Today, I climbed the Great Wall
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
1
3
17
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Beijing,
China
Saturday, November 15, 2008
After a much needed shower, we made our way to the Forbidden City. I felt like I was seeing the same building over and over and over. But don't you worry, I took pictures of all of them and I have no idea what they are. The people here are rather rude. I would wait patiently to take my picture of God only knows what and they would just jump in front of me. I learned to be more aggressive and push my way to the front. But by then, I would get up there and have no idea what I was looking at. After the Forbidden City, we were starving, of course, so we had our first Chinese meal here. Nathan and I decided to split a bottle of wine. We couldn't really understand our server and what he was telling us about the wine but didn't think too much of it until we tried it. It burned. It tasted like rubbing alcohol. We looked at the label and realized it was 112 proof "wine" - whoever thought of making 112 proof wine should be shot. We couldn't drink it. We have pictures on our reaction to the wine..it was that bad. The food was ok, minus the egg custard. I thought this would be sweet given that it was custard, but I was wrong. After dinner, we wandered around and found a lovely market with so many cheap things - this is a bargain hunter's paradise. Then, we made our way back to the hostel and went to bed at 7PM. The original plan was to lay down and then freshen up for drinks, but there was no getting up.
After getting up at 3AM for about an hour, we eventually got going at 7AM and waited for Sally to pick us up for our Great Wall tour. We have free breakfast included in the hostel but given that we don't have heat in our room, you can only imagine the quality of breakfast. They have a skillet and you make our own eggs. Again, aggression is the key here because Frank made his eggs and this "German"woman cut in front of Nathan and I and took 15 minutes to make her omelets. There is nothing but eggs - no cheese, veggies - so, I have no idea she was making omelets. Just scarmble the eggs! It really angered us. Tomorrow, we won't be nice. Other than eggs, we have REALLY strong coffee and bread. Very fitting for this place.
At 8:50AM, Sally picked us up for our Ming Tombs and Great Wall Tour. We were with another girl on the tour, Grace. She works for Kraft and works between Beijing and Shanghai. And of course, there was Sally, our "English" speaking tour guide. Again, we use English loosely. The 5 of us and our driver, who did not speak at all, made our way to the Ming Tombs in our minivan. Along the way, Sally would explain things but I had no idea what she was saying. I did get that we were going to the Ming Tombs and that there are 13 of them. We were going to visit the main one of what sounded like 2D. I know this is wrong, but whatever. We made it there and walked inside. It looked exactly like the Forbidden City. I did learn one cool thing: the places we have visited have this elevated door stop in each door way. It really annoys me because I almost trip on it every time. But this is there to keep the ghosts out. Apparently, they can't travel over these elevated annoyances. You could not see the actual tomb. As I understood it - he was buried in the woods with his wife and it's closed to the public.
After the Ming Tombs, we went to a jade factory. This was surprisingly interesting. 60% of the world's jade comes from China. We saw soft jade, which you carve and hard jade for jewelry. These tour guides are smart because they take you to these places, give you a fun presentation and then take you to the shop where you can buy them. I was so impressed that I bought a jade bracelet and this little tacky crystal ball that I now regret purchasing. Then, after the jade tourist trap stop, we had our free lunch. It wasn't my favorite but we ate it. This lunch stop was at some sort of tourist shopping mall, which again is smart because you have an hour after lunch to look around. I stayed strong here..
After lunch, we made our way to the Great Wall. All along, I have told Nathan and Frank that we have to take a cable car to the top. I was so excited about this. Then, Sally takes us to the wall and there is no cable car. I was pissed. I did not want to climb the wall - I wanted to ride up, take pictures and take the bob sled back down...just like they did on The Today Show. Instead, we had to climb up. And it was a hike. We climbed for a solid 1.5 hours and I complained most of the time. My legs burned. I mean, I did a marathon last month but this was more challenging. After we climbed until we couldn't go any further, we made our way back down which was kind of scary. If you take one wrong step, you are toast. I was white knuckling the hand rail. But now I can say that I have climbed the Great Wall of China and it feels like such a major accomplishment! Much more gratifying than a cable car I must admit.
Then, on the way back, Sally took us to another tourist trap - a tea tasting. This girl did this great presentation with all these tasty teas and then you could "look around" the shop. 600 yuan later, Nathan and I left with these hyper color mugs, jasmine tea and some"womanly" tea for me which supposedly brings beauty. I am sure I will question this purchase later on...
Now, here we sit in our freezing cold internet room at the hotel. The no heat thing seems to be a reoccuring theme throughout. We are going to go out tonight, now that we have adjusted to the time change. I guess sleeping 12 hours will do that to you! Tomorrow, is a jam packed day with the bell tower, drum tower, summer palace, lama temple, temple of heaven and markets. I just hope our hangover doesn't hinder our day!
Oh, and we can't post pictures yet because our computers are in Chinese and well, we don't read Chinese very well.
Comments
have the cankles gone away??
Hey! Loved reading how the trip is going thus far. I can't believe you had so much swelling from the plane ride. You better have taken pictures :) Sounds like you are having a great time. Don't drink too much tonight. You guys are such busy bodies everyday I can't imagine doing it with a hangover. Especially climbing that wall. Seriously, that sounds awful! But I'm sure it was worth it. Take care and talk to ya soon.