The Great Great Wall

Yes.

 

The Great Wall is indeed great!

 

Yesterday our much awaited travel partner (Jason) arrived and the real Beijing tour can begin although we have had a myriad of odd wee adventures the last few days. We rented bikes the other day and actually biked around this city of 15 million which was less scarry than biking around Christchurch! Everyone seems absolutely insane on the road but when you are amidst the madness, they are extremely patient with eachother and we joined the flow, well on the road but in the little hutong (alleys) we pretty much had to walk with the bikes to get through the throngs of holidaying chinese people. So many people! We found another really good restaurant and added to our repetiour of dishes. They do some mean steamed veggies with garlic. yum! We have also sampled several really good chicken kungpau/ sweet and sour sorts of dishes. So I must say palettes are being fed in a more likeable way these days.

 

A few stories:

 

Today we traveled to the Great wall. We opted to take a tour (really cut the cost of getting there) to the area that is best preserved and I would write the names but I say J to S. It was a 10 km walk in between these two areas and it was outstanding! It is magnificant, a must see. It really does twist across the crests of the mountains like a snake, something magical almost. The day started out in a deluge but ended in clear blue sky so we saw the wall hidden in mist and exposed in the daylight. There were bits where it literally scaled 70 degress up mountain sides and plunged down deep and right back up in reverberating waves. Awesome.

 

We walked for about 4 hours up and day the wall. A beautiful walk but a long day that began at 6AM and finished back at our hostel around 6PM. So we scurried off to get some dinner from a new place around the corner. We are feeling more confident and now that Jason is here we are making him speak all the chinese to give Mike a break but Mike really is just good at the ordering now that he did it again but this time when he asked for our veggies with garlic we got a plate with raw carrots, cucumbers, and what looked to be some sort of leaf to be worn in the garden of eden sprinkled with raw chopped garlic...the literal presentation that was. Pretty funny. The carrots and cucumbers were really nice and we had another really nice chicken dish with peanuts in sort of chilli sweet sauce. good but odd.

 

one more funny bit to say and maybe i have said this but oh well and this is acting as my journal:

So I think I have mentioned these crepes they make here. Just like the crepes of gay paris but they crack an egg on them, flip to fry, then add an asundry of sauces, spices (msg no doubt) and some crispie things, fold up for what lookes almost like a burrito chinese style. They are alright and help to quell the hunger monster inside but weeks ago we thought how good they would be with bananas and Nutella. One desperate morning we went to the shop and purchases 3 chocolate bars and 3 bananas and asked one of the crepe ladies...she was happy to oblige and little crowd grew to watch with interest (perhaps disgust) but we were also sharing our culture with her (right?) and they were so good but the chocolate was a little overwhelming and they needed to be spread out. So a few days later in another town we did the same thing but this time we got the woman to spread the chocolate which we cut in half and they were even better. So then we had an even more brilliant plan and emailed Jason to bring Nutella from the states. Again, it was in a moment of desperation and all three of us sent him an email and so he got the message loud and clear and brought a bottle for each of us! We are in heaven. This morning we got some oil breads which are really nothing but oily overfried breadsticks and alone are wholly unsatisfying and coated them in Nutella...brilliant. go jason. this boy is going to fit right in.

 

Tomorrow we are off to the Forbidden City, Pass by Mao's pickled self, walk around Tiannamen Square for real, and start arranging our tickets out of the city and to Xian. We are all feeling pretty wasted from the big day out. I am very excited to go to the Forbidden city after reading a bit more up on the extravagance that existed within (concubines, eunuchs, feasts to feed thousands each night but only for the family.....)

 

Happy Birthday Nate! See you in a month in Delhi.

 

c & m

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