All things Great!!

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Geo: 39.9165, 116.391

Tuesday was another quiet day. Fletcher had an Area meeting at 2pm so there was not really time to go into the city so we hung around the hotel, having lunch in the Lobby Bar and occupying ourselves with the internet, newspaper and reading. Fletch went to his meeting and only returned about 5pm with our tickets for the Congress Opening Dinner. I had already changed so he donned his suit and we went down to the lobby ready to catch the bus at 5-30pm.

Our destination was The Great Hall of the People in Tianamen Square, The place where the Political Assemblies are held. Police were at intersections along the way to smooth the path for our buses, even so there was a slow crawl through peak hour traffic and it took an hour to get there. The building is huge and opulently decorated. We had drinks in the entry hall where we were served Chinese wine(Great Wall) and beer as well as soft drinks. We met up with Feng Shu Yung our friend who is the Head Coach of the Chinese team, who considers Fletcher his "honoured teacher" after attending his courses. We then ascended the staircase, past a magnificent painting and then into the huge space of the main room.

Once we had found a table we settled in for food, speeches and entertainment. The first stage were the speeches and awards. During these we had an entree plate containing snow peas, a couple of slices of fairly dry duck, some fish and an apple salad. Ok but not spectacular. After all the awards were presented we were served a succession of dishes. The best of these was a simple fried piece of fish. We had two lamb chops stewed in soupy water, a fungus dish and an expensive but not so tasty seafood mix of abalone, prawns and fish. The prawns were the best of this. There was no white wine and beer only when we asked for it. The red was just drinkable but very light. Dessert was a milky sago pudding and a small slice of cheesecake. We did finally get a plate of various melons. I tried it all but was not very impressed.

Far better was the excellent local entertainment provided. We had a troupe from the Peking Opera including a bevy of very cute little girls and Chinese folk dances with fans utilising UV light to form patterns. We also watched in amazement as a group of girls twirled and caught large "yo-yo" type spheres on a piece of string while doing backflips. The most impressive of the acts though was a troupe of deaf performers who did the Thousand Arm dance where they stood in a straight line and moved bodies and arms to look like a thousand armed one person. and the duo of balletic acrobats where the girl balanced on the boy's arms, shoulders and eventually his head, all on pointe shoes!!. China's answer to the Three Tenors was also magnificent singing a Chinese Folk Song and then a spine-tingling rendition of Nessun Dorma. The show finished at 9-30 and it was back to the buses and a police escorted drive back to the hotel. Only a half hour trip this time!

Today was the first day of the Congress and election day. Fletcher was off to that while I joined the free day tour to The Great Wall and The Ming Tombs. We left the hotel at 9am. There were 30 of us from all over the world, mainly "accompanying persons" and those not connected to the Congress. It had been raining lightly this morning but as we drove it cleared up. After one and a half hours we arrived at Badaling where there is a 6 km stretch of the wall.Our bus was allowed to go straight up to the entrance. Once through the entrance I chose the North wall which was less steep than the South. I did climb up to the first Tower and could see right up the opposite hills and see the wall snaking over the ridges. It certainly is an impressive sight.
We had lunch in the Badaling Hotel. This was a buffet selection with some very tasty food on offer. I actually enjoyed the stir fries and rice available there than all the fancy stuff from last night. I sat and chatted with a lady from Finland, Riita, whose partner was also at the Congress. She was excellent company and the conversation flowed easily. We even had a beer to wash it down. While at lunch Fletcher texted me to say that Sebastian had won the election, 115-92 over Bubka. Everyone on the tour was really pleased!

From there we drove to the Ming Tombs. This stop was a bit disappointing. I remembered going to some tombs in 1999 where we went underground, but our guide, Grace, told me that was a different site. Here we saw the map of where these tombs were but all that was on display was a large pavilion containing exhibitions of the history and artefacts from the tombs. These were built by the third Ming Emperor Yongle.for himself and his wife. We only spent a half hour there and then the drive back to the hotel took only an hour. A good day and the rain held off until we got back to the hotel.

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