Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Rickshaw ride, Earthquake, Tea Ceremony

The Great Wall was amazing! It was chilly and there had been rain earlier, but that just made it so much better. There was mist around the top towers and the air was clear and chilly - but not once you started moving.

We made it to the fifth floor, and it was so exhilirating to be up that high, especially from all the endorphins. For every meter of Wall, one worker died. It's insane, but after climbing it, you wonder how they could have built it back then, and how they even survived!

The steps were completely uneven, ranging from an inch or so to knee-high.

After the Wall, we ate lunch (which was amazing and nothing like the Chinese food here - this visit has ruined P.F. Chang's for me) then went to a copper museum, where we saw how copper stuff is made. It's obvious why it's so expensive.

Today we went to teh Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We weren't allowed to see all of the Forbidden City because we're not city officials or part of the military. But it was amazing nonetheless. They are restoring it and it's easy to see which parts have been restored based on the vibrance of the paint.

I got a piece of a brick from the floor for Sam. He wanted the poster of Mao, but I couldn't get it, so I hope the piece of rock will suffice.

After the City, we went to see the house of the most corrupt emperor of the Ching Dynasty. It was very beautiful, but my camera was dead! We also got to see a real Beijing-dweller's house. It was really cool. We entered through the courtyard, which was in the middle surrounded on four sides by the house. For Sam, since he's told me that he wonders about this before, I didn't see how the drainage works, but there was an opening for the entrance on one side, so I guess the water goes from there. Anyways, it's an old couple who lives there and they raise animals and plants.

We took a rickshaw ride, which was pretty cool and scary. Chinese people have no sense of right-of-way when driving, and I was really scared for my life during the rickshaw ride. But it ended up being quite fun. I also learned to haggle today. I bought a fan that was priced at 20 yuan for 10. I'm ready for Shanghai!

There was an earthquake about 1,000 miles from here, and we never felt it. We have been under an "earthquake watch" from 10 - midnight, ranging anywhere from 2 - 6 on the Richter Scale, but it's ten to midnight and nothing has happened.

A few of us got to go to a real tea ceremony. The tea was amazing. They served unsalted sunflower seeds with it. We had jasmine tea. It was very relaxing. I almost fell asleep during the ceremony. They waste a lot of tea in preparation for serving us. But it was very interesting. I'm sure I would have understood it more if they had spoken English and/or I had done more research prior. Don't worry - the tea ceremony hasn't ruined American teas for me. :)

Anyways, we get to sleep in tomorrow morning (free morning = sleep in!), then we're going to the Temple of Heaven, then we have the overnight train ride to Xi'an, which I will be taking Tylenol PM for.

Thanks for your concerns about the Earthquakes. My camera battery is charging and I'll upload the new photos of today sometime tomorrow to my online photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/journeying.girl. Enjoy!


Xie Xie,
Cait

Toronto and Beijing

The flight to Toronto left on time. The plane was tiny ... only two rows of two seats with an isle about a foot wide. But it wasn't very long, so that was good.

The Toronto airport is small, but very clean and expensive. We spent some time playing cards, I started corcheting some slippers for Cassie, and just hanging out.

I suppose we left a bit early for Beijing. The plane was amazing for that flight, and thankfully, since it was the longest plane ride known to humankind. The plane had three seats, a wide isle, three more seats, another isle, and then three seats. I got stuck in the middle of one of the seat sets on the side. Sleep was hard to come by, but there were individual TVs on the back of every seat, and they had movies on demand, so I watched a few movies.

After we got to Beijing, we got into a huge bus and toured the city a bit. We drove by the Olympic venue. It's a big bunch of tangled steel. I don't really see much glamor in it ... and I do have pictures.

May I say here that American Chinese food is completely different from real Chinese food, and real Chinese food is way better. I sampled a bit of many different meats and veggies and liked almost all of them.

There was dancing from a local group while we ate. Afterwords, we came to the hotel and settled into our rooms. Several others and I went out to try to find this park we had been told about, but we couldn't find it ... so we found a restaurant. We had trouble communicating and ended up with a private room and six bottles of beer. I drank about a half of one and it was actually really good.

The cross walks are crazy. The roads are huge and cars have the right of way. Red lights are not laws, they are mere suggestions. Anyhow, we survived and are now in our semi-comfortable beds about to go to sleep.

The Great Wall tour is tomorrow and we may go to a spa/sauna tomorrow afterwords. It's so cheap! About $25 will get you in all day, meals (all you can eat), full body massage, etc. I hope we do - it'd be awesome.


Happy Mothers' Day, Moms!

Cait

Three Days!

Hey, everyone!

It's only three days away until my departure on Friday morning. I've almost finished packing and I'm pretty ready to go. I'm done with finals, just waiting on one more grade.

My computer screen is down, but hopefully that will be back up and running by Thursday so I can continue my blogging while in China.

More to come soon! The first stop will be Sunday, May 11 at the Great Wall.

Have a good week!


Peace,
Cait