Monday night we headed to the bar area of Beijing where it was extremely slow. We had a couple of drinks and were approached by some scammer from Ghana trying to get us to go to some other bar. Luckily we didn't go. We came back to the hotel and went to bed. Not a very active night.
On Tuesday July 7th we woke up made breakfast and headed out around 10:30am. In our lonely planet guide it says to rent bikes and do a biking tour. We figured this was a good idea because it is so flat here and there are tons of bike lanes on all the roads. We got two bikes for the day at 40 RMB. We headed to the bank then did the tour around the forbidden city according to the guide. After this it was about noon. Joe and I decided to ride up to the Olympic village which is on the northern tip of Beijing and we were in the center. Not the best idea. We rode in the hot sun for miles and miles. We probably stopped and asked directions 5 times. The thing with Beijing is that the roads here change names every 50 meters and the map we had was the whole of Beijing with only the major roads labeled. On the map the Olympic village didn't look too far but after riding for about 3 hours and getting substantially lost we finally made it.
The village they built is HUGE! Like ridiculous for one event. We walked over to the water cube (the bubble looking building) where Phelps won all his medals. It was pretty cool inside but nothing to write home about. After we watched an empty pool we headed out to the National Stadium (The Birds nest). By far the coolest looking stadium from the outside. It was enormous and very new and well designed. We walked in, sat in the seats, walked around the track and hung out in the air-conditioned gift shop. It was cool to see but not three hour bike ride cool. It really is amazing and kind of sad that the Chinese put so much effort into making these Olympics special. We all remember how amazing they were this year but now the whole village is just a tourist trap and they don't really hold events there at all.
After being asked by Chinese families for our photograph we got on our bikes and headed back to the hotel. This time it only took an hour and a half since we sort of knew where we were going woo… Once back we showered up and bought tickets to our next destination Kyoto, Japan (more on that later). We then found a hostel and booked tickets for our Great Wall journey. Our bus was leaving the next morning at 6:15 so we just saw Terminator Salvation at the mall then called it a night.
Today, Wednesday July 8th was our Great Wall day!! A big reason we came to China was to climb the great wall. We successfully got up on time and caught the bus to the Great Wall. It's located about 3 hours outside of Beijing. The section we decided to do was the more challenging 10km walk from Jinshanling to Simatai. The drive was beautiful. Seeing the Chinese countryside instead of the city was like a breath of fresh air. When our group finally got off the bus we took a Gondola type thing to the beginning of the wall. The second we got there we started taking in the amazing view of where we were until we began being followed by "tour guides". Basically locals wait at the top and when they see tourists they follow along for a good amount of time offering tips, to take pictures, souvenirs, and water. It was pretty annoying walking and trying to enjoy but after some maneuvers Joe and I lost them.
The climb really was intense. Parts of the wall were so dilapidated that we were basically climbing loose stones. It was really cool though. Going up some of the really steep parts was extremely exhausting. But some parts downhill were nice. We went through 30 towers, over a shaky rope bridge and finally made it to the end. The views really were indescribable. It was really nice taking it all in. Once we made it to the end they had a optional zip line down to a boat that would take us to bus. Naturally Joe and I took the zipline instead of walking back down. It was really fast going down it and it was over a river about 300 feet below. Amazing! We got on the boat, bought some t-shirts then headed to the bus. Our dinner was included in the tour. Had some pretty shitty Chinese food and headed back. I slept like a baby all the way to the hotel which was needed heavily. A day well spent! Miss everyone!!
-jed
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