SO- another big update.
What's new in Chickety China? Well- the three of us are STILL making a killing on the exchange rate. I got a mani/pedi yesterday and paid almost $20- don't be too jealous. Then we went and got some Mexican food- which I was sorely missing. AND we found Root Beer- which has been mysteriously absent from my diet. The Mexican place was over in a part of town filled with hotels and was tucked behind a SIZZLER. I was surprised to see that Sizzler's even existed- and even more surprised to see one in Beijing.
Today we did SOOOO much. We hired a tour guide named Lucy- who was a sweetheart. Jill had already taken her tour once before- and she is a great find. She drove us out to the Great Wall of China, to a section called the JuYongGuan, which is just about an hour outside of Beijing. We had a nice big van for the day and allowed us to leave much of our junk there.
Now some Great Wall of China facts. The Great Wall was begun in 7th century BC. It was built continuously until the 1700's. It's entire length is close to 5,000 MILES (!) although only 3,800 of those miles are masonry walls. Still CRAZY impressive. It was used as a defense system but also for communication. They would use smoke signals during the day of burned wolf dung to create black smoke. At night they used fire signals. They number of flashes/plumes would indicate the number of attackers. Men were required to work on the wall as part of the their duty- and many died in the construction. Many of them are buried inside the wall itself. There is actually a great Romeo & Juliet story of star crossed lovers and the man dies while toiling on the Great Wall. Soldiers would live on the wall in the watch towers. Much of the wall has deteriorated but many parts are restored and under protection- and most of the parts around Beijing are restored parts.
We had about 2 hours to hike to the top and back. We took our time on the way up- stopping at all the towers and taking a TON of photographs. The most shocking things to me was how PHYSICALLY demanding hiking that section of the Great Wall is. Now there are MANY sections of the Great Wall- and some have cable cars and lifts- but our section relied on pure unadulterated calf/quad power. Imagine doing a stair stepper- FOR FOREVER! Ok- not FOREVER. It really isn't the Great Wall of China- it;s the Great Stairs ofChina- and I kept asking when we were going to get to the great escalator. I can't figure out what the elevation change is- but it was steep! And hopefully my pictures show that. Also the stairs are not uniform in shape, size, depth or height. It makes it a demanding hike. It took us probably 1 hr to get the tippy top- which probably was only about 1.5 miles. Once up there we met a very nice Brazilian woman and she was hilarious. Then there was this HUGE Chinese family and they asked for a picture of Jill and I with EVERY SINGLE one of their family members. It was hilarious. It makes you feel like a celebrity. It's really cute how excited they are about Americans. Then we headed back down- and got our OFFICIAL Bamboo 'Hero' plaques. Chairman Mao once said that you can't be a true hero if you have never climbed the Great Wall. So we are officially Hero's and it even has the date and our name engraved in it.
Lucy then whisked us away to a jade market. It was a bit of a tourist trap- but I got one thing I have actually had my eye on. I have wanted a jade Buddha since I got here. Everybody wears them here as a sign of prosperity and good luck. A male Buddha for girls to wear and a female Buddha for men to wear. You wear the opposite sex to balance out your yin and yang. But it is real jade and I got to test out my bartering skills. Result: I did OK. But I did get it bumped down a good bit. There are some AMAZING jade carving. One that I would LOVE to have is this intricate cabbage. Cabbage in Chinese is the same word as money. According to Feng Shui if you have a cabbage and face the leaves towards the door it will bring money in the door. If you point the stalk it will send money out the door. The designs of the jade cabbages are beautiful. We ate lunch at the market and then on we went.
Lucy had a really funny comment about how the Chinese are notorious for eating anything. She said, "Chinese eat everything that walks on two legs but humans. They eat everything that has four legs except for the table. They eat everything in the ocean except for boats. They eat everything that flies but airplanes." Hilarious! She also told us a term she learned: A Mouse Potato. Somebody who sits on the computer all day....and uses their mouse. Instead of a Couch Potato. Pretty clever.
We then went to Summer Palace. Which was the main mastermind creation of a women they call the Dragon Lady. She was a concubine who bore the Emperor's son- and her son became Emperor. But it ended up being a puppet leadership and Dragon Lady was pulling all the strings. She ended up squandering much of China's wealth to meet her own needs. She spent much of her money building summer palace. There are many stories of her greed- including that her meals had to have over 100 courses to satisfy here. She even continued her rule after her son died- and her nephew took over. She would sit behind the Emperor's throne and tell him what to do, Summer palace is part of her squandering- but it is beautiful. It sits on a HUGE man made lake and has all these pavilions and pagoda's. One of the most note worthy things is along the lake called the 'Long Corridor. It is an open air pavillion but it stretches 800 yds long and every square inch is covered in paintings. And they are ALL different. Very BEAUTIFUL. Dragon lady also had a marble boat built- and that was cool. We then took a dragon boat across the lake and then on to the Birds Nest aka Olympic Park.
The Olympic Park is AWESOME. And it makes me so SAD I didn't go to the Olympics and get to see all of these amazing buildings in use. I have a hilarious picture of Jill trying to lay an egg in the nest. And Danny has a great one of us doing some sweet jumps in air in front of the birds nest. They have the Olympic song BLASTING on the concourse: One world, one dream! Jill and I did some impromptu dances and Jill really got the attention of the locals. We metro'd home and ate leftover Mexican. Yum.
Super POOPed! But it was a great day. Back to work tomorrow. Jill is taking the day off and her and Danny are going to do some sight seeing.
Photographs are of: Jill and I at the Great Wall, Looking up at all the towers (you can see the tippy-top one in the right corner), Smog rolling into the valley from Beijing (also shows elevation change looking down), dragon boat at summer palace, Jill laying an egg in the Bird's Nest, me REJOICING in the Root beer, and the lake and lotuses at Summer Palace.
