Moses and Mickey Mouse

Up early today for our trip to The Great Wall!!! We stop along the way for a visit of the Sacred Way (Or the Spirit Way) of the Ming Dynasty Tombs. We did not get to go to the tombs themselves. Only walk the Spirit Way lined with statues shaded by willow trees. It was a good walk. I would have liked to go onto the tombs and see them as well. But, we had a long day ahead of us. After walking along the Spirit Way we were told that we had to cross one of the most dangerous streets of China, and like Moses parting the Red Sea, Peter walked right out into traffic, which he must have used The Force to stop, so that we could cross the street like his brave little ducklings.

We stopped at a jade factory where we were educated on the matters of jade. It was fascinating to see how they could carve a ball with multiple, individual, moving balls within it, all from a single piece of jade. Like many other revered arts in China, there are only a small handful of people in the world that are considered to be true masters in their craft. After the small bit of education we were shown to...wait for it...yup, you guessed it the jade shopping center. After Barb had made eye contact with one of the "helpers" there, she was stalked the entire visit. If any interest was shown in an item, the helper would then pull out the item for you to see, talk about the price, possible upgrades or other alternatives like the item you happened to glance at. We discovered that there is no such thing as "just looking" in China. The prices were actually pretty good and we picked up a couple things that we wanted.

A small stop for lunch at a cloisonne factory (with some education, shopping and of course stalking) gave us a sampling of some fantastic local Chinese food. We even had the opportunity to sample a local liquor that they consider very strong (about 53%) and some of the local beer (Jinling and Tsingtao). Both of the beers were very...uh...light. Fizzy yellow beer, anyone?

After lunch we get to a major attraction of the trip; The Great Wall at Badaling. I will tell you now that Barb and I are going back. We only had a couple hours on the wall. Neither of us thought we had enough time to walk as much as we wanted. We were given the option of the easy way to the right, or the steeper way to the left. The right side has better photo opportunities, but, the left side would have fewer people. Well, on a day where it seemed that all 1.4 billion Chinese people were on the wall, we took the 'fewer people' route. There were still a lot of people on our side. But, you could look across the valley to the other side and see the people parking lot that was there. Others of the group went that way and said that it was just that; a parking lot.

The weather was fantastic. The views were spectacular. And we were standing on the Great Wall of China. We tried to get a bunch of good photos. Speaking of photos, something about Barb and Brett (another guy in our group) had the locals in a tizzy. These two were constantly getting asked to be in photos with the locals. For me it was like walking around Disneyland with Mickey Mouse. I keep getting stopped so visitors could take photos with my companion. Must be some sort of Rock-star quality about those two...

I was happy that we made it to the first major watchtower, where we were afforded some spectacular views, and the wind was so strong it nearly took our breath away.

Now, you may have heard it referred to as the Great Wall of China, but let me tell you my friends...it was the Great Wall of Stairs. And crazy stairs at that. The first step in a series might be four inches in height, the next three steps might be nine inches, then one step that is two inches, and so on, making for a somewhat scary, uncertain footing. At times, I wouldn't have minded having my climbing gear. On the way back down, which was truly dizzying if you looked straight down, Barb and I were holding on to the handrail for dear life, as we watched a young guy bound down the stairs carrying a child, followed shortly by several girls in heels. Barb stared in awe, and I found myself feeling like such a sissy. Apparently, the people of that region have been imparted with a sense of innate fearlessness, or unbelievable stupidity.

With a touch of sadness at not getting to spend another day and a half hiking The Wall, but our heads filled with plans for our next trip out there, we boarded the bus and made our way back to the hotel. We did make a quick detour and drove by the Olympic Village. Got to see The Nest and the Water Cube.

Stopped into the same hotel restaurant and ordered more Chinese food. Once again we were told that they were out of those particular dishes. How the hell can they be out? Hell, Panda Express makes food all damned day..and it tastes better than the dog food we were fed yesterday. Today was better. The food was just this side of OK. We told each other we would not be back to this restaurant. We would head over to the pizza hut across the street if we needed to in order to not eat here.