Saturday, December 03, 2005
BEIJING, GREAT WALL & ACROBATS
On Wednesday we took a 3 hour van ride to Jinshanling to see the Great Wall. Arriving in the evening we stayed in a guesthouse 8km from the Wall. SInce it was low season for tourists the closer guesthouses has all closed. They were also closed since due to the weather, all their pipes had frozen.
Sitting around the guest house we started playing cards. To make it more intersting we decided to start playing for cigarettes. Christina played along with her ex-boyfriend Efe. Efe is apparently a compulsive gambler because soon we were playing "Between the Sheets" and somehow the pot went from 1 cigarette to 200 plus the equivalent of 100 more in RMB. I broke even. Efe was up 5 packs. Christina lost everything.
The next morning we woke up at 5 am to see sunrise over the Great Wall. Arriving at the Wall in the dark, it was still about 15 degrees Farenheit when we started climbing. We reached one of the guard towers and waited. Since there are mountains in the distance, the sky was quite light by the time we were finally able to see the sun, however it was still one of the greatest sunrises I've seen. For about 20 minutes it appeared as if rays of light were radiating from the mountains. After sunrise we hiked for about 3 hours before finally getting too cold and going back to the van. While the Wall is usually very touristy, since it is off-season and very cold here, we were the only ones as far as we could see. No people, no villages, no cars, just the desert surrounding Beijing and the mountains.
That evening, after returning to Beijing, I visited my friend Chris who is studying in Beijing. I've known Chris since my time in Pennsylvania Governor's School for International Studies and he was given a scholarship by the Chinese governm,ent to come study in Beijing. Chris is working on his 8th language right now, so it appears he'll beat be to my goal of 10. We hung out for 5 hours catching up and discussing the idiosyncracies of China. I'm still trying to convince him to come travelling with me around Southeast Asia.
Last night we went to see the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe and their show. It was really impressive (as Chinese acrobats usually are.) People doing flips and leaping around, spinning plates and so on. The youngest kids were 8 years old and doing incredible things that make be believe that sometime a long time ago, Chinese people bred with monkeys.
This morning we went to the weekend market. It is huge and has almost anything people could want to buy. I picked up a few more propaganda posters and Little Red Books (from the Cultural Revolution.)
The weather here in Beijing has been between 15 and 30 degrees F lately. The last 2 days it has been snowing. No real accumulation or anything - about 1mm, but it has been fun nonetheless. My first snow of the season.
On Wednesday we took a 3 hour van ride to Jinshanling to see the Great Wall. Arriving in the evening we stayed in a guesthouse 8km from the Wall. SInce it was low season for tourists the closer guesthouses has all closed. They were also closed since due to the weather, all their pipes had frozen.
Sitting around the guest house we started playing cards. To make it more intersting we decided to start playing for cigarettes. Christina played along with her ex-boyfriend Efe. Efe is apparently a compulsive gambler because soon we were playing "Between the Sheets" and somehow the pot went from 1 cigarette to 200 plus the equivalent of 100 more in RMB. I broke even. Efe was up 5 packs. Christina lost everything.
The next morning we woke up at 5 am to see sunrise over the Great Wall. Arriving at the Wall in the dark, it was still about 15 degrees Farenheit when we started climbing. We reached one of the guard towers and waited. Since there are mountains in the distance, the sky was quite light by the time we were finally able to see the sun, however it was still one of the greatest sunrises I've seen. For about 20 minutes it appeared as if rays of light were radiating from the mountains. After sunrise we hiked for about 3 hours before finally getting too cold and going back to the van. While the Wall is usually very touristy, since it is off-season and very cold here, we were the only ones as far as we could see. No people, no villages, no cars, just the desert surrounding Beijing and the mountains.
That evening, after returning to Beijing, I visited my friend Chris who is studying in Beijing. I've known Chris since my time in Pennsylvania Governor's School for International Studies and he was given a scholarship by the Chinese governm,ent to come study in Beijing. Chris is working on his 8th language right now, so it appears he'll beat be to my goal of 10. We hung out for 5 hours catching up and discussing the idiosyncracies of China. I'm still trying to convince him to come travelling with me around Southeast Asia.
Last night we went to see the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe and their show. It was really impressive (as Chinese acrobats usually are.) People doing flips and leaping around, spinning plates and so on. The youngest kids were 8 years old and doing incredible things that make be believe that sometime a long time ago, Chinese people bred with monkeys.
This morning we went to the weekend market. It is huge and has almost anything people could want to buy. I picked up a few more propaganda posters and Little Red Books (from the Cultural Revolution.)
The weather here in Beijing has been between 15 and 30 degrees F lately. The last 2 days it has been snowing. No real accumulation or anything - about 1mm, but it has been fun nonetheless. My first snow of the season.
Comments:
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it sounds like you're still having fun. bring me back some chinese cigarettes, if they're any good.
i might be going to colorado next year. that is, if i don't get into any other schools, which is likely considering my grades.
Much love
dana
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i might be going to colorado next year. that is, if i don't get into any other schools, which is likely considering my grades.
Much love
dana
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