Beijing, Day 2

This morning started out ordinary.  I woke up at 7am, went down to the lobby to get a massive breakfast.  Breakfast was great by the way, another buffet: breakfast spring rolls, bacon, sausage, ham, omelets, cereal, fruit, porridge, salads, pasta, fried rice, breads, waffles, you know, the normal everyday breakfast.  After breakfast we boarded our bus and took the 1.5 hour ride to part of the Great Wall.  As we entered the mountains we almost immediately saw it.  A tan line wrapping in and out of mountain peaks like it was laid there from the sky.  This must have been such a labor intensive project, let me tell you.  We parked the bus, got out, and were hit.  No, we were not physically hit, but we were hit by the blast of the cold.  It was cold, colder than center city Beijing.  After taking a group photo we were told that we had two hours.  We could try to climb to the top of the wall of that area, which takes about an hour and a half normally just to get up, so we were told that this was pushing it, but we were welcome to try.  Well, if I'm going to the Great Wall, I am going to hike to the top, you better believe it.  The stairs were steep and I am glad I had my long western legs – the Asian's seemed to be struggling more than we were.  You have to stop every once in a while to catch your breath, and while we started out in a group of 6, or numbers soon dwindled down to 4.  About half way up it started snowing.  Yes, it snowed as I climbed the great wall.  By this point, however, we had already taken off our top layer because the hard work was making us all hot.  Did I mention that I wore flip flops!  Everyone thought I was insane but I know me and I know my feet and I hate sneakers, I knew flip flops were more comfortable for me so I wore them.  I did not regret this decision once, my feet were never cold, and I was so comfortable!  Anyway, I got quite a few laughs from the locals about my choice of foot-ware.  If only I took pictures of some of the looks I got: "Look at the crazy American!."  About 2/3 of the way up we lost another to, and Dan and I were left to brave the top of the wall by ourselves.  I almost didn't make it to be honest.  It was so hard.  BUT, I did!  It was beautiful.  You could look across to the other side of the mountains and see another part of the wall which people were ascending.  I can't believe that I actually climbed the Great Wall!  We didn't' have much time at the top and we had to come down rather quickly, which wasn't easy considering how steep the Wall was.  My legs hurt, they still do, and I know they will tomorrow.  We got to the bottom just in time, and hopped on the bus for our ride back to Beijing.  When we got back to Beijing we ate lunch at some tourist trap.  It was a restaurant/shop where they charge a lot of money for crafts.  I bought two jade necklaces, one nice Jadeite necklace with a dragon, my lunar year symbol, and one not as nice Jade laughing Buddha necklace.  The only reason why I bought from there was because I knew that the Jade was real and that I wasn't buying a fake.  After lunch we went to the Summer Palace, a place where Emperors spent their summers in China.  IT was beautiful, and reminded me of Epcot in Disney World.   The traditional Chinese architecture was picturesque.  We didn't have much time to spend there, only about an hour tour before we had to head back to our bus.  It definitely wasn't enough time, and we were disappointed about that.  I didn't even have enough time to buy a sweet potato off of a vendor!  They all looked and smelled so good and so sweet.  When we left we headed to a spot on the highway where we could see the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games complex.  We could see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube.  It was awesome to see someplace that I spent a few weeks watching on TV.  It was surreal, actually.  After our brief stop on the side of the road we continued back to our hotel.  We had the night for free, so a lot of people took naps and then were going out to dinner and then out to the bars for the night.  I didn't want to go out tonight, so I walked to a local mall a few blocks away by myself and had a nice, quiet dinner at KFC.  After my chicken sandwich and fries, I got a nice Sunday from Baskin Robbins.  Unfortunately, the Sunday was terrible.  I have been craving ice cream so badly lately, it isn't even funny, and I got so excited for this moment.  But no, the ice cream wasn't good; the toppings were stale, and blah.  Oh well, maybe better luck next time, right?  After I ate and walked around for a little bit I headed back to relax at the hotel.  I watched a movie on HBO, took advantage of the free WIFI, and am going to head to bed in a bit.  Wake up call at 6:30am tomorrow for a full day of stuff!  PS. I CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL!