免搞糟他們的拍攝布景，我們小心翼翼地離開，繼續前進。
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Approaching one of the watchtowers toward Simatai we saw our second interaction with people. "Hello!, this way good!" A strange older Chinese lady had poked her head out of the tower and was motioning me upward. "Come, up here!" A second older Chinese lady poked her head out and looked down upon me, beckoning me upward. We scaled the rock face up to the watchtower and discovered that quite a few people had taken refuge inside. All Chinese, these people seemed to hangout without a care in the world, they were even using cell phones. A young man in a graphic tee and flip flops sat in the window of the tower with the world at his fingertips. This paradox of Old World Chinese culture and new age technology seemed out of place.
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就快要達司馬臺的瞭望臺的時候，我又看到了一群人。一個陌生的中國老婦人把頭探出烽火臺，示意我走上去。“來這！”又一個老婦人也探出了頭，向下看我，招呼我上去。我們登上了石階，發現只有很少幾個人在烽火臺里面休息。所有的中國人看上去漫不經心，有些人甚至在打電話。一個穿著圖繪體恤的年輕人抖著雙腳坐在瞭望臺的窗臺上，外面的風景盡收眼底。古老的中國文化和現代科技在這里顯得格格不入。
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Not wanting to press our luck, we continued on our journey after a quick glance at my wrist watch. A path off the tower gave us a view of the Wall that not many people are privileged to see, we could see the blue skies over the country, the lush, greenery of the earth and of course, the Great Wall, with its dragon-like back playfully dancing its way across the mountains. I spotted a crumbling terrace that was to be our goal ending point and we headed out.
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我們不想再出任何狀況，匆匆看了下腕表繼續趕路。走在瞭望臺旁的小路，我可以一飽長城的美景，我們可以看到湛藍藍的天空，綠茵茵的大地，當然還有逶迤于山巒間巨龍般的長城。我看到前方有一塊斑駁脫落的平地，那正是我們的目的地。
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We continued our hike across the Wall, I was left wondering about the stories of those who built it so long ago. I wondered if they realized what a wonderful contribution they had made to the culture of China or if they were solely consumed with their nationalism and goal of keeping China safe.
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我一邊走，一邊尋思著過去建造長城的人有著什么樣的故事。我想知道他們當時是否意識到自己為中國文化做出了巨大貢獻，抑或他們只是出于民族主義和保衛家園的目的才建造了長城。
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The Wall seemed to stretch on forever, inviting us to keep taking just one more step, but we knew it was time to go. If we got stuck and missed our bus, a whole other world of problems would befall us, ones we were not excited to tango with. There was one more problem that our friend Murphy had decided to stick us with…I had lost my sunglasses. Somewhere along the wall, my beloved sunglasses had fallen off my head and in a frantic fury I ran back to the nearby tower to retrace my steps. When I had finally given up, no glasses in tow, we headed back toward home, hoping we had enough time to catch the last bus. Then, I spotted them, my sunglasses, tucked into a little corner of a watch tower; Murphy's Law was not going to catch me today.
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長城蜿蜒萬里，吸引著我們繼續拾階而上，但是我知道該是離開的時候了。如果我們被困在了這里，沒趕上最后一班車，將會有另一堆麻煩降臨在我們頭上，我們已沒有精力對付了。可墨菲老朋友決定讓我們陷入另一個麻煩，那就是我把太陽眼鏡弄丟了。在長城的某個地方，心愛的太陽眼鏡從我的頭上滑落了。我瘋了似地奔向附近的瞭望臺，沿著我走過的路搜尋。最后我放棄了，準備打道回府，希望還能趕上最后一班車。就在這個時候，我發現自己的太陽眼鏡正靜靜地躺在瞭望臺的一個角落，看來墨菲最后還是放過了我。
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After a long day of exploring and adventuring, we left the Wall unscathed and with my biggest "to do" in China officially checked off. The rain held out, the sun peeked its head through, and we ended up having a wonderful day in the countryside of China. Though I am not sure when the Wall and I will meet again, I can even now hear the call of adventure beckoning me back to the Wall once more.
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結束一天的探險，我們安然無恙地離開長城。我總算可以在計劃簿上劃掉我最想做的事情。此時雨停了，太陽出來了，我們在野外度過了美好的一天。盡管我不確定下次登長城是什么時候了，但我已經能夠聽到有個聲音正在召喚我再度登上長城。
（China.org.cn 何珊 譯）
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