Day 2: The Great Wall

Our 58 photos from today

I woke up alive and refreshed at 1:50 a.m. I went back to sleep and woke up a few dozen times til 5:00 a.m. when Heather said she couldn't get back to sleep either. Since Heather's dad was still asleep, and because our beds were hard as a rock, we spent the next half hour stretching out our backs. I made coffee in their 1-a-cup machine over and over until Heather's dad and I had our fill.

Eventually we all showered and went down to breakfast, almost as soon as they opened at 6:30 a.m. There was plenty of good food to choose from. I tried out stewed eggs, which came in a small bowl (tasted like a sugar-less custard), had a fruit that was pure white with lots of tiny black seeds (tasted like a tasteless kiwi), had some "Hawthorn Juice" (which tasted something like pomegranate juice), coffee which wasn't as good as I had made that morning, tea that was pretty good, and fried potatoes that really reminded me of home. The rest was either normal stuff (hard boiled egg, OJ, etc) or milk-like non-milk products that I didn't bother trying.

We overheard a conversation where a lady said she was from Australia. She was with a young adopted Chinese girl with lots of energy. She was talking to a family of 4 (two adopted Chinese girls), and they said they were from Minnesota. I walked over later and asked them if they were part of the Heritage tour I had heard about from our guide. They said they were, and we found out that many of the people on the heritage tour are from Madison! We'll get to meet them all tomorrow morning at 8;30 a.m. We have both Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City planned for tomorrow.

Our tour guide, Ty, picked us up at 9 a.m. as planned. He drove us about 30 miles north of Beijing to the Great Wall of China. He said that while Beijing is flat downtown, it certainly isn't north of there, and was he right! Hills started forming and almost immediately it was up-down-up-down, Each one taller than the last. We saw a few Walls of China before we settled on ours. We parked our car, got out, and started walking toward the entrance. A shanty town / carnival atmosphere had been there a while. Lots of knick knacks to buy, tons of little stores, and lots of HI HI HI and DO YOU WANT TO BUY.

Ty bought our tickets, and up we went. Immediately there were more vendors trying to sell us stuff. Exciting things like fake gold medallions with the Great Wall on it. Baseball caps with either The Great Wall on it or the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Draw your picture, only 25 minutes. And lots and lots of post cards. Somewhere along the way, an old man asked Heather if she wanted a post card. She said, "Bu Yow" (Don't want) and that just made him go crazy asking her more. I found the Chicago-trick to work best. Don't make eye contact and keep walking.

It rained early in the morning in Beijing. That explains why we were walking on snow up the Great Wall. There were some people shoveling it over the sides, but the remaining snow made it pretty slippery going up.

It was a busy place, and certain areas really got congested. As warned, people enjoy cutting in line and pushing onward. One particular place was wide enough for one person, but it was needed for both directions. People either waited or they didn't. People either waited or didn't wait to walk in front of picture takers.

There was fog in the mountains, so it was hard to see far away. What we could see was very beautiful. It's amazing to think there's over 3,000 miles of his going across China. And how some of it was built 800 years ago, and others up to 2,200 years ago. When we got to the very top of this particular area, there was a small part of me that would have loved to keep going. Maybe the complete downhill nature of it, or maybe because only a few brave souls were doing it -- much less crowded. But whatever I was seeing downhill just meant what I had to walk back up to get home.

As we were going back down, we noticed that the fog had lifted quite a bit, and we continued to retake some of the same pictures because we could see so much farther away.

Driving back, our guide said that he'd like to drive us by the Olympic buildings. And if we wanted we could eat lunch before hand, since he knew a great restaurant in the area. We agreed, and he drove us to his mother's neighborhood and took us in to eat.

Mike ordered Peking Duck. Our guide is a vegetarian Buddhist and ordered rice. I ordered spicy beef & vegetables. Heather spent 10 minutes looking at the menu that was in both ENGLISH and full size color pictures, and still couldn't figure out what to get. Out of desperation she pointed to a chicken dish. Waitress informed our guide that it was very spicy. Back to the drawing board. Eventually we had Heather pick the Peking Duck, and Mike ordered the chicken dish. Disaster averted.

Our guide asked us how old our boy was again. We told him 2.5 years, and dug out my wallet picture of him. He said that he wasn't very good at all about the facial reading, but seems to remember that the saying goes, "Big forehead and flat ears means you will have a very nice life".

Our tea was "flower tea". I thought they looked like small dandelions, so that's what I called it. I had some noodles I ordered that I believe said "Dantan Noodles". I had the guide write them down in Chinese. They were excellent, and very spicy. My beef was not very good. Very spicy, but they were like flapping bits of skin and the texture was very soft. Not much chewing needed. I thought the Peking Duck was pretty fowl. I had a couple bites of Mike's chicken and vegetables, but the piece of chicken I thought I grabbed was just bone. Heather's "noodle" choice was pork wontons, and those were great. In the end, we ordered way too much. I tried to see what our guide paid for the meal (since we'll be getting the bill at the end of the trip anyway) and I think it was 120 Yuan. That comes to about $17?

We then drove to the "Olympic Greens", which aren't green yet. It's hard to tell what miscellaneous buildings will be used for the Olympics, or are already in use as Beijing. Our Guide pointed out the National Stadium that was once made for the Asia Games. He said it was too outdated and was being fixed up for use in the Olympics. Then our first glimpse of the new Olympic Stadium was amazing. A crazy patchwork of metal stick beams. The picture we saw at the airport made it look like the chocolate stripes on a cheesecake.

Our guide tried to park on an empty highway so we could take decent pictures of the structures, but the policeman or guard that was half-in, half-out of his car told him that no one could park on the unused highway. So our guide drove around, and found a place he knew we could walk up to for a good view, but that already had a wall up. We ended up going to the end of the fence, up a hill, and took a few crummy pictures. I remember a couple weeks ago before we started our trip when Heather asked if we'd be able to swim in the new Aquatic Center. Apparently, no one is allowed even near them.

When we got back, Heather and her dad took a quick nap. Three hours later they woke up. Heather and I walked to a few stores, and then the grocery store that we hit yesterday. The first store we went into was Leyou - From Baby To Toddler. It was a well-stocked, well-stacked store to cover all your possible baby needs. The only thing that really sticks out is a swim toy. It was an inflatable floaty.. .for a baby's neck. Apparently you stick the kid's head through the hole and then throw him in the water. He can kick, doggy paddle, cry, or just float. But he won't drown. There was even a huge picture showing exactly how happy a baby can be, with just a head poking above the water. They're so popular, they had a 2nd brand next to the box. This one depicted a large full color picture of how happy a floating, NAKED baby can be. This one was very obviously a well endowed baby BOY.

We walked into a neat pastry shop. Some concoctions looked suspiciously familiar, some were not. A notable find was what I can only call a gourmet hot dog. I can't tell if the white swirls on top was cheese or frosting. I totally would have bought one if it wasn't a HOT DOG. Visions of hot dogs rolling on the roller at a gas station crossed my mind, but multiplied by 10.

We walked to the McDonalds at the end, just to take a peak. It was weird looking at the board and seeing their sandwiches and other deals showing numbers like 18.99 and 17.99.

Walking back, we stopped at the grocery store we got bottled water at yesterday. This time I looked around a bit longer. Apparently, you can make noodles out of lentils or pumpkins! The meat section was impressive in the fact that absolutely put a price on every part of a pig. Fresh fish with heads, fresh fish heads sans body, and full squids made up just a small section of the seafood section.