In other words, I will now be able to post more frequently (a special thanks to Jenn for posting my one post on this blog and for sending me what everyone else has been writing).
Now a lot has happened between arriving in Beijing and now, but I'm going to try and split things up into segments. So here is the first tidbit about my trip to the Great Wall:
After a long first week of class I planned a trip out to see the Great Wall of China for the first time (to figure out why it was so great). I awoke at 6AM local to head out to the pickup location for the van that would transport my classmates and myself to our destination. It was a sunny, smoggy day in Beijing (deceivingly cool in the morning). I walked by a store with a funny name, 'Aiyya' (I’m pretty sure only the fam will find it funny) giggled and continued to the pickup spot.
I walked by a few street vendors selling some delicious looking breakfasts, but I had already eaten (Baba, I’ve had dou jiang you tiao like EVERYDAY…damn it’s good here). I arrived at the pickup location, but was not able to find the driver or any of my classmates. After calling the head person at my school, a man with a sign that said, “Global Exchange Center” approached me. I was relieved; until I found out the school decided to hire a driver who didn’t speak a lick of English (brilliant). I had to dig deep and scrounge up all my skills to talk with him on trying to find the other classmates and what was going on (I was quite proud of myself). Once we finally got everyone in the van we began our two-hour drive to the Wall. We also happened to get the safest driver in all of China as a little old lady on a bicycle passed us while on route. After arriving, we bought our tickets and saw a map that provided no information, as usual.
The classmates that attended the trip with me included a 37 year-old German guy named Christian, 25 year-old Spanish gal named Dacil, and 24 year-old Korean (who spoke no English) called Ze Ye. As we walked up the path to get to the Great Wall entrance we passed a cool looking waterfall/dam-looking structure, pretty walkway, and solar-powered light post (how progressive).
Continuing our ascent, a guy screaming with a flag came sprinting down the walkway and I happened to catch, what I consider as, a nice candid shot. There was also a little, LITTLE dog that accompanied us on the trek (along with his owner, of course). He reminded me of Archie, except that he actually made it all the way up the wall and back down without dying of exhaustion. The sun seemed to get brighter and hotter as the day went on. Luckily, I was smart enough to listen to my friends and wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt (ugh). I was tempted to follow suit of another man, a role model really. He had taken his shirt off and was sporting one of the trendiest accessories known to man (the same accessory that a certain two ultimate Frisbee players wore during Regionals). FANNY PACK!!! Apparently, the fanny pack is still ‘in’ in China as they cost a lot and a lot of people actually do where them. Further along we came across a group of people who we would later come to hate. Two of them decided to tag along with our group to act as ‘free’ tour guides, helpers…non-helpers, most annoying people EVER. Then we had finally made it to an area with some scenery and so I remembered my father’s voice in my head, “Kevin, this camera’s purpose is not only to capture incredible images, but to take pictures of YOURSELF, too” (give or take an ‘incredible’). Therefore, here is the first image of me on part of the Great Wall (apologies for the unintentional wink; it was quite windy/dusty).
I was then oh-so-tempted by what other than, a ZIP-LINE on the Great Wall! It was hard, but I decided to resist, only out of fear that the cables only met Chinese safety regulations (in other words, did not meet actual safety regulations). Next to come, was supposed to be a series of photos of views of the Great wall, views from the Great Wall, one of many staircases built far too steep and with steps meant for the Lollipop Guild, cool things along the way, and unfortunately yours truly. However, since posting pics is nearly impossible/annoying from here, most will have to wait, and my words will have to be enough. Once we had been hiking up for about 90 minutes, I tripped and rolled my ankle. After saying, “watch out for that step!”, one of my classmates took an unfortunate spill and injured her ankle (something popped). This was not good. However, on the upside I, for some reason, had an Ace bandage and some ibuprofen. We bought some ice (i.e. popsicle) and I did what any Chinese, 20 year old, son of a medic, and brother of a doctor would do (ice, elevate, rest, and ibuprofen). The girl had apologized many, many times for ‘ruining out trip’. Obviously, I said it was no problem because I had gone plenty high enough, snagged a bunch of great pictures, and most importantly was used to this kind of thing happening, what with Jenn being kind of accident-prone (you know it’s true Jenn).
While perusing around while my classmate rested, a person came floating on by with a parachute! Apparently, you can take an ‘air tour’ of the Great Wall by parachuting around a several mile stretch (pretty cool, but WAY too expensive). I also took some other cool pictures, helped out a few couples take pictures of themselves and managed to convey that I too would like them to help me take a picture of myself. Then unexpectedly I heard a girl screaming at the top of her lungs. I believe it was some sort of ‘cool’ thing to do on the Wall, as many others partook in this nature call, too. I eventually gave in and gave a good scream.
After about an hour of rest, we found she was able to put a little bit of pressure on it, but in reality, she couldn’t. So the German guy and myself did the old heave-hoe over our shoulders and escorted her back down the Great Wall (seemed a bit longer on the way down). We did eventually make it back down in time to catch our driver. Back in Wudaokou (area where I live) safely, I walked home and drank about two gallons of water to quench my severe dehydration from the day (did I mention it was bloody hot out!). After regaining awareness, I tried to recollect what I had seen and really figure out why this wall was so great. Other than the wide-spread reasons (man-made object able to be seen from space, incredible engineering feat done with limited technology, it had the word ‘Great’ inscribed on it) the only thing I could think of was some linguist mistranslated the Chinese name, chang cheng (haha). Only kidding, the Wall was in fact Great and I am not sure whether it was the heat stroke or the geeky Michigan engineer inside of me, but I truly did appreciate the engineering that went into that structure.
More stories to come!
-Kevin
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