To pick up where I left off in late Jan during the spring festival. (but first, I was listening to John Mayer while preparing for the post…gosh it made me sad and homesick…switch up to Bastille) The family I spent time with all week had invited me to stay with them if I ever make it to Beijing. Well, in March I had some time off so I went spend 3 days with them.
Ling told me, that my big boss would like it for me to do my best and pay my own way. Part of that is because this family got a big promotion and no longer work in this small town. I was kind of taking away some of the good will he was building towards them. Well that might be to strong of a statement for such a complex give and take cultural thing. But I was a gracious guest.
They sent me home with two big bags of unique to the area candy along with two tins of baked goods… some for me and some for big boss. I felt horrible for not planning ahead to give them a gift… so I wrote him a two page letter. And lots of verbal thank yous and you are to kind and please let me pay.
I’m thinking, um well ya of course… they are letting me stay for free at their house and the son is driving me around. Ling also said, it’s cultural and they will cover all expenses, including attraction costs. After many attempts, I walked away paying for nothing but a plane ticket.
I arrived late in the evening and it took nearly 75 minutes to drive home. Had a fantastic home cooked meal prepared. A beef roast and dumplings among others. Woke up the next day to a nearly FIVE HOUR DRIVE to the Great Wall at Mutianyu . Traffic Traffic Everywhere all weekend, but 21 million people what should I expect right. We also picked up his girlfriend who lives in the Gu Lou area in a Hu Tong.
Hu Tong is a very old narrow street. Somehow we got a car through it among the side vendors, oddly parked cars etc. I was glad to not be driving. But the Gu Lou district is great. I got to see it in the day light and evening hours. Has shops like 666 gothic (not that satanism is great, but that they actually had such a genre here), western coffee shops, live jazz, etc and it had a superb mix of western, chinese, classic and modern everything…
Classic buildings from long ago, inside the shops were modern and food and attractions of the two cultures. I can see why so many foreigners live or at least visit here. Nearby is also the Hohi area which is side by side bars all facing a lake. We didn’t go there but it was pointed out to me.
General Mao says, You are not a real man until you climb the Great Wall. Well Mr. Mao, “I’m a real man” now (in the Pinocchio voice).
I did research prior to visiting and I was hoping to go the section of wall with a toboggan to slide down but the host had other plans so we went to the normal tourist section. Which is fine honestly, I never seen any of it. I asked how many times they been here, and it was only like once. I didn’t feel bad making them come then. It’s not like taking everybody to Bear Lake in Estes Park, CO. Punch me in the throat I went to that place so much in the winter.
What can you say about this place. The wall is absolutely breath taking. I can’t believe it was built in the century it was. Made me think about that Mummy movie where the dead were buried under the wall. It’s not true…or is it///////
Some areas were super steep but you had to stop and look up at the scenery and watch the wall curve and swoop over and around the mountain sides in the distance. The area I went had six towers before making a descent to the distance.
Du, my host, got me a souvenir victory medal with my name scratched into it. Thanks dog! Along the way you can see a few geological uniqueness’s. Once we reached the top I looked behind me and was like ok guys, I’m going to walk with you down, then walk up the other direction to the top… they were like uh uh.. I go, no no just me I’ll jog up it you guys just relax and drink some water. Luckily for us all time did not allow it.
We had to make it in time to see the DingLing Tombs.
The whole trip they played a top 40 station. Very nice of him. I had no idea what to expect about the Tombs.
Apparently there are 13 tombs over this huge area. The Dingling is just one excavated area to see. An emperor first order of biz was to pick a place to be buried. He would build a huge protective wall and in this case nearly a 5 story deep structure to bury him and his family. It got chilly in there.
Marble walls, gigantic doors with amazing hinges. People were so inventive back then. I know we have pretty miraculous stuff now but it just seems back then its like you didn’t have reinforced rebar concrete and cranes…how did you build this. Plus these big doors were sculpted in shapes and contours that allowed it to function as expected, without being told of course you wouldn’t know.
We decided to walk around the top of the wall and on one half the sun was setting. When we looked into the immediate below us field..not to mention the tomb site about a mile or two away with the mountains behind it… there was a slight haze combined with the orange from the sunset. The field below us had these abandoned wooden sticks laid out from farming past.
Anyway, we joked for quite a while because it seriously looked like a Zombie Apocalypse spawning ground. I’m not a big zombie person but it was sure fun to have a bonding experience with him and his g/f about it. It was a highlight of the trip actually.
Next up is going to get dinner across town at the best place in town to get Beijing Roasted Duck. This place, Quanjude, has been open since 1864 during the reign of Emperor Tongzhi. The original owner invented the hung-oven duck roasting method.
In such a culinary technique, ducks are roasted inside an open oven with non-smoky fruitwood fuel, such as Chinese date or pear trees, to create a fruit fragrance. Dinner was set up like a real restaurant. The way you would expect to eat coming from America. The duck was carved into slender strips right at the table and you put it into a thin tortilla (I know it wasn’t a tortilla) along with a special sauce and cucumber.
Plus a fancy shrimp dish … and had so much leftover. What a treat, oh and on the way home got a great building LCD show and saw the famed Poly Theater. Never heard of it actually, but he said Oprah went there. Well if the great O went then color me impressed lol.
Next day was another jammed backed adventure. No just kidding I had only one more place I cared to visit. Olympic Park. That day we went to Pizza Hut and got a delicious pizza, and even a steak. Hey, while in China, just do yourself a favor and not get steak… disappointment twice. It’s like this thin, shiny, weird cut and little rubbery tasting…seriously just don’t.
HOLY COW! Olympic park is amazing. Seeing how they build structures here, makes the Bird Nest building that much more impressive. Concrete and steel curved into those shapes. There is no real entrance, it’s all open so they built a fence around it and you just enter through it. Walking into it, you could see that some kind of fair had ended recently so it was trashed on inside field. That was disappointing. Regardless I just looked past it and observed. The chairs were red and had no arm rest and had a foamy feeling and each were bolted to concrete. Quite unique and comfortable. I had fun posing for photos. I acted like a screaming fan..shocking right.
On the jumbo tron was like the official Olympic recap and when I was walking around the stadium, in the seat area vs concession area, you could still feel the excitement in the air. What a great feeling, the energy of this place pulsing in your muscles. You can only imagine seeing history unfold before your eyes.
Across from the Nest was the swimming pool building. I bet at night with the lights that building would be even more crazy. The pic here is me holding my breath and going into water..get it ? We couldn’t go in that day because a worldwide diving competition was taking place. Yes we could have paid to watch but none of us cared.
In the foreground of the park are two UFO style buildings that were built since but no idea what they were. I did a Tebowing tribute in front of the Para-Olympic Venue Rings. Also, there was a fun statue of a normal looking person running and next to him was like an enraged I will win spirit … I tried to get a picture of me jumping mid air to show my triumphant Olympic-ian spirit.
I had noticed that the shoes I was wearing were starting to hurt my feet and knees for a few weeks and I knew it was time to replace them. The previous week I started eyeballing shoes and so they took me to a discount store. This place had the major brands including some not expected like Marmot and Mt Hardware..i was all ,where am I. Anyway, I found those blue reebox and I had investigated online prior and they were voted very comfortable… cha ching. Now that I’ve been wearing them, they are comfortable but my only complaint is they are a little snug in my forefoot.
Beijing trip was a success. Thanks Du’s. Better to be a Du’s than a Du’s Not. hehe
