Beijing

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April 28
Today I rented a bike to go see the Temple of heaven park. . It was very beautiful. Apparently one of the oldest all wooden ancient buildings left. There used to be many ceremonies and sacrifices performed here. The grounds were beautiful many plants, flowers and very old trees. There was one building that's called the echo hall. Due to the fact that's it's so perfectly round shaped you can talk to someone on the others side very easily because the sounds reverberates so well. However it was to crowed and noisy for me to try and test it. There was a couple of other sites that I checked out all very impressive.

Then I went to the pearl market with the thoughts of buying a few last gifts but when I walked in it was wall to wall electronics and other nic nacs. I ended buying some new head phones and an AV wire for my iPod. They had tons if noc of stuff there though of was crazy. Fake bose headphones and fake iPhones really cheap but I don't know the reliability of them. It turned out the pearls were on the 3 floors above but sory girls I didn't get any. I did manage to find my flag there or rather the toy mall next store.
I had planed to do my bike tour but I was running out of time. So I biked around only a little and thought I might rent it my last day and finish the tour. I didn't see much except the back of the forbidden city and a few hutong streets, the old style small streets. They were very quaint. Then I dropped the bike off headed back to chris's to pick my stuff up and move to will's another couch surfer.
Will met me at his subway station and then we briskly walked to his place. Nice local Chinese guy. We went out for dinner, I was hoping some good street food or good Chinese restaurant but we went to a south Korean BBQ. Haha it was really good just not what I was expecting or wanting and it was expensive too. After dinner we hung out a little then I went to bed.

April 29
Today I met Ibri and he and I headed on our excursion to the Great wall. Our trip started out well when a women led us from the subway to the bus station and what bus to get. It got a bit shotty after that though. The first stop on town a taxi driver got on and started asking to take me to the wall. I waived him off. When we got to the bus stop I got completely swarmed by guys and ibri walked off no problems he blends in. Haha. We walked around got some food and the whole time these guys were following us. Ibri is bad at bargaining so we got a bit screwed. But what sucked more was we paid to enter the wall at one gate then had to pay a cable car to get to the top then we walked/hiked to another gate and had to pay there it was terrible. We were even supposed to pay to cross a bridge but I said F that I'll swim. So we hiked down into the valley and walked across the stream then walked some stairs back up. It was ridiculous. There were 2 other guys on the other side that were doing yfe same but be didn't notice the stairs and pretty much bouldered over to the narrow part of the stream. But anyway the Wall was absolutely amazing, truly spectacular. Ever corner was more interesting than the last it was really really amazing. We hiked 10 k on it but it felt like 2 k because we were enjoying it so much. We got to see parts that were fairly well restored and parts that have been un-touched since the Qing dynasty. It was truly breath taking and spectacular. It was amazing to see they built this on top of mountain ridge lines, I have no idea how they did it. When we got to the end we wanted to go more I ran up to the top of another section to see the view.
My only quam was it was a little hazy but it could have been at worse I guess. Anyway as we were walking back we notice a flying fox, zip cord. Ibri wanted to do of so we paid and did that as well. It was pretty fun maybe a foot ball field length but it's speed was regulated so we didn't go super fast. It was cool though. The we hopped on a tiny boat and went to the parking lot where our taxi driver aka mini mini bus was waiting to take us back. We got back to that small town grabbed some food and caught the bus back to Beijing. When we got back we grabbed some street food and hung out at a busy intersection for a while just talking and taking it all in. I started reflecting a bit about my journey and not really wanting to go home yet. It started to rain a bit so we both got in the subway said our good byes and parted ways. When I got to wills he left me in then pretty much just went into his room to bed. I hung out a bit and then did the same

April 30 last day
So I got up sort if early to try and sleep deprive my self for the planes tomorrow. I walked to the subway and picked up 3 different street sandwiches all were awesome. The subway was a mad house though there was a mega line to just get inside. It was like a line for a concert. Then on the subway it was jam packed I was sweating like a pig. I decided to come check out the Olympic area and then go for my bike ride. The birds nest stadium is really big and crazy looking from the out side but they are charging alot to get in so I didn't bother. Being a swimmer I wanted to see phel's pool so I forked over some money to get indside the water cube. It's pretty crazy looking outside the bottom half of the walls are glass and there is water running down. The walls had holes and bubbles to give it a water feel I guess. The pool itself was beautiful and a very nice stadium. I hung out there a while thinking about by old swimming days and what it must be like to win gold.
After walking around a bit more I finally went to go bike around town. I biked down some really cool old Hutong street. They were poor but a neat looking street, basically in the heart of the city. I managed to get super lost on the way back to the bike rental place. After a few tries I finally asked a few people and got my bearings back.
I sped all the way back to the bike rental to find a note in the window in Chinese. I waived a guy to read it for me he reluctantly came over made a phone with his hand and pointed to the number. I tried mime I have no phone in hopes he would call but he shrugged his shoulders and left. Luckily there was another bike stand thing near by I ran there and tried to explain what was going on, they thought I was lost. But finally they called the number on the back of the keys. I was really just in a rush to go buy the acrobatic tickets and get to the show. I ran back over and thankfully the woman was there. I got my money and ran nearly a mile back to the tour office to get the ticket. I rushed around to get to the place only to find out it doesn't exist anymore. They guy had mentioned it was just for the Olympics but was so good they still do it. I dont know how the guys at the theater knew where I got the ticket but they called the guy up. They put me on the phone with him and he wanted me to get my money back tomorrow I said no way I'm leaving tomorrow you need to stay there and I'm coming to get my money now. The was a Mexican guy in the same situation I had saw him in the tour office buying a bunch of things through this guy. So we both went back to the place which took about an hour to get to. He wasn't there but lucky there was another guy there who made a call to the guy and I got my money back. The Mexican spoke to the guy on the phone this time because he wanted all his money back. He didn't want this guy to screw him again. The guy told him he was going to come give his money back he wanted him to do it tomorrow as well but that was unacceptable. I left wishing Daniel the Mexican all the best. As I walked away I wondered why this guy sold us bunk tickets and still refund the money if it was a scam he didn't make money "Unless he gave us fake money." I bought something at a small store hoping the would check the bill as most places do but he didn't. So I may have lucked out I went back to let Daniel know what I was thinking. I was really bummed because it was my last night and I wanted to chill and watch a cool show. The only cool thing was on the way to the theater I got street popcorn, I've never seen that one before it was good but he used sugar instead on salt. Then on the way home I walked by the night market and they had lamb testicles and lamb penis. So I got to eat them. The penis was cut up small and put int a stick the testicles weren't cut up but were on sticks as well. Actually the penis was pretty good, good seasoning and not bad meat the balls were a little squishy but not to terrible. Nothing beats stinky tofo I rode my bike past a shop selling it and the smell makes me want to hurl it's so bad.
Well I went back to wills but I stopped at a regular street market and got a few meat sticks chilled on the curb and tried to enjoy/reminisce about my trip. It's been an amazing journey there were times I didn't want to go home and times I beckoned to. But as the day is before me it's bittersweet. I love traveling and want to continue for the rest of my life but I miss my family, friends, food wings, training and summers on the island. When I got back to wills I explained what happened and we talked briefly then stayed up pretty much all night so I can sleep on my 16 hour flight today.
Thanks to all who have read this and kept up with my journey even though it was probably just my fam at this point and jean. Haha it's been a long but (feels short now) journey. I love you all.
Thank you
Thanks for putting up with my grammar haha

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