The Great Wall of China

That's right. I went to the Great Wall of China. And I learned how to say it in Chinese. I did use a translator to get the actual characters though :) Wǒ qù guò cháng chéng 我去过长城 (whoa chew gwo chang chun--that's what it sounds like to me, though I'm no expert).

So here's the scoop--I decided kind of last minute to catch a train up to Beijing. Ashley found out that she'd be there for the next 3 months doing summer camp, and she told me if I didn't get there quick she'd go without me. Talk about true friendship, right? She got there Friday, June 1st. I arrived Wednesday, June 6. Lucky for me she got thrown into 10 classes and hadn't had much of a chance to see anything touristy ;) Karma, right? Anyway, I was super excited to go see Ashley and of course the Great Wall. I got up super early Wednesday morning and caught a fast train to Beijing. It took about 4 hours, then another hour by metro to get to her hotel. But, I did make it. The first day we went to the markets (I'm addicted--help!) and met up with my friend from college, JD. His parents have been living in China for a few years and he has an internship at a hospital here this summer. I was excited to see him too. The next morning, Ashley and I got up early (do you see a pattern here... early mornings?!) and thought we'd be smart and catch the train to the Great Wall instead of the bus. It is only 6 yuan (right under $1) each way to take the train about 90 minutes... unfortunately, we weren't able to get on the 8:34 AM train as planned. I have no idea why, they just kept telling us no. They gestured to come back at 10 to get tickets for the next train at 10:57 AM... so odd. We killed time at McDonald's and Starbucks. True tourism at its finest. 

The train ride was pretty uneventful. Although getting on the train was exciting. First, we lined up like cattle in a corral for 30 minutes so we could have a chance at getting a seat on the 90 minute train. Then, once the doors opened, people started running--literally--towards the train to pass other people up. We did get seats, but it was pretty hilarious to watch masses of Chinese people running at full speed towards the train.

Here I am at the wall. I was so excited to have my ticket to get in. And I was excited for cleanish air, blue sky, and clouds that were legitimately white. Funny how priorities change after 7 months.

Here's a few details of our little walk to the wall. It was 800m from the train station to the Great Wall entrance. We went to Badaling section. The picture on the right was on all the trash cans, but I thought it looked cool. The top picture is one of the fortress looking areas high up on the hill. These were some of the "bricks" in the wall--I liked the Chinese carvings. Pretty sure these aren't authentic, I think this section of the wall has been rebuilt in true Chinese fashion. They are really great a creating fakes :)

The top picture was taken towards the beginning of our trek. I knew the Great Wall was built into the mountains, but I wasn't expecting the "touristy" part to be so treacherous. These pictures don't really do any justice to the actual incline on the wall. Parts were just a pathway, parts had stairs. The stairs were super uneven. There were parts where we were practically climbing on our hands and knees it was so steep. By the top, we were definitely hot and sweaty. But we did it! I even got a key chain carved with my Chinese name to prove it. Before the trek, we needed some lunch. There was a Subways at the base of the Great Wall. Gotta love westernization. The other two pictures are different views from the wall.

 

The goal of these two pictures was to show the incline--looking up at it and back down. I don't know how well it worked though... judging by the looks, not super well. 

I just couldn't stop taking pictures on the wall. I even tried out a panoramic picture to try to capture the size of the wall. Did you know it was over 3,700 miles long? I can't even imagine that length. It was built and rebuilt for centuries to protect China from the Mongolians and other invaders. I would think the mountains would naturally help against that, but what do I know? :) 

What a day. We hiked and hiked and hiked. There were cable cars you can take to the top, but then can you really say you "climbed" the Great Wall? I think not. It was a typical China day for us... as we were enjoying the views from the Wall, several groups of tourists came over and asked for pictures with us. And you know what that means--once you say yes to one person, you have a line forming. At first it was kind of a fluke--we posed for about a dozen pictures with different people. Then, that same thing happened 5 more times on the way around and back down the wall. Ashley actually had some of the people take pictures with her camera to document it... I just haven't gotten the pictures from her yet. Oh, China--you never fail to amaze me. Here we are at an ancient site that played a key role in your history, and people are concerned about getting pictures with the foreign girls.

In other exciting news, I thought this was cool. They were using mules to transport materials up the wall to I guess repair or rebuild sections of it. It just seemed like a scene you'd see in a movie, so I took pictures. Even though it was in the high 90s, very difficult for me, and made me sweat like none other, I had a great time becoming acquainted with the Great Wall of China. It's just one of those things I may never have the chance to do again, so I'm glad I did it now.

Beijing Part 6: Olympics, Markets, and Other Random Happenings

I am proud to say I made it to see some of the Olympic sites while I was in Beijing. I read all over the internet that it was best at night, so that's what we did. Here's the "cube" where all the aquatic events were held. Cool, right? The light colors change too!

 And here's a not-so-good picture of the "Bird's Nest". These were taken with my iPhone and it doesn't like pictures at night too much.

 This was on the street outside the Forbidden City. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it had grains and nuts and some sort of dried fruit on the top. The man gave us a sample and it was pretty good so Joanne decided to buy some. He said "5" and so she was like great! Then he weighed that piece you can see in the 2nd picture and wanted her to pay 60 kuai. Yeah, right. That was pretty expensive so we just walked away and he tried to chase after us.

This all happened after the rickshaw incident (Not cold! Very Good! Rickshaw!) that I posted about in the Forbidden City post. I guess it was our lucky day?

 I saw these mannequins in a shop window by our hotel. I think they sell plus-sized clothing. Made me laugh.

 Yay for knockoffs! $16 for a pair of Nikes... can't beat that!

 The Beijing Silk Market was amazing. We went every night we were there. My little sister Allie loves designer bags (real or knockoff) so I bought her a Longchamp weekender bag and a matching makeup bag... the Weekender was roughly $8 and the makeup bag was about $2. Sweet, right? I bargained hard for that!

 This was for me. Beads galore!

And this was the weather forecast. Such a nice range of temperatures. It was definitely chilly at night!

Beijing Part 5: Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was one of the highlights of my Beijing trip. It was by far the prettiest place I saw while I was there. Though I didn't make it to the Great Wall this time, I definitely want to go back very soon and see it. I also want to go back to the Summer Palace and spend some time just sitting by that lake. So nice.

This is the life, right? The lake was almost completely frozen over and people were skating/sledding on it even though there were numerous signs saying "Keep off ice. Not Frozen"

 

This is a better picture of the frozen water. This was taken near the entrance of the Summer Palace, it is a place called Suzhou lane or something like that. It was extra to go down there, so I just took pictures from the bridge :)

 

The lake is called Kunming Hu. I think it'd be a beautiful boat ride in the summer.

 

You can see the divide between frozen and unfrozen water here. On the hill is the Buddha temple. 

 

Closer shot of the temple grounds.

 

This is the 17 arches bridge. It went out into the lake to a little island that had another small temple. It has over 500 various lions carved into the bridge.

 

This is a view from the island looking back at the bridge.

 

I was so impressed by the frozen lake on Suzhou lane that I took another picture. Gotta love the trapped boats :)

 

This is the north entrance to the Palace. I liked all the red lanterns that were hung for New Year.

 

Getting to the lake was quite a hike. It was several kilometers away. I had to hike uphill through a small mountain and then back down again. One place uphill had a nice view of Beijing. I actually ran into other foreigners. They were from Paris. I heard them speaking French and I briefly spoke to them. They were impressed to find someone else who understood them.

 

I believe this is a giant bronze statue. Just thought it was different.

 

Don't let the sunlight fool you; it was a very frigid day! I loved the umbrella of red lanterns.

 

Both the pictures above were taken during my trek to the lake. I liked all the natural stone steps leading up to the top of the small mountain. 

I've been trying to capture all the dragons I see around China for my collection. It's only reasonable because this is the year of the dragon. This particular one was carved in the handrail. Look at the details!

So I ended up going to the Palace by myself. It was so peaceful. I was able to sit by the lake for a little while and write some postcards. As I was sitting enjoying the scenery, two older Chinese ladies came up and motioned something about their camera. I naively thought they wanted me to take a picture of her and her friend with the lake or something. Nope, she wanted a picture with me. Then, the other lady wanted a picture. Okay... so we're in this beautiful place and of all the things they wanted a picture of, it was me. Kind of caught me off guard. Then it happened 3 more times that day... all at the Palace. Oh, China.

Beijing Part 4: Beijing Zoo

Joanne really wanted to see the pandas, so we spent part of our second day at the Beijing Zoo. The panda exhibit was neat, it is clearly the most prized exhibit at the zoo.

You pay 15 yuan extra to see this exhibit. It's actually inside a building... maybe because it gets so stinkin' cold that they want people to come year round? There were a couple of giant cages, panda gift stands of all sorts--spoons, hats, tshirts, crayons, you name it they sold it--and then it had some informative boards about the life of pandas.

That was really the highlight of the zoo. It was very cold that day--maybe 9 or 10 degrees F. We walked around quite a bit since everything was so spaced out. The monkeys were fun to watch. They were in a large glass cage that had random children's playground toys in it. The monkeys liked to jump on that toy and then push the other ones off.

I think the main reason I didn't care for this zoo was the cages. Most of the animals were kept in tiny cages like the elephant above. His cage couldn't be much larger than a standard master bedroom. They'd have exhibit halls that had 8-10 cages with different animals. It was smelly, cold, crowded, and the animals just paced back and forth. Not even an attempt at a "natural" habitat was made.

This is a view of the exhibit halls. You can see all the people crowded around one cage. There was a Siberian tiger in there that kept roaring. Judging from the elephant cage above, I wouldn't say the cages were the most secure thing in the world so I stayed far back in case it broke loose. Everyone else got closer. Really, China?

Beijing Part 3: Forbidden City

Joanne and I also went to the Forbidden City the first day in Beijing. It was massive! It took us about 3 hours to walk through, and that wasn't a leisurely walk! There were so many parts we didn't even see.

Here's the map. We basically followed that red line straight through the middle.

 This is one of many entrances to the palace.

 Notice the large portrait of Mao Zedong on the side. They even sold little pins with his face.

Inside the Forbidden City. I found the following picture on a website and thought it did more justice to the size of the city.

I read that the Imperial Palace Museum (Forbidden City) has 980 buildings and is over 7.8 million square feet.

 I told Joanne that these pots were used to make meals for the soldiers who guarded the palace... :)

 I like a good, ornate ceiling.

 We thought the cartoon in the back was kind of funny.

 Notice there aren't that many people today. Joanne and I were like a side attraction at the Palace. On our way up to look inside this building, a group of tourists stopped us to take pictures. Of us, with them. First it was the older men, then the women, then the kids, then everyone. Once one small group saw them taking pictures, another small group came over and also asked.

 I think all the detail work is wonderful.

So on the way out, we were approached by a man who wanted to give us a ride in his rickshaw. Remember, it was about 10 degrees outside. We politely said no, and he followed us. I then made the mistake of saying "too cold!" and he replied "not cold, very good, rickshaw". I just kept shaking my head no, and he kept repeating that same phrase. Then, he grabbed me in a bear hug, picked me up, and said "very good, no cold!" Still, we kept walking. He then took his coat off and tried to give it to me. He started saying "Rickshaw, round and round, very good". Finally, some police officers were walking down the street and when the rickshaw man saw the police, he went the other way.
Oh, China.