Breakfast was good not as good as the Shangli-La, but not a mediocre as the Sofitel (thought Id put up with the breakfast for the size of the rooms!) 8:15am start this morning, 8am start tomorrow morning ick and it sounds like a killer day.
With the traffic, it took us about an hour and a half to get to the Badaling Hills to walk a portion of the Great Wall. After seeing the number of vendors stalls, maybe it should be called the Great Wall Mall which was good for several people on our bus who seemed to need an additional suitcase to get home all their goodies.
The bus ride was filled with the history of China, and various party-line mentions of Taiwan and Tibet along the lines of now that we have Hong Kong and Macao back the clock is ticking on Taiwan. It being Sunday in China, the traffic out of town is light on a Sunday morninguntil we get close to the wall, and then it turns into mud.
We were requested as a group to pose for a group photo in front of the wall and the photo would be on the first page of a book about the wall US $15, I declined. Hopefully Marty and Eric will scan the photo in for me as it was a good photo. Just didnt feel like forking over another $15 for more weight in my luggage.
I like Erics comment about the Korea War he now understands the wave after wave of soldiers advancing when you have an unlimited supply, youre not as concerned with the numbers, just the results. That should tell you how many tourists were with us on the Great Wall this morning. The picture does justice to the masses at the front gate and the initial set of stairs to reach the wall.
I hiked the harder, but less populated left wing, which was mostly sloped rather than steps harder when slick. When we were there it was overcast, and wonderfully not that humid but it would have been ugly if it were wet. I made it to four of the little guard houses before I gave up and went back to meet Marty and Eric.
After an hour of hiking the wall we set out to spend our next allotted hour hitting the stalls. I wanted a couple of pins for my hat from China. Id found one overpriced one in Xian of the warriors that I bought anyway (US $2) liked the next one I liked even more a small panda 5 Yuan (sixty cents), then a bigger Great Wall pin for another US $1 (8 Yuan), and then my favorite a military red star knockoff with a screw-back and about 2 inches around for US$3 (started at US $8). Next was the Mao waving watch that started at 480 Yuan (US $60) that ended up costing US $7 (about 56 Yuan, a little over 10% of the initial cost) guess thats what happens when you have LOTS of merchants selling basically the same merchandise. Lots of pushy sellers of Cashmere from Mongolia One Dollar, One Dollar, Look. Forgot to mention the bicycle bell for 5 Yuan (sixty US cents) bought on a whim. Last purchase was a messenger bag with in black with a red star and some Chinese characters for US $4. Marty bought a mahjong set for $23 that looks old (probably isnt), but has a nice box. Shes now happy. Of course, she bought lots of other stuff, including an additional suitcase for the trip and a comforter set that is packed like a suitcase for travel.
Next stop was lunch and a good one much better than the Xian lunch according to Marty and Eric. I liked it because for 10 people they put three big bottles of beer, a half pint of 100 proof rice liquor, two bottles of water, and a bottle of Sprite and Coke on each table and more dishes of food than the huge lazysusan would hold. Of course, this was also a shopping opportunity with it being a jade workshop with a huge sales area attached. Get them liquored up and theyll spend more of course at my table all the men stayed behind and kept drinking (everything on that table and the next) while the wives went shopping a nice bit of male bonding.
Next stop on the death march was the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs Tour which I decided to just stay on the bus because I was whipped from the Wall and lunch, and there was a light rain. I saw the Sacred Way on the DVD playing on the ships TV network lots of large marble sculptures and manicured lawns but the tomb is empty. Good decision it opened up and really dumped rain on all the people who walked it. At least the bus met them at the end rather than having to walk back as well. That would be the rain from the bus to the left.
In some ways the rain, mist, and overcast is a nice change from the killer heat almost like home for me.
Another hour and a half to get back to the Hilton which is a dog compared to the China World Hotel. Apparently the hotel where the rest of the people are staying has the large rooms like the Sofitel with lit sculpture nooks in each room. Wouldnt mind, but we are here for three nights. On the upside, there is a shopping mall with a grocery store in the basement two blocks away at which I bought a 70cl bottle (little less than a fifth) of Sheng Bau Wei Scotch (doesnt sound very Scottish to me, but it is a Seagram distribution) for 65 Yuan (which is about US $7). Says its famous all over the world since 1986. Nice to have a drink and a hot shower and tune into CNN multitasking.
Off for dinner at 7pm with a 20 minute bus ride. I would say that about a third of our group bailed on dinner tonight. Dinner was Chinese family style (again) with unlimited beer. Ive drunk more beer on this trip that I have in the last five years. The place of a dinner was on the grounds of a 500-year-old palace gorgeous ceiling, sorry, no photo. Did get a photo of the outside of the place, though.
And, of course, there was an opportunity for shopping got a nice plain Mao pin for my hat from what Im hearing, maybe I should go to Moscow and add a Stalin pin, and to Cuba and add a Castro pin. Additionally I got two Olympics 2008 hats for Swanda the Olympics nut, and even bought a mahjong set like the one Marty got this morning and she negotiated the same price US $23, not bad considering the price was marked at 1280 Yuan (which is US $160). More stuff to carry home.
A long day and glad Im back in the room, checking email, having a scotch, relaxing in the air-conditioning.
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