Day 28 - Great Wall!!!

Sitting in our little tour van. It's going to be a small group - there'll be six of us in total. One more pickup to go. We passed by what was apparently a famous pedestrian street here in Beijing. It actually looks pretty cool. Maybe tonight for dinner?

Excited for today but feeling pretty chill.

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And we're live from the great wall. Soooo many stairs, some of them as high as my knee. Didnt quite get to the nearest peak, but thought it was best to start down early. Awesome views and totally had another Mulan moment.

Back down a bit earlier than needed so time to blog and souvenir shop. Bought fans and a keychain with the great wall on them. Which you could probably buy anywhere, but I figure it means more actually coming from the great wall. Interesting tidbit, badaling, the portion of the wall we saw, is named for having 8 gates - the one we went through is traditionally for war prisoners.

Pretty good day so far, though I am glad that most of the walking is done. Bruce, our tour guide has been giving us some history enroute, though we pretty much did the wall climb individually. Our first stop of the day was a jade factory, where it turns out they made all the Olympic medals. Spent way more than I should have buying myself a necklace, but atleast I can be sure it's real. Im kind of scared to test what i already bought. Bargained the necklace down ridiculously, and got them to throw in the pair of chopsticks I was going to buy for free so actually feeling pretty good about it.

Then we went to the Ming tombs - apparent it's one of the few sites not popular with Chinese tourists as it's bad luck. Having the place empty was a nice change of pace. After everyone comes down from the wall, our next stop is lunch, and then a silk factor wig tea ceremony I think?

Beijing is going to be ridiculously expensive for me. I think I might actually be totally broke when I get home.

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Quickie end to the post as I find myself at a mall with free wifi. After the your ended, I had them drop me off at what I think is wangfung street, a popular pedestrian shopping street. Lots of posh shops, but also cool things to see - there seems to be some sort of festival on. Actually originally stopped into the mall for ice-cream at mcdonalds (when I felt overloaded yesterday I was craving a Big Mac in the biggest way - and i dont even like them back home. Maybe just wanting the americaness?) when i remembered what Helen said about fruit things. So am now enjoying pineapple lemonade with nata de coco from some place called happy lemon.

Anyways, lunch was at this massive road side restaurant/shop filled with tour buses. Had a traditional Chinese meal, with all of us sharing which was kind of fun. I kinda felt left out at the restaurant yesterday all alone, so it was a nice experience.

We then hit a silk museum, where we watched them make silk, which is actually kind of fun looking. Managed not to buy anything. But then we hit a teashop, where we had a traditional tasting. Yummy and entertaining. Taught us how to hold the little cups, and how to drink the different types of tea. Apparently you should aim to have three sips - for luck, fortune and happiness I think? I ended up buying some tea :)

Plans for the day are to wander here for a bit, then subway back towards the hostel before it gets super dark. Then aiming for an early night, as I meet one if our Chinese research contacts tomorrow for some more sightseeing, then a visit to the university.