Since I have more time in Beijing than I want or need--a product of being stuck here due to the travel plans of the rest of my group--I've decided to take things as slowly as possible here, so that I don't do all of the fun stuff in the first few days, leaving a lot of days empty. However, after getting a Chinese cell phone--an accomplishment in itself--I met up with Dimitar and Eric Showen, who is also doing the Stanford EPGY program here, to explore the city. We went to a big park, then ate dinner at an overpriced Belgian restaurant and went for drinks on San Le Road, one of the few hotspots in Beijing. Our bar had a giant, eerily smily stuffed panda bear out front that all of us took a liking to, and we had a great night drinking cheap beer and watching people pass by.
After spending a very rainy Monday doing very little of anything, I got up very early this morning to meet Ivo and his girlfriend Helen to go to the Great Wall. There are three commonly visited spots on the Wall near Beijing. The first two are nearby and visited by tourists who want to take pictures and get back easily. We opted for the third option, which is a 3-4 hour hike along the wall in one of the more dramatic, hilly, but far-flung sections within driving distance of the city.
While I haven't been too impressed by what I've seen in China so far, the Wall was really something. The weather was beautiful--we were able to see the sky for the first time since getting here--and the setting was incredibly dramatic. In stark contrast to Beijing, which is set on a very, very flat plain, the wall ran along the highest ridge of a rugged, dramatic mountain range. We climbed along it, taking the stone steps at times at about a 45 degree angle, and eventually crossed a narrow gorge on a suspended pedestrian bridge. Hopefully the pictures give you some sense of what it was like. It's definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip for me thus far.
Trip of a life time!
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