Beijing (from the Great Wall to eating a seahorse)

Thursday Evening

I would have to say that besides the Beijing Language Middle Schools yesterday, this was by far the most fun day. We started out the day with two bus ride from Beijing to Mutianyu to ascend its portion of the Great Wall.

We drove through the five rings of roads that surround Beijing. I took some photos of the buildings. There are skyscrapers and residential high EVERYWHERE you look. Let me add that the sky has been shining every day we have been here. It was much worse this summer. When I asked about this they say that Beijing has always been bad with smog in the summer. I agree with that from experience. Secondly, this is the BEST part of the year to visit Beijing, the days have been blue and shining and the nights breezy and cool.

Lucky for me that this was a different portion of the Wall that my Fulbright group climbed this summer, so the experience was completely new. The weather could not have been any more perfect. The sun was out and I think the temp got to around 75 F. So after applying a healthy portion of sunscreen I was ready to go. We took a cable car up part of the Great Wall but had to hike to rest ourselves. It was a difficult hike because of the altitude and the fact that I am slightly out of shape:) A small group of us went as high as the we were allowed.

Before it sounds like bragging let me explain. I was ready to stop at second to last portion because it was basically straight up in the air but I passed by a guy who was at least seventy years old. So he shamed me into to finishing it. All of the Chinese people along the wall, its a tourist destination for them also, were shouting out encouragement yelling, "Djiao, Djiao" which basically means a combination of you can do it and get the lead out.(Either that or, "Come watch the chubby American climb the wall!) I included two videos of the hike and I took numerous photos. (See the link at the bottom of the page)

After a very nice lunch I enjoyed a two hour bus ride/nap back to between Beijing to visit the Temple of Heaven. It was here that the Emperors of China would communicate with "Heaven" in their role as the go-between between Heaven and the people. The would offer up prayers for the failures of the people. It was quite nice. The place is filled with all kinds of combinations of numbers and factors of nine, the number of the only the emperor.

Olympic decorations outside the Temple of Heaven

On a side note, I busted one of the people who sell all kinds of souvenirs and trinkets outside the entrances of nearly every attraction in China trying to pass my roommate some counterfeit money. I yelled in my poor Chinese to give the right money. I really don't think he understood me but I created enough of scene to shame him to give my roommate his money back. It was a total circus. (Paul, my Fulbright roommate, you would have loved it, total chaos)

After the Temple of Heaven a good portion of group went shopping in a place I could only call shopping for knock off heaven. They had everything! It has at least four floors and it it sells, whatever can be sold. It's famous for pearls but that's only the tip of the iceberg. I recorded a video of that for the ladies of Hutch. Past students, the place made blew canal street away. Quite frankly there was so much shopping I think you all would have exploded from excitement.

After we filmed the video and the rest of the people shopped a few of u wandered into a near bye Hutong, or a local neighborhood. Think of it this way, as modern as some of the buildings you saw photos earlier these were exactly the opposite. We found a shop and were able to get some tea to drink, I miss coffee. They even put a table outside for us so we could people watch. Say what you want about government but the people of China are some of the nicest and hardest working people I have ever come across.

We then went to diner and the Beijing Opera. The meal was fabulous and the Opera entertaining.It had a lot more martial arts than I expected, which is good.

So after we returned we went to market to eat...., seahorses. A bunch of us teachers were daring each other to eat something out of the ordinary, yes students can have fun outside of school. After the dares we did it. We chose Seahorses because they were the smallest and we convinced ourselves it was like shrimp. They were quite expensive by Chinese standards. They were 50 Yuan or about 7 US dollars. I could explain more but the video speaks for itself.

Part 1

Part 2

Thanks to everyone who sent questions. I answered some during my skype class with my history class. I will answer the rest later!

Click here for more photos and video