Beautiful Beijing

Actually, Beijing isn't really that beautiful, at least the parts I've seen. But we went to the mountains today to see the great wall, and those really were beautiful.

First things first. I made it into Beijing last night, getting to the hotel just as a group was gathering to go for dinner. So I checked in, dropped my backpack (no bags, since those didn't make the plane (my flight from Denver to SFO got canceled, they moved everybody onto a later flight, and we all had to run to catch the connection to Beijing), and headed out for grub. The restaurant was a very spicy Sichuan style restaurant, with lots of hot food. Great spare ribs, actually.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning, and was sort of zombie-I-haven't-adjusted-to-the-timezone awake and had to watch early morning HBO since HBO is the only english channel we get. Even International CNN would be better than early morning HBO. I saw part of a Tupac Shakur documentary, and then superman 3. Arguably some of the worst TV ever produced.

Down in the lobby at breakfast some people were planning an expedition out to the Great Wall, which is about 2 or 3 hours outside of the city. We ended up hiring 3 taxis for the day. Once you get to the base of the mountain there is a cable car that goes up to get you on the wall. Once there you are free to walk as far as you can get before heading back. Some parts of it are very steep. In this photo you can see a long section of the wall. We walked the entire thing. The end of it is a very steep climb up to an observation deck. After that the wall sort of breaks down and you can't walk any further. When you look at the photos there are breathtaking views of the wall and of the mountains. Check out the Beijing Photos.