China part 3

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We landed in Beijing in freezing weather after a plane flight that literally sucked the moisture from my body. I don't know how they got it to be so dry on the plane but me and Adam joked it was some experiment by the Chinese government to see how fast it would take to completely dehydrate a person. After getting a bottle or water we caught a cab in an attempt to make it to our hostel. What we found out was that cab drivers in Beijing are nothing short of terrible. Even with a card that has the written address in Chinese, and a map, cab drivers have difficulty navigating a journey of five minutes. The first evening the cabbie basically stoppped in the middle of the road motioning and speaking to us like we were lunatics. We finally got the cab driver to call the hostel and talk to the hostel owner, and even after that there was much yelling and confusion. We ended up getting dropped out of the cab not far from the hostel, but the owner had to come out to the street and meet us and lead us a block back to our accomodations. As we checked in we learned that the hostel had overbooked and one of our two bed private rooms would not be available. It ended up not being a big deal, me and Whim slept in a dorm room and they didn't charge us for the beds, so it all worked out. After settling down, and overcoming some confusion about the price we were charged (and the exchange rate that we still hadn't really gotten used to) we grabbed a beer in the hostel lobby. We ended up meeting some pretty awesome people, ironically enough all of whom were fellow Korean English teachers, go figure. We played some cards, chatted and planned, and decided that tomorrow we would do a Great Wall tour, then meet up with our new friends to find somewhere to ring in the new year.

The next day we were up early, layering on clothes in an attempt to shield ourselves against the cold. We had some breakfast and got on a bus that took us about 45 minutes outside of the city, where the wall awaited. The seats on the bus were knee-crushing and thank god it wasn't full, I was able to stretch out at an angle in the back of the bus. We got off the bus and got a swift kick in the face from the biting cold. We debated whether to take a chairlift to the top or hike up to the wall, and after some waffling the group stayed as one and we all set off climbing up the countless steps that make the wall so great. As we reached the wall and got up on it I was moved again by the massiveness of China. The jagged landscape which the wall snaked across was impressive, and thinking about what it took to erect an edifice in such remote conditions was mind boggling. All of the climbing quickly warmed me up, and a sweat broke out as I shed a layer or two. Even though my internal furnace kicked in, I was constantly reminded of how cold it actually was everytime I took a drink from a water bottle I bought on the wall; it froze into shard of ice in my pocket as we hiked. We hiked on up one route as far as we could go, and then a little passed where we were supposed to stop (the area behind the do not pass sign was by far the most interesting as the wall was run down, and as it would be if not maintained for tourism by the government. It had the best view as well). Then up the opposite direction hiking for as long as time would alloqw. The awe inspiring wall combined with jaw dropping surroundings and pretty intense cardiovascular excercise again sent me into a sort of meiditative clarity, similar to what I experienced on the river in Guilin. It was truly remarkable and amazing experience.

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