Published: November 24th 2011November 25th 2011
Me--Fashion Disaster! LMAO
My new hat! I think it's fun and it's warm, which is what I'm needing right now in Beijing!
"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures within them." -Thornton Wilder
"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have not just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." -Diane Ackerman
*I have been trying to publish this blog for almost 3 days. Seems a glitch with TB itself has thwarted not just me, but other bloggers as well, lol, according to the posts here, anyway. Forgive little errors as mistakes have been very difficult to polish, also.*
Sunday, November 20th, 2011. Me and my 2 American travelling companions, plus a driver and a tour guide named Jack, hit the road VERY early to make the trek to the Great Wall. At a bit after 7:30 a.m. Jack appeared in the hotel breakfast room where I was wolfing down my breakfast and whisked me into the van with my soon-to-be new American friends, Nelly and her husband Scott, a very easy-going and charming couple from New York City. It was just us 3 who made up the tour. And that
Tang Hu Lu
This is my favourite sweet treat in this country!! Tart, sour, little crab apples skewered and then coated in a hard candy/sugar coating. These are like candy apples from the fair, only far, FAR superior! OMG--I love these! They can be bought for between 2 and 5 Yuan/skewer. I will miss them! LOL
was ok. We introduced ourselves to one another and chatted while we journied towards the Great Wall. We drove outside of Beijing to a less visited section of the Wall. It was hardly peak season, in November, which was FINE with me--I had specifically asked Wendy if I could go to a less-visited part of it. I didn't want to be there with a million other tourists. And in China one COULD have a million other tourists! LOL As we drove along, it was a beautiful, clear autumn day, and the roads were not congested with traffic as it was a Sunday morning and this was speeding along our journey, Jack assured us as he shared the history of this section of the Wall at Mùtiányù--90 km north-east of Beijing and dating to the Ming dynasty.
We stopped first at a little vase factory. There was a very friendly and cute puppy who greeted us as we exited the van and I scratched his fur just a little--I couldn't resist him! As we entered the inside of the courtyard we saw a huge pile of corn! I am not sure what the corn was for, exactly, whether it was
Moi, of course, on the Great Wall!
somehow part of the creation process (not at all sure about this...?) but a worker named Jane gave us a tour of all the ins and outs of making the vases. They were beautiful, but I bought nothing as my suitcases were already bulging and I am not much for vases, in any case! LOL We drove on and after surveying the scenery outside of Beijing for some time we did finally arrive at the Great Wall.
I was not prepared for the ferociousness of the hawkers! OMG--they surround one and refuse passage, all-the-while shouting in your face to buy, buy, buy! I must say, they were clearly surprised when I answered them in Chinese with my, "No, thanks!" and many of them were amused by it! I had to elbow my way past some, though, who were not very pleased that I was not buying. Yikes! Good thing I am quite an assertive woman! Lol We bought our return tickets for 80 Yuan and hiked up to where the lift began and hopped into the ever-moving cable car and enjoyed the ride up! WHAT a view!!! Thanks goodness there was a lift to where the Wall began! It
Me, up higher. This was taken by a kind American tourist.
would have been quite a hike just to GET to it. LOl I was becoming more and more excited as we climbed higher and higher. I was just moments away from realizing my dream of being on THE WALL! I had goose-bumps! And then, Ta-da! We had reached the top, and hopped out and walked up to the look-out place where we would climb up onto the wall. I didn't waste any time as Jack had told us we had only about 1 hour. And then suddenly, there I was. I was ON the Great Wall of China! I felt exhilerated! Amazed...who had trodden these bumpy stones? How many feet over the hundreds of years since it was created had been on it? And whose feet had they been? I was overwhelmed by the sensation of awe I experienced. First of all, the view is unlike anything you've ever seen! Amazing, incredible, awe-inspiring, mountainous and magnificent all come to mind. The Wall is not flat, it is very, very, hilly and a tough climb, in places. Good thing I'm in shape! It was a rugged 3 km long section, and it was icy with small patches of black ice (I
slipped once and luckily recovered myself before pitching face-forwards into another tourist, upon which he commented, "You almost fell there!" DUH, thanks for pointing that out! JEEZ!) Anyway, to say that the view is stirring is understatement. It is the section that Bill Clinton visited. I huffed and puffed and sweated my way up--my hat was on--it was off--it was on--it was off--you get the picture, lol, whilst taking in the view and the graffiti. Yes, I did write that, graffiti. Seems that not even the Great Wall of China is immune to it--the bourgouise anouncements chronicalling or defacing (you decide, lol) by announcing who loves whom and who rocks whose world. I mean, seriously. This is the Great Wall of China. It seems a bit of a sacrilege to me. Am I wrong here? Lol At least most of it was done in what appeared to be chalk and NOT liquid PAPER as I saw in some places. Sheesh. There are some real ASSHOLES in this world, aren't there? At least chalk is a natural substance and will wear off in time. Anyway, there were people from all over the world on the wall. Canadians, Americans, French speakers, German
speakers, British English speakers, and of course, the bulk of the visitors who were Chinese. I talked to a lady from Newfoundland and a couple from Ontario. An American I spoke to asked me if I was the lady from Saskatchewan! Apparantly the prairies were well represented at the Wall! How small is this world, I sometimes wonder? I spoke French with some Europeans. I heard some German and lots and lots of Chinese people greeted me in both English and Chinese. And I was told at least 3 times how good my Chinese is, and of course, I protested, because that is what I'm supposed to do, but I was secretly (ok, not-so-secretly, HA!) quite proud of myself. There were many, many, Chinese soldiers in full uniform on the wall and they kept yelling something into the hills hoping to hear their echo back, then laughing raucously when they DID hear it!
I have to write that there was not ONE second I was not joyful on that wall! I felt so alive, so validated, so inspired to live my best life I cannot really convey it accurately in words. My heart knew, though. It glowed warmly within
me. This had been a dream of mine for many years...and I had made it come true. I tried to be in the moment as much as I could...just living NOW and savouring the experience. And then, having climbed up to a very high watch tower and realizing that it was already 10:40 and I needed to descend, I bought a drink from a local (for way too much money, but let's not go there!) and rendez-vous'd with Nelly as she watched Scott yet ascend--we'd both had enough climbing for one day, and I started back down. There was a set of steps that left me feeling dizzy, they were so steep I'd climbed them like a ladder ascending, and I descended one step at a time and very, very, slowly, carefully and deliberately once again being grateful for having been in good shape before I came today. It was quicker returning than going...as always. I reluctantly left the wall meeting up with Scott and Nelly. Jack had phoned me on my Chinese phone and asked our whereabouts and I'd said we would arrive at the bottom to meet him shortly. As we descended on the cable car I vowed
to return to the WALL again on day! And the sooner the better.
After having survived hiking up the Wall, and having survived the hawkers (just barely, lol), we piled into the van and drove for some distance to the Ming Tombs, at Shisân Ling, 50 Km north west of Beijing resting place for 13 of 16 Emperors and Empresses and concubines alike for centuries. It has very good Feng Shui and that was of the utmost importance for the ultimate eternal resting places, apparantly. That was really a short stop because although the buildings were impressive it was really dead there. LMAO. Get it? Then it was time for lunch. Lunch was, how shall we say it, forgetable. Not very good food. We wandered through a jade factory there....again, I bought nothing....images of busted open suitcases and lost silk enroute to Winnipeg reigned me in and we again set off for our "free" foot massage at the Olympic Stadium. After a long drive and a stop at a silk factory, where we were educated about the whole process of how silk is created, complete with a silkworm lifecycle and silk making process demo. Confession. I bought a silk
Just one example of the graffiti on the Wall.
quilt and duvet cover (I know, I know...wth was I thinking? I got totally sucked in.....I am going to have to carry it onto the plane with me or something?? Lol) We arrived at the Olympic Stadium Sports Medecine Centre where an African soccer team was holding a scrimmage while we, we being a group of tourists, had a relaxing foot soak and massage...ahhhhhh.....man, it felt so great! LOl There was a really funny guy from Malaysia and 2 Indian ladies, 3 people from France and then the North American contingent--Scott, Nelly and myself! I felt soooooooooooo relaxed after that. It had been THE most amazing kind of day. Truly. Shortly after that I was dropped off at my hotel where I paid for my tour and was asked by the guide to tip the driver..which I refused....I told him I was happy with the tour but that I was unprepared to tip for a service where I had already negotiated the fee AND Wendy had advised against it. She felt it was reasonable to just pay the 280¥. And that's what I did.
The perfect ending to a perfect day was supper at Le Little Saigon, where I've
You can just see on the left more white scribbling on the wall...this was a "window" opening in a guard's tower. The insides of these turrets were particularly sribbled.
become a regular! Lol, they greet me at the door, and actually, I am sipping my wine and writing this entry in the restaurant after having supped. Life is good. Very, very, good.
There are more photos below