Our goal for this blog is that the students can take turns to update it daily, but looking around the dinner table tonight, we realized that the only thing that was going to happen tonight is sleep. It has been a whirlwind of activities and traveling since arriving in Beijing at 5AM this morning.
Our fantastic guide, David, met us after we finally got through arrivals and welcomed us onto the bus with fresh bread rolls. From the airport we headed straight for the Great Wall. A gondola ride delivered us to the wall, where we spent an hour wandering along the spine of the mountain, exploring this wonder. The snow on the trees and ground added much atmosphere to the scenery. We were all in awe.
After exploring the wall, we enjoyed mountains of dumplings at a local restaurant before heading to our hotel in Beijing. A quick shower refreshed everyone, and we walked over to Tiananmen Square for a couple of quick photos. We did not stay long, as we were all hungry and cold and ready for dinner. We will visit the square again on our last day when we go to the Forbidden City.
David arranged for a feast of Chinese dishes at a nearby restaurant- fiery gong-bao chicken, wok sautéed vegetables, sweet-and-sour pork, and a favorite of our group- scallion pancakes.
Upon arrival at the hotel, everyone made straight for their rooms. Bedtime beckoned! There will be more exploring tomorrow, but for now we can only think of one thing: sleep...
We arrived in Beijing at 5:00 AM Local Time (2:00 PM PST). Having not slept for most of the plane ride, few of us felt ready for a long day of walking on the Great Wall and around the Beijing city center. After leaving the airport, we met our guide David and rode on the bus to the Great Wall. The drive was about two hours long. We got a glimpse of China's rural areas on the way to the Great Wall, as the Wall is relatively far from the city. The farms we saw were comprised mainly of agricultural fields and rows of trees, not dissimilar to the Californian Central Valley.
When we got to the Great Wall, we bought the tickets and we walked to the gondola station which would take us up to the top of the hill where the Great Wall is located. Many of us were not ready for the relatively strenuous uphill walk. Our guide David handed us our tickets, and we rode in the gondolas to the Great Wall. We noticed the snow that covered some of the ground below the gondola. The March wind added to the already cold temperature, so most of us put on our jackets. When we got to the Wall, we took a large picture together, then split into smaller groups to explore for an hour. In our groups we walked down the steep steps to see the insides of the guard stations located roughly every 1000 feet. We didn't have very much time to explore the wall, so we had to head back to our meeting station for lunch. We rode the gondola back down to the base, then headed over to the dumpling house. On the way over, we interacted with the vendors. Most were selling Great Wall T-shirts, panda stuffed animals, Mao Zedong hats, and chopstick sets. Several of the vendors spoke English, but we also bargained with them in Chinese. After buying some items, we sat down for dumplings. It is safe to say that we ate at least twenty dumplings each.
After lunch, we rode the bus back to the hotel. We got settled in our rooms and took some much-needed showers before heading out to see Tiananmen Square. The walk to the square was fairly long, especially in the biting Beijing wind, but the view of the famous city center was well worth it. We saw the imposing, gray Chinese government buildings which each rivaled the size of our sports stadiums in America. The square itself, which can purportedly hold one million people, was vastly expansive. Notably absent was any mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which could be representative of the revisionist tendencies of the Chinese government. We also saw the famous portrait of Mao on one of the entrances to the Forbidden City.
For dinner, we went to an amazing family-style restaurant. The food was well-appreciated as we walked for a long time to get to dinner. Some of us were nearly falling asleep as we ate because we had been awake for over twenty-four hours already. As soon as we got back to the hotel, we all fell asleep very quickly and were better rested for our next day.
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