China Outpost Troop - Great Wall

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Last Monday I had the distinct pleasure of trooping with the members of the China Outpost at the Great Wall outside of Beijing. We were blessed with a near cloudless sky and t-shirt weather temperatures.

 

As one has to take a cable car up using a bin was out of the question. Luckily, Even (China Outpost CO) brought some extra backpacks for me to put my gear in and my wife helped me tote it up. Even and the rest of the Outpost are first class folks and I can't thank them enough for their hospitality and friendship.

 

Here is me and Even (China Outpost CO and FISD DL)

 

The members of the China Outpost : five have costumes (Francois elected not to hike his Vader up that day) and one lady has an officer in progress, plus at least two more members at nor near completion. They're growing fast and each one was a delight to spend time with.

 

The four costumed TK's on top of one of the lower towers.

 

And again - here you can see the steepness of the stairs

 

In an ode to Mr. & Mrs. Sagun, I got my wife to be in some photos too.

 

In fact, my wife had such a great time that not only did she help hike up 1/2 my gear, but also took hundreds of photos as well as telling me over and over what a great time she had with the 501st Legion in China, and that she may do a costume soon herself.

 

I have about 400 pictures from this troop totaling 1.43GB of file size. Guess it's time to get a photobucket account - there are just too many for me to upload in place.

 

Even, Francois, Fan, Sky, and everyone else who made this event memorable - words cannot express the depth of my appreciation and affection for you folks. Lunch afterward was icing on an already delicious cake. *

 

Paul

 

ePS : if anyone here in the US ever complains about trooping it will be a hard sell. In mainland China they cannot troop in public without fear of police arrest unless they get a special approval from the government in advance, which is why we had to find a remote place like the Great Wall. This involved a long bus ride, hiking gear up a hill, etc. all for an hour or so of pictures. Think about that.

 

ePPS : Yes, this is TE2/HIPS armor. It made it all the way from Seattle->Beijing, suitcase to backpacks, up the Great Wall, troop, back down, back to suitcase, to my in-laws in Tianjin, back to Beijing, back to Seattle. Not a single piece of damage at all.

 

* Also - believe it or not the food stalls outside this part of the great wall sell produce and food grown locally and organically. Pretty cool

[firebladejedi[TK]]

What a great troop location

[pandatrooper[TK]]

Awesome picture! Looks like a great trip. I'd love to see the Great wall someday! Thanks for sharing!

[tkrestonva[TK]]

Pretty amazing troop, both for the location and what you and the members of the Chinese Outpost had to go though to pull it off. Thanks for sharing.

 

And yes, an FISD Photobucket (or Flickr, Imageevent, etc.) account with unlimited uploads is an excellent idea.

[ThayNerd[TK]]

Awesome pics Paul thanks for sharing.

[TK-2126_MD[TK]]

Very cool!!!!!

YES u need to get a photobucket account asap!!!!!

Thx for shareing!!!

[SuperTrooper]

That's awesome, awesome, awesome. Can't wait to see more pics.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

That's awesome, awesome, awesome. Can't wait to see more pics.

 

http://s767.photobucket.com/albums/xx316/flyinghome/

[TK8776 jgarrettg]

That's awesome Paul. That's a troop of a lifetime. I guess you fared pretty well in customs. Did they give you any grief?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

That's awesome Paul. That's a troop of a lifetime. I guess you fared pretty well in customs. Did they give you any grief?

 

Nope - breezed through both directions even with a blaster.

[Toddo[TK]]

I know this is an old thread Paul, but I am so happy that you had this experience.  What an amazing time that must have been.  Thank-you for sharing.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

As I'd never seen this thread, thanks to Todd for bumping it and naturally, thanks to Paul for sharing it.  

 

The pictures are amazing, and I'm certain that they barely scratch the surface of the awesomeness that the experience was.

[Dougal[501st]]

Great pictures Paul! Looked like an amazing adventure!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zhongvador[501st]]

A great time shared with you Paul.

[Pickles[TK]]

That looks so beautiful! What an iconic place to troop. 

 

ePS : if anyone here in the US ever complains about trooping it will be a hard sell. In mainland China they cannot troop in public without fear of police arrest unless they get a special approval from the government in advance, which is why we had to find a remote place like the Great Wall. This involved a long bus ride, hiking gear up a hill, etc. all for an hour or so of pictures. Think about that.

 

Being in Canada, it's so difficult for me to wrap my head around this. Kudos to them for trooping despite those difficulties.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. It truly was a thrill of a lifetime experience, and the folks in China were very welcoming and took care of us.

 

And you are right Andrea - they took a personal risk to do events at all. Makes it very hard to understand when people elsewhere whine about our trooping once a year to remain active policy.