Beijing Fling

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ADam and I had the itch to travel again, but with most of our funds being reserved for our move back to America we had to go someplace within a stone's throw. Beijing is about a 3 hour flight from Busan, South Korea and there were rediculous deals to be had all over the place. For 199,000 KRW, about $150.00, our airfare, hotel, transportation fees, and all meals were covered for a four day jaunt.
The first few days of the trip were dominated by "The Wall." Since transportation was included with the trip we were sort of at the mercy of the travel company. Normaly, ADam and I try to get somewhat off the tourist super highway, but with this trip we were thrust right into the scrum. The cable car we took up to the Badaling area of the wall was sort of funny. Living in Korea it's very unusual to see any sort of grafitti or defaced property, but the cable car was filled with Korean and Konglish sillyness. I guess everyone has an anarchic vein. The Badaling part of The Wall was huge and well maintained just like one would expect. It's really hard to shed any sort of light or new insight on something that is so popular and well known. The walkway on the top of The Wall was steep in a lot of ways seeing The Great Wall was sort of like a short hike with 10,000 of your best friends. There were more than one tourist pantining and red in the face barely making progress up the wall. ADam and I talked about what a real drag it would have been to lug crossbows, or muskets, or whatever form of weaponry around the wall. On the way out of the parking lot I desprately searched for a hokey "I Climbed the Wall" shirt or something and there were a few, but I was for the most part disappointed with China's level of cheesy souveniers. Maybe their factories are too busy pumping out any and all products that can be found in WalMart.

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Photos

Perfect Start
Check out the old style tab on the top of the can.

Welcome to China
Every afternoon we were met with huge rain storms.

The Great Wall
Yeah, there were a few tourists over there.

Graffiti on the Gondola
Look carefully, there was a lot of crap written on the inside of the gondolas. Most of it was in Korean or English. I'm not sure who Hwang In Ho is, but he could give me a few tips.

Fruit for sale
There were all kinds of fresh fruit for sale at most of the tourist destinations.

Modern China
An apartment complex near my hotel.

Comments

[Jay]

J
I was glad to see you man, thanks for coming from Busan. But I'm sorry, I was too busy to talk. When r u coming back to Ame? from:섹스킹

[paul]

neat trip!
Good to hear from you guys! Looked like a fun trip!