Day at the Great Wall

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Last night we went to a beer garden to watch the World Cup game, but I was too tired to stay out all night after the train ride the night before that left me mostly sleepless. I forgot to mention that we met a racecar driver on the train who offered to teach me and Chuck how to race when we get back to Shanghai. We talked to him at about 5am when we got out of bed - about two hours after I managed to finally fall asleep.

I made it to the Great Wall today, despite a few setbacks. Our tour, which was supposed to start at 8:15, was leaving from The Peninsula Hotel. Unfortunately, the cab drivers didn't know what that was, so after about 40 minutes of trying to figure it out, we pretty much gave up. Chuck had even tried to tell them the name of the hotel in Chinese, and to call directory information, but it turned out we had the wrong Chinese name for it. Although we later found it on a map, we figured we'd missed our tour and decided just to go to the Forbidden City. But on the subway we got a call from Jerrell and Edwin that the tour was still waiting for us - apparently we were on a private tour. It was now 9:15, an hour late, but since we were on the subway anyway, we figured we'd be there soon. We found the hotel on the map we'd bought, but realized after we got there that in fact there were two hotels with the same name near to each other. So we grabbed a cab over to the righ hotel, and got there at 10:15 for our 8:15 tour. But we set off and it was fine.

Anyway, today we went to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall, stopping at a jade factory and for lunch on the way. The girl Laura who managed to crevice her way onto our trip annoyed the crap out of me, but Jerrell and his friend Edwin were cool. After a strenuous hike on the way up the wall, we really enjoyed our way down. We also saw some cool markings on the wall which we promptly photographed. I tired to call my brother back in Cali from The Wall, but it was like 2:30 am his time and he didn't answer. I left a message.

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Photos

The Great Wall
The thing is huge. You can almost make out where the van is parked on the right side of the picture. This was about half way up the hike.

Me on the Great Wall
This is near the beginning of the hike up the wall.

Beta's Broad Domain
BETA sightings on the great wall.

On the Wall
Me, Chuck, Edwin and Jerrell owning the world.

Ming Tomb Treasure
A gold wire hair net

Ming Tombs
A view of one of the tombs through two archways.