Great Wall

We got up early to head out to the great Wall- Michael picked us up
with a driver and everything, had it all worked out for us - it ended
up being quite a good deal as far as I am concerned. Additionally, we
were able to ask him all of the questions that Americans want to know,
but have no one to ask- he was almost better in his "non tour-guide"
mode in my opinion. We were driven past the Olympic village and the
many stadiums- including the badminton one which suffered some fire
damage recently... we saw the birds nest and the swimming facilities-
which according to Michael are ingenious architecture. We then moved
closer to the wall, but we stopped at a Jade factory. Apparently the
tourguides in China get some sort of commission if they bring people
through these places, so unknown to us- this stop was also a purchasing
opportunity for those who wanted to throw down $400 in A grade Jade.
We got a mini lesson on how to look for "good jade" and then were
dumped out into the gift shop. The "nicer" shops here have about 600
people working in them waiting to sink their teeth in until you buy
something, but he still gets some money even though we didn't succumb
to the pressure of the jade clerks. From there we continued on to the
Ming tombs, where 13 of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were housed.
The area was spectacular with breathtaking views (once you climbed four
dozen stairs that were so steep we thought we were climbing ladders) of
the entire area that the tombs covered. We learned all about how the
area is very feng shui with a river and mountains closing in the most
important areas, and we learned even more about concubines and eunichs
at the Ming tombs. It was pretty and a nice stop. We had lunch at
another "tour guide kick back" place- and then were dumped out into a
large "friendship" store where you could buy life size Terracotta
warriors with only $320 in shipping costs. After lunch we continued on
to the Badaling area of the Great Wall. It is said that this part of
the wall is the most traveled- and is certainly very "tourist friendly"
with all the Great Wall stuff you could ever want. The one thing that
I would warn people about however, is the bathroom- I have never had an
experience like that before, and I hope to never again. I'll leave the
details for a later conversation, as even the Japanese government might
block that from being posted. Anyhow, the Great Wall was a trip. You
get on to a taboggen type thing, and you go pretty much straight up
until you reach the "safe" area to start climbing the wall. We weren't
entirely sure what exactly was going on, but with Michael at our side,
nothing could go wrong. We were further reminded here that the Chinese
are not shy when it comes to pushing to get through. It was one of the
most interesting experiences of my life, watching all of these people
try to squeeze through a bottleneck doorway to let you out onto the
Great Wall. Once we were through though- the real challenge began. We
had to climb (again) these crazy steep stairs that seemed to never
stop. We went all the way up to the "Hero's" peak - Mao declared that
you were not a real man until you reached the peak, so thankfully our
lifelong dreams of becoming heros was achieved here. Then, instead of
battling our way back to the taboggens, we decided to keep climbing,
and descend using the less traveled path down the wall. Thankfully it
was a bit overcast that day, so we were not any hotter than usual in 85
degree heat. The breeze kept us going, but it was still tough. It got
to the point when we were coming down however, that we had to turn
around and go backwards just to give our calves a stretch- and because
it was too steep to feel safe going down forwards. We throroughly
enjoyed our time on the wall - especially parts where Michael was there
to help us "make" pictures. Hopefully we'll get them up here soon.
Later that night, we went to an acrobat show in Beijing- it was
teriffic. It was a little Cirque du Soleil, but with petite asians.
There were jumpers, plate twirlers, a bicycle routine and many other
acts that were simply amazing to watch.