Where the Great Wall Meets the Ocean
So I think it’s possible that China caught on to blogger.com because I can open this window to write a post, but I cannot view my blog, or any other blogs hosted by blogger. It’s quite annoying. I guess I’ll just keep writing though and see what happens.
The weekend of October 21 TBC offered the chance to go see another part of the Great Wall. About 30-40 students signed up and we left on Saturday morning the DATE, at 6 am. We took a 4 hour train to Qinghuangdao and arrived around 10 or 11. Immediately after we got off the train we loaded a bus, as usual, and went to the Great Wall.
Knowing we had two hours and not being in so much of a rush, we took our time getting anywhere. Every 3 or so feet someone would stop to take a picture of something and in this manner we made our way along the wall. The surrounding area was beautiful and peaceful and the trees were showing their colors in a way remeniscent of New England, though maybe not as extreme.
After walking for a bit we came to an area where we had to climb over the wall to a point where a sign encouraged us to go back. Needless to say, we didn’t. This part of the wall was not finished and had no sides to it, so we climbed carefully over the rubble. After sneaking under another fence we came upon an area where you could see a peaceful hidden lake in the distance as well as a flock of sheep and their shepherd.
Along our walk we met a number of Chinese people, most whom wanted to have their pictures taken with us, don’t worry we’re definitely used to that by now. And then to keep with the spirit I started talking to a girl whose sweater read, “Donna” very clearly.
“Nide chenshen shui wo mama de mingzi,”
She laughed. She also said I had very good Chinese, “Nali Nali”
Anyhoo. We were the last to get back to the bus, and we had run down the loads of stairs, (I swear, China is ALL stairs.) so our legs were kinda killing, and plus we hadn’t eaten yet. Point being we were a little crabby upon our arrival at the next spot, the place where the Great Wall meets the Pacific Ocean.
We ate right away at an over-priced place with terrible food. It was pretty miserable, but our location made up for it.
This spot was beautiful, and it was nice to be at the beach again, although I didn’t go in this time, it was a little chilly. Carlos and I spent a good 40 minutes searching for shells though, or rather, searching through the shells for the good ones, and for sea glass and the like. We found a little crab too.
By this time it’s like 4 or 5 o’clock, we’re all exhausted, and just want to sleep, so once we get to our hotel we all pretty much just shower and pass out. It was a little uncomfortable though when we realized that this hotel didn’t provide towels in the bathrooms. Fortunately bed sheets can work as towels…
That night was unbelievably eventful, we had a big group dinner, by chance though, and then walked home in the rain. There's really so much more to it than that though. First we set off, the 5 of us pictured above, Mike, Carlos, Sienara, Liz and I, to go find a fanguan(r) (restaurant) and it seemed a bit like we were wandering through a ghost town-- though a beach-ghost-town. We decided to stop in a small grocery store and ask where a good place to eat was. Somehow they ended up giving us much more than a reccomendation... we ended up in an unmarked white van, all sitting together in the back. Except we were only able to get in after the boys helped push it up a hill out of the parking lot, it was interesting.
When we made it to the suggested fanguar, surprise surprise around 15 other TBC kids were already there! It was a really fun night and I got to know a lot of the kids that I don't usually hang out with much, a lot more.
The next morning we slept in, then got some jautzi for brunch, and also gloves, and then hopped the train back to Beijing. It was a quick trip, but an unbelievable amount of fun.
The weekend of October 21 TBC offered the chance to go see another part of the Great Wall. About 30-40 students signed up and we left on Saturday morning the DATE, at 6 am. We took a 4 hour train to Qinghuangdao and arrived around 10 or 11. Immediately after we got off the train we loaded a bus, as usual, and went to the Great Wall. Knowing we had two hours and not being in so much of a rush, we took our time getting anywhere. Every 3 or so feet someone would stop to take a picture of something and in this manner we made our way along the wall. The surrounding area was beautiful and peaceful and the trees were showing their colors in a way remeniscent of New England, though maybe not as extreme.
After walking for a bit we came to an area where we had to climb over the wall to a point where a sign encouraged us to go back. Needless to say, we didn’t. This part of the wall was not finished and had no sides to it, so we climbed carefully over the rubble. After sneaking under another fence we came upon an area where you could see a peaceful hidden lake in the distance as well as a flock of sheep and their shepherd.
Along our walk we met a number of Chinese people, most whom wanted to have their pictures taken with us, don’t worry we’re definitely used to that by now. And then to keep with the spirit I started talking to a girl whose sweater read, “Donna” very clearly. “Nide chenshen shui wo mama de mingzi,”
She laughed. She also said I had very good Chinese, “Nali Nali”
Anyhoo. We were the last to get back to the bus, and we had run down the loads of stairs, (I swear, China is ALL stairs.) so our legs were kinda killing, and plus we hadn’t eaten yet. Point being we were a little crabby upon our arrival at the next spot, the place where the Great Wall meets the Pacific Ocean.
We ate right away at an over-priced place with terrible food. It was pretty miserable, but our location made up for it.
This spot was beautiful, and it was nice to be at the beach again, although I didn’t go in this time, it was a little chilly. Carlos and I spent a good 40 minutes searching for shells though, or rather, searching through the shells for the good ones, and for sea glass and the like. We found a little crab too.
By this time it’s like 4 or 5 o’clock, we’re all exhausted, and just want to sleep, so once we get to our hotel we all pretty much just shower and pass out. It was a little uncomfortable though when we realized that this hotel didn’t provide towels in the bathrooms. Fortunately bed sheets can work as towels…
That night was unbelievably eventful, we had a big group dinner, by chance though, and then walked home in the rain. There's really so much more to it than that though. First we set off, the 5 of us pictured above, Mike, Carlos, Sienara, Liz and I, to go find a fanguan(r) (restaurant) and it seemed a bit like we were wandering through a ghost town-- though a beach-ghost-town. We decided to stop in a small grocery store and ask where a good place to eat was. Somehow they ended up giving us much more than a reccomendation... we ended up in an unmarked white van, all sitting together in the back. Except we were only able to get in after the boys helped push it up a hill out of the parking lot, it was interesting.When we made it to the suggested fanguar, surprise surprise around 15 other TBC kids were already there! It was a really fun night and I got to know a lot of the kids that I don't usually hang out with much, a lot more.
The next morning we slept in, then got some jautzi for brunch, and also gloves, and then hopped the train back to Beijing. It was a quick trip, but an unbelievable amount of fun.
posted by mal at 1:37 AM
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