The Great Wall

Highlight of my trip to China would definitely be the Great Wall!

I will never forget the day we spent at The Great Wall. The Great Wall was the only organized “tour” day we had in Beijing, everything else we planned completely by ourselves (with the help of Google). We left our two-star Holiday Inn Express (classy) at 7:30AM and headed first to the Ming Tombs. Then from the Ming Tombs we went for a tour of the largest Jade Factory in Beijing, followed by a traditional Chinese meal. Then off to the Great Wall…

We went to The Great Wall at Badaling, a very well known and “touristy” part of the wall. The Great Wall is on the outskirts of Beijing, among the greenest of mountains. From our tour bus windows, on the way to the entrance at Badaling, we caught glimpses of the Great Wall weaving in and out of the mountainsides we were driving through.

When arriving to the entrance at Badaling, we rode cable cars up the mountainside to the actual Great Wall. Everything about our visit to the Great Wall was remarkable! The weather reminded me of the most perfect fall, West Virginia weather (something I have been missing desperately living in Hong Kong were it is 90 degrees with 80% humidity all the time)! From the top of The Great Wall I could see hundreds of miles of green mountains packed full of trees, and with the turn of fall just around the corner, spots of the trees were already turning yellow and orange! It reminded me so much of West Virginia that I just had to stop for a few minutes and take it all in. Through the spotted yellow and orange trees painted on a green background, I could see the Great Wall extend for what seemed like forever, around, up and down the mountainside.

I went to Beijing with three other exchange students (and now really great friends) – Sunny, Laura, and Melyssa. We joked and laughed and took pictures of each other climbing and enjoying The Great Wall. I wore my new yellow T-shirt that I had bought at the Silk Market the night before, that proudly proclaims “I climbed the Great Wall”.

Even thought we were on a very “touristy” part of The Great Wall and we were sharing the view with a few other hundred people, it was a stunning view, one that should be shared with as many people as possible! I completely understand why The Great Wall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World!

After descending the mountain by cable car, we thought we were heading back to our hotel, but were confused and shocked when the tour guide, Ben, said we were going to a “Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacy”. No one in our eleven group tour knew about these plans, but no one complained. It ended up being a completely random building in the middle of Beijing, where we were told about traditional Chinese medicine and offered foot massages for an additional charge. Everyone decided to avoid this tourist trap and we were all quickly ushered back to our hotel for the end of the tour!

After our tour, we all wanted to go eat Beijing, “Peking Duck”. After a little bit of an adventure getting to the restaurant I had "Googled", we finally arrived at a building flashing with neon yellow and red lights (China’s favorite colors). Entering the building we were greeted by women dressed in traditional, silk, red dresses.

For dinner we ordered half of a duck, vegetables, and dipping sauce! When our duck came, it was carved freshly in front of us, and we were first given the roasted duck skin to try. It may sound gross, but it was one of the most deliciously, unhealthy things I have ever eaten. It was very crispy and juicy, and the duck had been roasted in the most appetizing glaze that the skin completely saturated! The duck skin was accompanied by a little dish of course grain sugar that you could dip in. It was so tasty! The actual duck meat tasted like really juicy-dark meat turkey. We all joked that this would be our Thanksgiving meal.

After dinner we went to Wangfujing Snack Street. It is a little strip market that is well known for selling snacks on a stick. And we aren’t talking shish ka bob’s! Think more like scorpion, lizard, star fish, beetle, sea horse…on a stick! So Melyssa and I decided to eat scorpion! There were four LIVE scorpions on each stick, we tapped the can that was displaying the scorpions to the public and watched the scorpions wiggle and squirm before their death in a glaze bath and fiery grease! Melyssa and I pinky promised that we would eat the entire scorpion…and we did it! The scorpion didn’t taste that bad, a little bit crunchy, like a chip! After the scorpion, we all went for the starfish. The starfish was really gross; it tasted like sandy, crunchy, fish shell. Blah!After the scorpion and starfish, we all opted for something a little more normal and enjoyed sugar glazed fruit on a stick – pineapple, cherry tomatoes, grapes, and plum covered in a red, syrupy sugar glaze. It was delicious, and a perfect dessert, following duck, scorpion, and starfish!