Day Eight: It was GREAT!!!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Yes! We climbed and we conquered, just like Genghis Khan! It was magical, and surprisingly not cold, given the intensity of the climb - on some parts.

We started out semi-early, meeting our tour guide, Song, at the van-bus at 8am-ish, heading off to the Northern suburbs toward the Ming Tombs. They were tombs, we saw the mound of one. Beijing became the capital city in the 1400s because some emperor used to be the mayor, and let's just say he was partial.

It's fun to learn things, like how some big deal eunich (the only one buried with emperors!) was the first to discover America's west coast in 1421 because some emperor wanted his nephew back in China and sent his eunich dude off in search of his 'phew... didn't succeed in finding the guy, and the nephew died/was buried in Malaysia, but euny did discover the New World before Columbus. It was cold, the buildings were old. There were archways and doorways.

The first instance Song thought I was strange came when I slowed the group down a bit (they coulda kept going and we woulda caught up, but nooooo they had to stop and judge) by having Tony take a picture of Briana pushing me through the Soul Gate or something or other, like Stargate, but your soul stays trapped there if you cross through it unless you go backwards through it and chant something a couple times... they did it on the way to and from the funerals. Song shook his head as B and I laughed, and said that he didn't understand.

Then we stopped off at a jade factory/museum/gift shop and I bought a real jade bangle... green with a red sunburst, the red signifies happiness and I think they said the green is fortune, but sometimes I forget things right after I'm told. Either way, it's good. Oh, and we learned the way to tell if it's real jade: it's cloudy if you hold it up to the light (that's the minerals saying "hey!" in comparison to glass); it has a high pitch sound when you click it against something (compared to marble); and if it's lightweight.

We moved on to lunch and took a shot of "Chinese Fury" or "Death Sweat" 56% alcohol - ACK! Lunch wasn't really anything special outside of that shot... which I mainly took just to say, "Hey. Yeah, I did that." Like when I ate the scorpions... I didn't really have a hunger for them, it was just something to try.

ON TO THE GREAT WALL!!!! We adventured along the Badaling part (it's closer than most to Beijing and it's most intact - I was looking forward to climb on a crumbling part, and take a zip-line down, but I'll take what I can get), took a cable car up and hiked around for 2 hours (I would've liked to have more time, but it was a group thing, and I was happy just to be able to experience it... maybe one day, one day a long, long time from now after the bad taste China left in my mouth has rinsed out). I put the penguin suit on; I promised.

It was surprisingly warm, though I think I owe that to the activity. Basically, we were mobbed. Me, being in a penguin suit - and Western, and B being blonde. Double WHAMMY!! Hilarious times, for sure, and it's weird to think how many photo albums we'll make it into. Beautiful views as we were lucky enough to be up there in between cloudiness. Oh. my. gosh. it was steep though! Serious climbing, the stairs were like ladders, and there was one ramped part that was so steep we had to slide down - but it was fun!! I can't believe they used the wall as a way to transport things - it's so steep!! The part we trekked was less traveled than most, and that made it all the better: one, because there were less people (y'know) and two, because we were the only foreigners until we were almost at the end.

(The clouds waited until we were done to settle in.)

OH! And I confused Song the second time when I came back to the van. "What are you wearing?" he asked, my hood was down, I put it up. He was reaching behind him to open the sliding door and was so taken aback that it took a couple of empty grabs and a slight turn around to make contact with the handle. "Why? -- I don't understand." I climbed into the van, settling in the back next to B. Song climbed in the passenger seat and turned around me, "Why do you do this?" "Because." I said. "You are a teacher. This is for your children. Okay." "Yeah, sure." Does there have to be a reason for a fun time?

WE WENT TO THE GREAT WALL!! Wow. Oh, afterward we stopped at a silk factory and saw how they made that... kind of neat, I suppose, but we were so tuckered out by all the tours and all that jazz by that point that all I wanted to do was lie down and be warm.

Oh, our Beijing Bonzana is done (so we thought... I'll write about the airport experience over the weekend). You were lovely. Thanks for all the fun times and grand memories, but I can't say if I'll be coming back anytime soon...