This was on our "secret great wall" tour that we did outside Beijing. It was really cool because they take you to this little village in a valley and you hike up to the great wall. When you get up there you're the only ones there. You can see from the picture that it's not restored to original form but it seems more of an authentic experience than the more touristy badaling wall which has a starbucks and a million hawkers on it. There was one guy who hiked (commuted) up there everyday to one of the touretts to sell t-shirts and beverages it was pretty funny because it's a pretty tough hike and he had quite a bit of stuff up there. The amazing thing about the wall besides the enormous length is the fact that it's built on the crests of so many steep mountains.
Well it's been some time but here is the latest on our China adventure so far. We started things off in Beijing the site of the 2008 summer olympics and also the most poluted city in the world. Pretty hard to measure I'm sure but according to my lungs and nose this is an accurate statement. Our guidebook says that 7 of the 10 most polluted cities in the world are in China. This is not hard to believe from what we've seen. Besides the air quality though we are having a great time. Navigating around has been one of the biggest challenges because most of the signs are in chinese character only. There is also the issue of our two word mandarin vocabulary and the two word english that most people posses. Most conversations go something like this: "Hello watches"
"no thank you "
"Hello cd's"
"can you tell me where the bus stop is? "
"Hello watches"
So if you have ever wanted to go somewhere where you really feel foreign this is your place.
The site seeing here is amazing. The temples and parks and the great wall have been better than we imagined they would be. And the food has not been disapointing either. Menus can be a little difficult to decipher but pointing at the appropriate picture usually doesn't let us down.
Some items may you may not encounter on your chinese menu at home include:
spicy dog dumplings
stir fried scorpians
some type of worms
pig intestines
and pickled duck heads.
We don't have the cables right now but will be updating shortly w/ pictures and more chinese action.
"no thank you "
"Hello cd's"
"can you tell me where the bus stop is? "
"Hello watches"
So if you have ever wanted to go somewhere where you really feel foreign this is your place.
The site seeing here is amazing. The temples and parks and the great wall have been better than we imagined they would be. And the food has not been disapointing either. Menus can be a little difficult to decipher but pointing at the appropriate picture usually doesn't let us down.
Some items may you may not encounter on your chinese menu at home include:
spicy dog dumplings
stir fried scorpians
some type of worms
pig intestines
and pickled duck heads.
We don't have the cables right now but will be updating shortly w/ pictures and more chinese action.
1 comment:
Hey there International Bowling Stars...We hope your birthday cake for Elle is not from the same list of food samples! Happy Birthday You!!! Cheers! So, how does this compare to Nan King??? They do your ordering for you there??? :-) Loving the stories and following your odyssey! Aloha, Kathi and Drew
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