Beijing - Day 10

Day 10 (Tuesday) - Beijing

The Great Wall was an amazing feat showing the strength of China throughout centuries, and for a traveler in the 21st century it offers beautiful mountain views even in the foggy morning. But, after seeing the treacherous mountains it was built on, I would have thought the mountains themselves would have served as a strong enough barrier against the Mongols. I've been told it was more of a symbol of power, which makes sense. You'd have to have a lot of power to persuade your people to build the wall. Thousands of people died during it's construction. As you may have guessed, the great wall is packed with visitors. We went to the the second most popular entry point at Jinyong park and there were people everywhere making it nearly impossible to navigate the steep steps. I pressed on among the crowds to Beacon Tower 9.

Before the climb.

So many people!

Anna, Lei Ti and I made it to 8, but on the way up Anna remembered she was afraid of heights so they made their way back down and I pressed on. Right when I thought I made it to another tower, it was just a platform leading to more stairs. I climbed on. By this point my clothes were soaked through, my face was dripping and I could tell my legs would be burning the next day. The wall is a great place to remind you of your fitness level, for better or worse. I, for example, need a little work. The view from the beacon tower I made it to was beautiful, and would have been peaceful, maybe even spiritual, had I been able to climb alone instead of with herds of other people. I took in the view, took a few deep breaths of the fresh mountain air and carried on back down the stairs stopping periodically to look out among the landscape of green peaks and valleys.

Mountains

It was almost scarier on the way down considering one shove could have taken down so many people, and people are known to do their share of shoving here. I thought of buying a t-shirt to change into, but the only ones they really had were cheesy "I climbed the wall" shirts. According to Mao, if you come to China and don't climb the wall, you are not a man. Only true men make the climb. I would have bought a shirt that said "Mao thinks I'm a man," but had no luck.

These locks are attached to the wall. They are put there to ensure a couple's love will last.

To get to the great wall we took a tour van from the hotel. It wasn't the cheapest, but it was the easiest, even though we were shuttled to three factories on the way to the wall, Ming Tombs, and Olympic bird's nest. And it also included lunch, which wasn't bad. Veggies with a good sauce, rice and hot Jasmine tea. The first factory was jade, expensive jade. We saw a carved jade boat worth something outrageous like $57,000 USD, and learned the difference between real and fake jade during the elaborate sales pitch. I hate being followed around by salespeople, and so when after looking at some chotchkies I was swarmed by saleswomen I shut down and decided that even if I had the money I would save it to buy gifts elsewhere. The Ming Tombs aren't far from the wall, there are 13 Ming Emperors burried on the grounds. We only saw the tablet of one, and his three concubines. It was marked with a turtle symbolizing long life, and is supposed to bring luck if you rub it, and good health if you rub it's butt. I did both, but my cold was still hanging around, so I'm not sure it worked. The next factory was silk. Anna and Lei Ti went rogue right away from boredom. I listened for a little longer, until she tried to sell us quilts and then went back downstairs. We had to stay there 20 minutes, I'm pretty sure they get kick backs for bringing foreigners there to spend money. Again, we bought nothing. And then there was the tea house. I was happy to have some hot tea samples and even the pu er was drinkable. The pu er I remember from my days at the tea shop wasn't close to tolerable. The oolong is always my favorite, but Dr. Tea was too expensive. I almost wish I would have picked up a pee pee boy though, which is a ceramic or terracotta baby that when you put in water hot enough for tea it, pees. It was pretty funny. Next was pearls in a shop that seemed to be under the Olympic grounds, it was a weird location for a jewelry shop. They also had pearl anti-aging cream that Anna and I jumped on, considering our pushing 30 status. I woke up the next morning with an allergic reaction to it. Luckily I didn't spend any money on the two for one bargain cream. The last stop was the bird's nest. A cool building, sure, but I think it would have been cooler in color. It seems odd how much China is still banking on the 2008 Olympics. We took pictures in front of the nest like giants. It was a lot of fun and the pictures are pretty hilarious.

Anna winning the 400 meter dash!

And from there the van drove us back to the hotel. Lei Ti picked an awesome dumpling place for dinner. They had like 50 different choices, including vegetarian. And the cook was cool. When a woman told him she thought he needed to cook the dumplings different, he said he didn't think so, and told her to leave, that he didn't need her money. I'm sure it sounded better in the original Chinese, some probably got lost in Lei Ti's translation, but that is pretty cool to feel so confident in your cooking that you don't take anyone's gruff. These restaurants have been some of the best Chinese experiences so far, and having Lei Ti translate is like being a fly on the wall, which is fun.