Hi all,
We have just flown home from a great trip to Beijing. Here is a quick update for those that we don't talk to regularly.
We had Friday, Monday, and Tuesday off for a national holiday and decided to go to Beijing with a group of friends from work. We booked a tour company to help us get around and flew out Thursday after work. Friday and Saturday were spent taking numerous tourist tours and Sunday we got to do our own thing.
Friday: We started off our trip by heading to the Ming Tombs. It may be a great place to see some Chinese history but the part we saw, wasn't! We went to a huge area where 13 Emperor's from the Ming Dynasty are buried. The tour consisted of one of the 13 tombs. It was the one tomb that had been destroyed. Therefore, there was no palace to walk through because it had been burned. The actual tomb was down quite a few flights of stairs and looked like a bomb shelter. There were three thrones, a bunch of empty red metal boxes that looked as if they came from IKEA and not much else. There were however 12 more tombs with palaces attached that we could not go and see and one more that was open to the public but again, we did not sign up for that tour. It was not our favorite part of the trip!
These tombs happened to be about an hour drive from our hotel and seemingly in the opposite direction of next destination which was the Great Wall.
Once we reached the GW it turned the trip around. First of all, Christy, to her excitement got to ride a chair lift up a mountain to get to the wall! It was easier without skis on but no less traumatising! I was trying my hardest not to shake the chair as I turned from side to side snapping pictures and pointing out beautiful scenery, however...I was unsuccessful and ended up being sitting most of the chair ride in timeout, not allowed to move or make noise!
Once we reached the top the view was amazing even though it was a really foggy day. We walked around on the wall for over an hour snapping pictures and posing. We could only see a small part of the wall but what we did see in that short time was mind blowing. On the top of mountains sits a huge wall. It stretches for over 5 miles and was built hundreds of years ago when machinery wasn't invented yet. We all found it impossible to be true as we laughed and played in utter disbelief!
The trip down may have been the highlight of the trip (not to downplay how great the trip was but getting down from the GW was a blast!). We had the option of walking down something like 25,000 steps, taking the chair lift, or riding a sled down a luge. We opted for the luge. I went first in our group as I wanted to go as fast as possible without slow people getting in the way. There were others in front of us but we delayed as long as possible to give us some room before leaving. Three of us that looked forward to the ride took off in intervals first, followed by the people wanting to take it a bit easier. It may have been on wheels instead of ice but it was still a blast. It banked during the turns snaking down the side of the mountain (don't think it would meet US safety standards!). It was pretty fast when you allowed it to be. Although the people in front of us didn't allow it to be. We caught them quickly and as loud unruly foreigners do, we began breaking rules.
There were parts when the workers couldn't see you on the track and we would stop and wait during these parts allowing for more space and ultimately more speed. It was a blast! Christy, who did not ride the same way I just described, even had fun on the luge. It was really easy to control and go slow if you wanted. After the trip down we spent a few minutes arguing with vendors about their crazy prices and bought a bunch of "junk" (I mean well needed artifacts and decorations) to put on display in our apartment.
Friday night we went out for dinner and made a wonderful discovery. There was a street that had booths set up as far as you could see cooking and selling street food. Thousands or people were out for the evening and as we went in for a look it was hard to walk around or even catch a glimpse of what they were selling. We made it up to the front and to our surprise it all looked quite good (well, not all...some looked gross and scary but in general, of the things we would actually eat, the preparation and quality of that looked good). We were looking for something a little more restful after our long day so we went into a random restaurant. It ended up being some of the best food we have eaten in China and after 7 or us stuffed ourselves with what seemed like endless platters of food and beer we were given a bill for roughly $56! Gotta love that! When the bill came, Tony took it from the waitress and began laughing out loud and passed it around the table. It was funny to watch each reaction and then to glance at the waitress who had no idea what was going on. We each put in our $8 and then went out for sight seeing, more junk shopping, and fried bugs!
Ok, so not quick as I wrote earlier! I'll write more later but I'm tired of typing and you are probably tired of reading. It was a fun trip with a great group of people. Hope you enjoy another update! Again, I am not proofreading and the spell check isn't working so, Sorry Jennifer! Let me know what I need to correct and I'll get right on it!!!
T and CK
