Great Wall

My favorite place in China has easily been the Great Wall. I've been twice now and both times were amazing. You can read Qin Huang Dao to learn about the first time, but this is about the second glorious time I saw that marvelous structure that kept out the Mongols (or at least tried to).

So the trip took place on Friday and we left at about 11:30. I say about because there was no way we'd leave on time. Danny and I wanted to get back into the habit of going to the gym, so we hit that up at 9:30 thinking "We'll be there for an hour, that gives us an hour to shower and eat." Good in theory, but not in practice. We got back to 42 at about 10:50, showered, then met up with people to get lunch. But first Danny wanted to drop off some clothes at the laundry. This took forever because they wanted to overcharge him. Jerks. Once we got that figured out we went to have dumplings (well, Danny went to get his camera). Ming-Yee ate all of the dumplins so there were none for the rest of us and we had to improvise food from else where. Not really that big of a deal, but I wanted dumplings. Then we went to get some pop for the trip (3 hour bus ride each way). Again, Danny prevented us from being on time by having no money on his card. Eventually we got to the bus around 11:40. We weren't last though. Once everyone was there (about 11:45) we took off.

We had a "guide" with us. I saw "guide" because he taught me nothing on the way there and I didn't even see him at the Wall. So yeah. Ningping wanted us to listen to his little speech about the Wall, but I honestly could have cared less, was mad tired, and went to sleep. Next thing I know, we're there.

The Wall is an interesting sight. You have high expectations, but are let down a little at first. Then you start climbing and it just gets better and better. We were supposed to take a cable car to the top, but they had no power. I was actually pretty thankful for this as it meant we would get to walk more, but felt bad for Deb because she couldn't get to the top. Thankfully, she had a good day anyway. The walk was amazing. The view was so much nicer than at the other place and no one was there and it wasn't too hot and it was just great. People were taking SO many pictures. We stopped for a group photo and it took about half an hour because of all the cameras. I may be exaggerating a little, but c'mon people. We all have digital cameras and you can e-mail them to people. We just needed a couple good copies. But whatever.



The thing I like most about the wall is that it's just like a giant playground. You run around, taking silly photos, climbing impossible steps, darting ahead just to fall back with the group later. It's so much fun. And at the same time you know that it was all hand made, which is amazing, and that it's uber old, except the parts that have been renovated. I just love it.



As you may or may not know I'm trying to exercise more over here and part of that includes a push up regiment. Our goal is to be able to bust out 100 at one time before we go back to the states. Friday was a push up day. So where better to do them than the Wall? It was actually one of my better workouts. We'd do a set, walk a little during our break, then do another. We tried to do them in interesting flat spaces to keep it entertaining. Christian joined for some too, but that always makes it harder because he'll say something funny and I'll start laughing and not be able to continue. Still, it was great.

When we finally got back down to the base we whipped out Danny's frisbee. We tried to be cautious but it somehow got on the other side of a walled in area. Christian, being the one who threw it, scaled the wall to retrieve it. It was pretty awesome of him. Unfortunately, as his hands are molting, he cut them up a little, but he's okay and Danny has his frisbee.

Dinner was good. We had so much food, including a corn soup which was just mashed up corn with water. It was pretty much grits, only grits might taste better. We also had locally grown vegetables and a bunch of other amazing foods. About ten minutes into the meal the power went out. No big deal. The servers told us that it happens and just to wait til it came back on. As they supply there own power most of the time, that didn't take too long. To end the meal Ningping had us sing a Great Wall song. The lyrics were in characters and I could only read a few words. Still, it was a good time.

After dinner we got back on the bus, I went back to sleep, and woke up back in Beijing. I probably won't go to the Wall again on this trip, which is kinda sad, but that's why we have pictures and memories. And besides, there's no KTV on the Wall, so I wouldn't be able to survive.