Started at least five centuries before the Christian Era, the Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China about 5,500 miles long.

The original and its later constructions were built to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from tribal marauders. Most of the more modern constructions were erected during the Ming Dynasty of the 15th Century A.D.

The Great Wall runs from Shanhaiguan to Lop Nur along the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. Some sections of the wall are less than 50 miles away from China’s capital city of Beijing. Visitors can join a tour, take regularly scheduled buses or rent a car.

For more information, go to www.greatwall-of-china.com

We’re taking our first cruise, and some of our friends tell us we should take formal clothes with us. They say everyone dresses that way for dinner. Our travel agent says it isn’t necessary, and just cost us extra for baggage. What should we do?

A: It’s your call. Some passengers still get all gussied for dinner, especially the first night, when the captain makes a welcome speech. However, the time when it was compulsary to dress formal is long gone. On even the most luxurious cruise ships, about the only restrictions for the dining rooms are no bare feet, shorts nor swim suits.

There are always annoying incidents of multi-hour delays at airports. Flights grounded on the tarmac for grueling hours while passengers steamed and fussed, forbidden to get off the reeking plane to find clean bathrooms and other basic human facilities.

The anger inside a recent Middle East Airlines flight scheduled from London Heathrow was described as something out of "Lord of the Flies", as stranded people went berserk and threatened physical attacks on the crew.

There were other more creative things they could have done. So, next time it happens to you, here are some suggestions on how to pass the stretched-out time more pleasantly:

1. Start a game of strip poker. This won’t get the plane off the ground any sooner, but if the flight attendants join in on the game, no one will care.

2. Join hands and sing coom ba ya until the flight crew goes nuts and opens the cabin door and jumps out screaming for help.

3. Over the intercom, play a speech by Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin or any other politicians. Soon, everyone will fall asleep and they won’t notice the delay any more.

4. Carry on with carry-ons. Take down all the bags from the overhead bins and use them for a pillow fight, pitting passengers vs crew.

5. Remember “Lord of the Rings”? After eight hours and the food supply runs out, drag the fattest passenger to the galley’s microwave oven.

If you do it right, you'll never have to complain about a delay again!

The debate has finally reached Congress, and the future of airport security may be in the balance. Many air travelers are getting more and more fed up with the Transportation Security Administration’s search methods.

While it may be a bit exaggerated, people complain about little old ladies in wheelchairs and babies being frisked by gloved TSA agents. They also question the effectiveness of the full-body electronic screening machines that make air travel even more bothersome and time-consuming than ever.