The Great Wall
Trip Start
Sep 2005
1
48
52
Trip End
Sep 2006
Beijing,
China
Friday, June 23, 2006
"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man"(Mao Zedong) I think that makes me the only true man in the family, which is very poor form given the surname and legacy. I teamed up with a Peruvian/American/Italian (one person) called Fiorella, to hike one of the connoisseurs sections, which was 10k up-down-up-down-up-down in mad heat. But it was definitley worth it. Because it's so gruelling this section of the wall is not so popular with tourists so you pretty much have the wall to yourself. The views are very impressive. There's no point waving up at the astronauts when you're doing it as apparently the story that you can see the great wall from space is a myth. They are currently in the process of removing the story from school text books out here.
We also did some hard bargaining at the pearl market using a very effective mix of calculator talk, good cop/bad cop, and amateur dramatics. Itīs amazing how much you can knock the prices down coming up to closing time, especially if you are prepared to walk away. But since I was buying presents for the family I thought it better to pay the full price anyhow.
On my last day I braved a hutong(backstreet) barber, which actually worked out really well. They had a book of styles, but the slaphead wasn't in it. So the wee guy showed me a list of english expressions, one of which was "shave it all off please". Too easy, as the Ozzies say.
