Day 3

This morning we left at 8 for the Great Wall at Simatai, however because of the snow we did not think we could make the climb.  Instead we went to the section closer to Beijing at Badaling.  This portion features a chairlift, which was much preferred to hiking up the steep, mountainous, slippery slopes.

The Wall was not entirely what I expected.  It was by no means flat, and even though they said you could have 5 horses abreast on it, you would not want to.  The steps are very uneven, and there are sections that have only a handrail and a sharp grade to climb.  We were given only 55 minutes to explore the wall, and even though we thought we probably wouldn't be able to make it, Joe and I set off for the nearest tower that you could enter.  This proved to be much farther than we had thought.  It was fun going over to it because it was mostly downhill, which meant that we could ski down the snowy sections with our feet and the handrail.  Probably the most fun I've had in a while.  It was well worth the trip.  On the way down, I talked with a Chinese woman for a while about why we were visiting.  Her English was quite good; she asked if I knew any Chinese, and I very sadly had to reply, "No" but it made me think ahead to this summer when I can hopefully converse in German, albeit haltingly.

The trip to the tower was also fun because on the way there and back we were asked several times to be in pictures with people who we were passing by.  The Chinese are very friendly.  I just wish that I'd have thought to have them take a picture with my camera as well.  I suppose there may be time for that later.

The trek back to the top was brutal.  We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed.  Most of the Chinese who were going back did not have a deadline to be back at a bus, but we were already late, so we pressed on, sucking in as much oxygen as possible, willing our dead legs to go nearly vertically up the mountain in some cases.  In the end though, it was definitely worth it.

After the Great Wall, we went to the Ding Ling tomb, from the Ming dynasty.  The tomb was very expansive, with vast gardens and massive buildings as well as an underground crypt.  Now this was no six foot dig, it went very deep underground; we descended flight after flight of stairs.  There were a few artifacts to see underground, but the most impressive sights were of the mountains outside.  A wintery haze was evident, but the view was still breath-taking.

After some lunch, we went to the Bird's Nest/Water Cube for a very brief time, just to see them and take some pictures.  We then headed back to the Hotel.  Some of us then decided to head back to the Pearl Market to look around and make some purchases, however by the time we got off the subway and to the market, it was closed, so we at KFC instead.  It was pretty tasty.  Not to be discouraged, we chose to go back to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City to see what it looked like at night.  It was very pretty, so we took some pictures.

At this point three of us left to go and meet Sarah at the Bird's Nest.  However, after an extremely long time standing up on the subway, we arrived only to find that it was closed.  The guard tried to tell us when it closed when we asked him, but none of his finger gestures made any sense to us, and none of ours made any sense to him.  At this point we were exhausted from walking all day and went back to the Hotel on a long subway ride.  The subways are fun, but when you have to ride them so often and switch lines all the time, it gets a bit tedious.

So, that brings me to the end of the third day.  We are going to a state sanctioned church tomorrow.  Today I will remember to turn the alarm on as well as set it.  This morning I was fortunate enough to wake up 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave, despite the alarm not being on.  A near miss to be sure.

Goodnight.