Day 3: One Hell of a Wall

This morning, Becksworth and I woke up at like 5am. I attempted to go swimming in our hotel, but the recreation area didn’t open until 8. Instead, I just stretched real thoroughly while Zach showered. I knew it was going to be quite a feat climbing the steep section of the Great Wall as we had planned for today. After our showers, we called the boys next door and woke them to go down for breakfast. I brought a backpack with a bunch of plastic bags so that we could snag some fruits and other snacks for after the wall. After all, there were eight of us going. Why not take advantage of our included breakfast buffet?

It was about time for the guys and Charlotte to meet us and our driver at our hotel, so we went and waited outside for them. They all arrived on time and we piled into Li Ho’s van and headed out. I can’t quite recall exactly how long the ride was, but it was something like an hour. We all got to know each other’s backgrounds and personalities quite a bit during that ride and everyone meshed really well. It’s really lucky that so many cool people were able to converge in the same place at the same time. Unfortunately for Charlotte, she’d be starting her first day at the GBBN Beijing office the next day, so this would be her last tour with us.

We got to the Badaling section of the wall in apparently great time. Li Ho really was a badass. We all had to buy tickets which were something like 30 yuan ($4.4) and discounted for us as we are students. This rather steep portion of the Wall was like one enormous staircase to a height so immense we couldn’t see the bottom Granted, it was somewhat foggy that morning, but it was awe-inspiring nonetheless. On the way up and especially on the way back down, people harassed us to try and purchase gypsy trinkets and tourist junk like “I Climbed the Great Wall” t=shirts. This was our first time practicing the haggling system. One thing that western society has lost is the act of bargaining for better prices. I’ve no doubt that I’ll miss this ability dearly.

The Great Wall was one hell of a workout. Thank goodness we woke up and started the climb rather early because on our way down it was becoming very crowded. As Zach and I were heading down, we initiated conversation with some other tourists. I asked them where they were from and the one man I was walking with encouraged me to guess. I stared at him for a few moments and said, “Iran.” He was genuinely surprised and impressed with my correct guess. They were indeed from Iran on vacation with their parents. When we told them we were from America they were very pleased and excited as if they’d never actually met one, but displayed a great deal of admiration nonetheless. We then proceeded to have our pictures taken with them holding up peace signs. It always pleases me to make connections with people from around the world... I think that’s going to be my favorite aspect of this trip.

At the bottom of the Wall, there were gift shops and great scenic views and utter tourist chaos. I met an Aussie named Kent there who was in China for only a few days on his way to Siberia to move in with the girl he met and has been dating from the internet three years ago. He was a real friendly chap whose big smile never ended. When the rest of the crew made it down from the wall and met us, Zach, Jon, Neil and I, payed 50 yuan to dress up in ancient Chinese battle armor complete with swords. We got our pictures taken in fun positions and with countless other tourists who wanted to join in our fun. We then bought Li Ho a coke and piled back into the van. Jennifer, our contact from GBBN, instructed him to drive us to the Ming Tomb after grabbing a bite to eat. Lunch was amazing and we all tried rice wine for the first time. I actually enjoyed it. The tomb was okay. Very beautiful were the plants and trees and I loved the sculptures. It was rather peaceful there.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped off as close as we could get to the olympic stadium and pool, snapped some pictures, and continued onward.

That night, we all met back up to have dinner with Kim on the last night of his three month stay in Beijing. We all met at a restaurant in Beihei Park which was gorgeous and hopping that night. We ordered snake and all kinds of other weird food, but the snake is what we wanted most, and what they happened to forget. After a hearty meal, we walked around to the other side of the lake and found a bar that didn’t mind pouring a little heavy. We all sat up at the rooftop tables and talked for a few hours about China and business and life in general. It was a great night. We took a couple taxis back to the hotel late night and that was probably the best example of crazy Beijing driving we’ve seen yet. Yet another wild night.