A Wonder of the World & the End of the Beginning

We woke up at 8:00AM yesterday to go to the Great Wall. I was really stoked to head out of Beijing and finally see the Great Wall. The last time we tried to go to the Wall, the weather was rainy and none of us felt like risking a 2 hour bus ride to be stuck in the rain. Late the night before, we had to search for the best way to get to the Wall. We didn't want to go to a tourist part with tons of people, so we decided to go to Mutianyu. This was probably the best place to go for our first time to the Wall. I looked up directions online and wrote down the Chinese for the names of the cities and bus stations. We left at 9:05 AM, which is way better than any family trip I've been on. I was expecting to leave at 10 or 10:30 because everyone knows the Zamudio's need miracles to leave on-time for a roadtrip. We got cabs to the bus station, where we were the only tourists around. Many tourists have pre-made arrangements when they head to the Wall, so we were definately adventuring when we decided to go on our own. Anytime you do something on your own out here, you can never know what to expect. When we arrived at the bus station, this cab driver wanted to arrange a deal to take us to the Wall. We had heard about taking a taxi to the wall, but we wanted to save money and take public transportation. It is much much cheaper for not too much of an inconvenience. The only problem with saying, "No!" to this guy was he didn't get it. We were trying to find our bus, the 916 to Huairou, but the cab driver wouldn't leave us alone. When I went to ask a volunteer where the bus left from, he even went as far as to tell the volunteer not to tell us and then told us there was no bus to the Wall and we had to take a cab. All that did was make me mad and soon after he got the point that we didn't need a cab. I asked another nearby person where we could catch our bus, and they pointed us in the right direction. Although they pointed us to the non-express bus, we quickly found the express bus and were on our way. Air-conditioning and seats. What more could you ask for? I snoozed a little bit on the bus ride and woke up in Huairou. I didn't know that there were multiple stops in Huairou, but a guy came on the bus (seeing we were tourists) and told us that this was the stop for the Wall. Well, we didn't know that this guy was also a cab driver and not just a helping friend. Either way, I knew we had to take a cab from Huairou to the Mutianyu so it didn't bother me. We bartered him down for a good price, where he took us to the Wall, waited for us, and then took us back to the 916 station to Beijing. Good deal, right? We crammed five of us, me, Jim, Devon, Kelly and Monica, into the cab and took off.

Wow. The Wall is awesome. We took a gondola from the parking lot to the Wall (otherwise we would have to walk 30-40 minutes up to it). Remember the catapult I took on Wangfujing? That was a safety standard 7 or 8. This thing. Not so much. Probably about a 4. Imagine a rickity ski lift, when every time you moved, the boards your sitting on teeterd on their nails. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every moment of eminent danger. All the way to the top. We walked up the wall, through the gaurd houses and up the stairs. Overlooking the beautiful mountains, you could look at the wall snaking along the moutain sides. It was just like the pictures. Awesome. The best part was we weren't pushing through people to walk up it. We went on a perfect day too. It was a bit hot, but it was clear blue skys all around us. The walking is more like doing a 2 hour stair stepper and it was hot enough to be drenched with sweat in the first 20 minutes. We got some awesome pictures. When we made it to one of the top most gaurd houses (I don't know if that is the correct term), we could look back at the part we had just climbed and enjoy what we have conquered. Some of the Wall is really steep and although it looks like we didn't travel that far, we probably walked about a mile or so down the Wall. One of the best days I've had. It was good to be out of the city, looking at mountains (that I miss very much), and being with some of my best friends to enjoy it all with. We had a good time laughing when people almost fell up and down the steps because they are all uneven. Someone in our group (not naming names) had a few too many scares and ended up falling down a step not on the Wall, but after we had gotten down. Haha. It wasn't me this time. On the Great Wall, you could see many people from around the world too. We passed by two Tai boxers each wearing their Gold and Silver medals. Jimmy got to hold the Gold medal and he got some pretty cool pictures with them. The medals are exremely shiny and looked amazing.

The Wall was great, but possibly the best part of the whole trip was taking the luge down. Jimmy and I were trying to go really fast. You turned with the curves and banked on the sides of the luge track. It was a blast. Unfortunately, there were older people in front of our group, and we had to stop a few times to give them space so we didn't run them over. Monica went first for our whole group and at one point near the end, I kept yelling "Go Mon, Go!" Kind of in a Jamaican accent but mostly because I was catching up to her too quickly. They have a few workers along select parts of the track that yell at you when you're going to fast and of course, being American, I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me...haha. When we got to the bottom, we were starving. We ate, got ripped off because it was a tourist restaurant, and then poked around a few of the shops. Didn't see anything interesting. A few Chinese style t-shirts and some wooden stuff, but nothing I couldn't find at the Silk Market.

We all crashed on the bus ride back to Beijing. When we got home, we had to all get ready to go to Casas Americas for the Closing Ceremony. Free food and drinks. We're there. I'm sure everyone caught clips of the closing ceremonies. Great great great finish to the Olympics. It actually kind of bummed me out watching the Olympics. Now I'm not going to be able to just go see all of the world's athletes compete and break records. And, most of the people I've been meeting have been from all over the world. Many are going back to their home countries and the worldwide party is going to start coming to an end. In a way, it is kind of a good thing. Soon, I'll be starting a new part of my life in China. I'll actually have a set schedule every week and I'll be living in an apartment permanently. I was talking with a lady at Casas Americas during the Closing Ceremony and she turned out to be a tour leader. She worked for a company that plans 10-30 day excursions throughout China. Devon and I got to talk with her for hours about all the cool places in China to visit. She was a living book of knowledge. We got some valuable advice. Such as, when flying to Hong Kong, fly to Shenzhen and take a bus into Hong Kong. You'll save money that way. Also, Shenzhen's market isn't as good as Beijing's Silk Market. The Yangze River cruise I wanted to do. Not a great idea. Boring and you're stuck on a boat for 3 days with nothing to do except for play cards. Plus the food is terrible she said. Also, she gave us tons of advice about Vietnam. We're taking a 10 day trip the first week of October to visit Thailand and Vietnam. She gave us plenty to do in Vietnam. It was great to meet her and it was finally a turn of luck.

This morning I went to take my camera to the Nikon store to get it fixed. I handed the cab driver the paper the camera guys had given me and he took me to Wangfujing. The Nikon shop was actually in an office building on the third floor and when I entered there was crazy guy who was extremely pissed about his camera. Thank God I don't speak Chinese fluently because I wasn't about to listen to this guy go off forever about whatever was wrong with his camera. Some part must have been loose because he kept telling everyone in the room to listen as he shook his camera. He would go up to everyone, asking them questions and yelling about things. When I got there there were 3 people in front of me, but I got there just in time because shortly after I arrived the small room was full of people. A guy tried to cut everyone in line and someone yelled at him. I stood in line and waited my turn. Luckily the girl at the counter was pretty understanding. Of course she went off speaking Chinese, so I just smiled and nodded and they said they'd call me when it was done. Total price: Y280 plus labor. So hopefully it's around Y500. Much cheaper then buying a new one. I'm still waiting for a phone call.

We also had to consolidate apartments today, so Jimmy and I moved to the 11th floor of our buildilng. This room is way nicer than our old room but unfortunately we leave to move into the school dorms tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what happens when I get pictures.