Gov. Jesse Ventura has finished his first full day in China. Ventura is visiting Beijing and Shanghai this week to promote Minnesota goods and services. But he began his trip Sunday morning - Beijing time - with a visit to the country's most visible attraction: the Great Wall.

	Gov. Ventura and an entourage of media and curious on-lookers trudged up a steep embankment, past watchtowers, and over 600 uneven and treacherous stone steps. Within minutes, the 50-year-old governor was clearly fatigued. See more images on our Jesse in China home page. (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo)

In his previous comments about his China trip, Gov. Ventura has pondered the possibility of jogging the length of the Great Wall. Shortly after he stepped onto its ramparts, however, he seemed to have a change of heart.

"It'd be difficult. No. And I haven't been running lately anyway. I've been doing other things. There's parts of it I'm sure you could, after it flattened out a little bit," he said.

It would have to flatten out before anyone could run it. Ventura and an entourage of media and curious on-lookers trudged up a steep embankment, past watchtowers, and over 600 uneven and treacherous stone steps. Within minutes, the 50-year-old governor was clearly fatigued.

While jogging might be out of the question, walking the length of the wall is within grasp - at least the the intact parts erected by the Ming Dynasty in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Will Lindesay first came to China in 1986 to do just that. He eventually succeeded in hiking almost 1,500 miles. Lindesay is the founder of International Friends of the Great Wall. And he served as Ventura's personal Great Wall tour guide for the morning.

"'Great', I think, is not an overstatement. It's an understatement. There's more material in this wall, it took more people more time than any other construction project in human history," Lindesay told Ventura during the tour.

	Will Lindesay first came to China in 1986 to hike almost 1,500 miles of the Great Wall. Lindesay is the founder of International Friends of the Great Wall. He served as Ventura's personal Great Wall tour guide. (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo)

But Ventura's mission the China is entirely different. The governor and close to 100 government and business leaders are here as part of what's believed to be the largest trade delegation ever organized at the state level.

With the Chinese economy booming, Ventura says Minnesota can't pass up an opportunity to develop ties with the world's most populous nation.

"I was a big advocate of China's admittance to the WTO. And we're just here capitalizing on that. Now that they've been admitted, Minnesota wants to do business with them. And I'm sure China would like to do business with us. We have things we can offer each other," the governor said.

The wall visit, also, did inspire a few thoughts on how to get things done back home. Prompted by a question, Ventura said the Great Wall demonstrates how public works projects can be realized, including a proposed Northstar commuter rail line linking Minneapolis and St. Cloud. Northstar was a top priority for Ventura during the recently completed legislative session - a priority that couldn't win approval from lawmakers.

"If I were the benevolent dictator, then we wouldn't worry about Northstar. It would be built. You know, that's part of the advantage of a government that, it doesn't happen to be a democracy, you can in many ways get more things done because it doesn't require a majority vote or anything like that," Ventura said.

Ventura's trade mission moves into full swing on Monday when he meets with U.S. embassy staff and attends an agriculture promotion event. The governor will head to Shanghai by midweek and return home on Saturday.

Will Lindesay's wildwall.com