The Great Wall

Today was a rare and beautiful blue sky day...what better way to enjoy it than to head out to the Great Wall?! I think this must be one of the more tourist-y sections of the wall, but it's very close to Beijing (about 45 minutes) and had some fun things to do.


The Wall is HUGE. I'd say more about it, but signage and information was notoriously absent, so you can read more about the Wall at Wikipedia. Most of the part that we were on has

been completely restored so the materials are not original, although the boys went further out to a section that had not been worked on and so had much of the original work left.

Of course, nothing would be complete without a mini-gauntlet of souvenir hawkers. Apparently it was not very crowded and the vendors were pretty easy-going. The prices were startingly lower as we were leaving, so the kids indulged in a trinket and we filled up on dried fruit, almonds, and chocolate crepes at unbelievably low prices. Prices here start much much higher than they do in Tanzania so bargaining takes a bit more knowledge of the prices, but the people bargain faster so it doesn't take as long.

The Chinese are very good about warnings...almost as good as Americans. And we're learning that you can find a lot of humor in mistranslating English. The mountain leading up to the Wall is steep so you can take a cable car or chairlift up, which we did.

Along with the typical warnings about people who have vertigo, heart problems, etc. there was a warning for the "habitual abortionwoman." Women of that ilk are encouraged to not use the gondola (and I suppose avoid McCain/Palin rallies, too). Of course, that means they would be hiking up the hill, which can't be good, either.

It's a myth that you can see the Great Wall from space. But we could see it as we left Beijing, which was very cool. It was like the pyramids--to actually see something so iconic that you've seen in pictures all your life was really amazing. It winds along the top of the ridge with the guard houses regularly spaced along. The ups and downs are very steep and all the steps are very irregular so you have to watch yourself carefully. There are little tables along the way where people sell crackers, water, and sodas...which they have to carry up, I imagine--the cable cars would be too expensive.

The Wall winds along the ridge, separating China from Mongolia. It's a convoluted path--we could see sentry posts with no wall remaining, and other sections where the wall had clearly fallen into disrepair was not being maintained. Like many places we've visited there is a fairly casual attitude with regards to signs that say "non-tourist area" and venture onto some of those areas. There are other areas of the wall that are much less maintained where you can hike for several hours on relatively rough terrain on the Wall.

Apparently this time of the year can be very dry and dusty, but with the rain, everything was sooo green. The mountains give you a sense of those famous images of the rounded mountains. They aren't very rugged and they really aren't very tall, but they are steep. Looking out it was clear enough see Beijing and as far as you can it, it is FLAT. FLAT. FLAT. No wonder I'm not minding riding my bicycle everywhere!








Everyone's favorite part was getting down--why walk when you can ride? These little scooters offer a 5-7 minute descent--unfortunately we got stuck behind someone who was very timid so we had to poke our way down. The boys ended up getting to go a lot faster. Reminder: stall and stall at the top to get as much distance between you and the person in front of you as possible!







At the top of the post I mentioned a rare blue-sky day in Beijing. On Friday, I took this picture out of my classroom window.

Sadly, that's not rain. That's a pretty typical day, apparently. That's pollution. And it can get much much worse. To be fair, it did rain several hours later so there are probably some clouds there, but most of the days we've been here have looked like this. It's not something you smell or feel and everyone says there's been a lot of rain in August so we thought it was just overcast alot. Nope. We will definitely need air purifiers soon. And lots of plants.

This definitely made up for my rotten Saturday, in which I spent 7 hours visiting 2 stores trying to buy paint and being told at both places (these are HUGE places, like Ikea or Home Depot) that they can't sell colored paint that day. Clearly, I need some help in the communication department. Next time, I go armed with a translator!