Wade's celebrity gets him no special treatment down here, where people making a living pleading for fair prices from tourists. Not even from an older woman trying to sell him a bottle of Gatorade with Wade's likeness on the bottle.

"Hey, that's me," he says, sounding very much like his fans on the Wall when they first saw him.

Then his tone changes when the woman quotes him a price: 10 yuan.

"For a Gatorade? This is me on this. I can get this."

He can also afford it. So 10 yuan it is (about $1.53).

Another couple of pictures for his personal collection and it's back on the bus for Wade. Back to dominating the world's basketball teams rather than touring the world's wonders.

His infinitely enhanced second Olympic experience has just gotten that much better.

"It's about being in a place like this, making it to Beijing, seeing things in life," he says. "Basketball has enabled me to do that.

"This might not be your dream, growing up in Robbins, to go to the Great Wall. But you see where your dream can take you."