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Published: August 22nd 2006
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Do you know what is so great about today? It is Tuesday and I don't have to take the health test after all. No poking and pricking and sucking my blood. Ha Ha Ha. Since my future is looking bright now, let's look back to the past and I'll post some pictures of Beijing. I know everyone is just
dying to see them so I won't talk about Dalian till I can give a brief on it. I was so excited to get my own hotel room at the Super 8. It wasn't like a real Super 8, but more like a really nice, privately owned hotel.
And just around Beijing in general.
This was an area with alot of construction for Beijing 2008 Olympics. This was the first sumo wrestler we saw. They don't get out to exercise very often. There was a man that I didn't get to take a picture of that I really wish I would have. We had a wonderful variety of interesting foods every morning at the Super 8. One morning, up earlier than everyone else, I had my breakfast by the window so
I could watch people. One man saw me through the window, smiled, then he threw in the air these magnetic figures that twirled as they were tossed. He looked back at me and smiled again, and threw in a small nod like, "eh?". I shook my head 'no'. He kept tossing them in the air, coming a little closer to the window, each time smiling and nodding at me. I thought this was humurous, which was probably why he kept pursuing me. He finally left, and then came back again with some kind of silk package. He came up to the window, pointed at his merchandise, looked up to me and smiled. "Eh?" "Bu, bu." I was shaking my head and smiling through the window. A couple others eventually joined me for breakfast and he pursued them as well. Chuckling a little, we sadly rejected the poor man. We finished breakfast and left for our bus to the Great Wall. While waiting on the bus, the same man tapped on our window and again, smiled and showed us his merchandise. He must of thought our laughter was a good reason to keep pursuing us. I said to Amber, "We should
name this guy. How about Jipeto?" So we nicknamed him Jipeto. The bus takes off and we are all staring out the window at the streets of Beijing. Two or three miles on the way, I look back and who do I see riding behind us on his bike? Jipeto! I tapped on the window, got his attention, and pointed to my water bottle. "One yuan!" I mouthed as I held up a finger. (Not
the finger, a finger for 'one'). Jipeto, looking surprised to see us, only smiled at me as I tried to sell him my water bottle. I'll miss that fellow.
So we got to the Great Wall; I believe we got there just at the right time of the year. Everything sort of vegetation had a deep, rich, green color as you'll be able to see through pictures. *sigh*
We rode this fun, sky-car-on-a-wire thing to the top.
There was so much going on at the top. It was very crowded with visitors and vendors. There was a man playing a Chinese flute that really set the mood and reminded us where we were. When it is
sunny, you will see more umbrellas than I've ever seen anyone carry in the rain back in the states. As I was taking some video of it all, a beautiful girl thought I was taking pictures and was striking some poses. I had to take a picture. She is very photogenic. I thought it was sweet.
It was hard to get through the wall with all the people but it didn't stop us from admiring the amazing views and structure of the wall.
On our way back through a caved area, there was a large gathering of people. As we got closer, we witnessed a physical fight of a man resisting while being dragged by a security guard person. Then there was a lot of yelling and pointing between the two (I got part on video). Our translator friend told us it was because the one guy had peed on the wall. (Which couldn't have been the first time since the cave smelled deeply of sour urine.) Anyways, we thought this was hilarious. We even saw the disgraceful wet place which happened to be to the left of that window.
We left the wall and went shopping at the Pearl Market. Wow! What a place! I was dumbfounded the whole time. Some of the vendors were almost hostile! As I walked through the silk, "o pretty lady, beautiful lady, you want some silk/paschmina/cashmere, special price for you!" They were tossing silk scarves on me and even grabbing my arms and trying to drag me into their booths. I didn't discover the basement until the last minute. They have bags and shoes of all kinds and brands. Of course, the brands are ripped off, but there is absolutely no way you can tell. They might even be better made than the real ones. Prada, Balenciago, Chloe, Coach, Dolce and Gabbana......and did I mention cheap??!!! Maybe the most 10% of what you would pay for the real ones.
We left and went to see the Chinese Acrobat show. It was an incredible show, a lot of balancing acts. Though, you could tell a little bit of it was fake, it was still very incredible and fun to watch. I admit, I did almost fall asleep though, but not because the show was boring. It was very warm and the beats of the music was performing its trance.
Wow that was a lot. It was a very long, fulfilling day. I might save the Forbidden City for another blog.
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josh markum
non-member comment
you know it, so do I
Hey you have a lot of different sites to keep updated ya know. why have so many different sites to keep up with?