Where are all the people?” a friend asks upon seeing my photos from a recent trip to China, where I hiked on the Great Wall (and I have a T-shirt to prove it, so there). Truth is, I had wondered that ...

Except for the few weeks of sandstorms, springtime is generally a good time to hike the Great Wall: not too hot or cold, with the mountainside beginning to blossom. In the summer, Old Sun often ...