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Published: November 6th 2006
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Now that we have left civilised America, I should be able to find internet access more easily - crazy!
We are now in Beijing after a tedious long-haul flight from San Francisco, setting off at mid-day on Saturday and arriving in Beijing on Sunday at 8.30pm due to the fact that we crossed the international date line. Not the best for jet lag!
I had been expecting China to be really dirty and nasty and full of unfriendly rude people and dodgy food (after speaking to other travellers who have been there). On the contrary, however, I have found it to be remarkably clean and nice, and the people are friendly and are very patient with our complete lack of knowledge of the Chinese language. Mind you, we are in Beijing, so I imagine things might not be so nice elsewhere...
We have been having a really good time so far. It has been helped by the fact that we met a friend here of Helen and Ursula’s who has been working here teaching English. He has helped to show us the ropes and no doubt saved us from being ripped off several times! However, there was now
a lot he could do to stop us from almost having a horrific death...
We had woken up at some ungodly hour so as to make it to one of the furthest and less touristy regions of the Great Wall. We eventually arrived after about two and a half hours of travelling and were dropped off at the start of a hike of the wall. Our guide book had described the walk in great detail, the only thing it didn’t mention being the dam we had to cross to get to the start of the walk! At first we were going to wade through the few inches of water at the lip, but a Dutch couple there told us we were mad as they leapt into a boat to be rowed across.
We started to get nervous about slipping and falling about 50 feet down the dam wall, so in the end decided to just cough up the 25 pence each and be rowed across. The father was already busy rowing the Dutch couple across, so the son was assigned to take us across. He couldn’t have been more than 8 years old! We set off, and were relieved to see that he gave the edge a wide berth. Unfortunately, just as we thought we were almost across, the wind picked up and we were blown to the edge of the dam, being saved by tumbling over only by a fallen log that was perched precariously on the edge. The boy panicked and started screaming for his mother, whilst we all leapt out onto the lip of the dam (the exact place we had been told we were silly to walk along!) and then tried to hold the boat until the father could come and grab the boy! Seconds later, the row boat plunged over the edge, smashing on the rocks below!!! Just kidding - the father managed to get the boy out and then pulled the boat to the edge. Needless to say, they didn’t try to charge us!
The rest of the day was fun, spent sweltering in the heat whilst walking along the Great Wall. It was totally amazing scenery, so I hope the photos do it justice.
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