Climbing the Great Wall

Jade artist at work
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Well, today was the big day: we went to the Great Wall! Or at least a piece of it. One reasonably close to Beijing. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Our first stop on the bus trip was at a Jade store. They called it a factory, but really, it's just a store. They had three workers working on some jade pieces for show (behind glass), but the real factory is somewhere far away from there (with thousands of workers). Sadly, the three women working on the little jade animals seemed pretty bored... But some of the pieces we saw were pretty awe inspiring. There's a lot of pieces that are so very intricate, pieces inside other pieces, and they are all carved out of the same piece of stone. Very interesting for the adults, a little dull for the kiddies (since they were not allowed to pick up any of the carvings to throw them onto the floor ;) ). For the non-shopping inclined among us (i.e. both of us) this was a little draining, but we did manage to pick up one piece, and still have some energy left for the next activity...

Unbelievably intricate jade sculpture
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...which was climbing to the top of a piece of the Great Wall. The weather today looked pretty dreadful, foggy and rainy, so we were a little concerned about the whole visit. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because the climb was hot enough at 27 degrees C, with nice sun we would have probably all died of dehydration :) Also, rainy weather meant a few less tourists (believe me, that's a good thing!). Unfortunately, it meant we didn't get many spectacular views (see photos).

Great wall climb (view from the bottom)
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When we got to the start of the climb and got off the bus, the place seemed like a regular tourist trap. Lots of people, souvenir shops, and many, many tour busses. There are many sections to the climb, and it looked pretty doable from the ground. But you have to remember that it was very foggy, so what we thought was the top of the climb was merely the end of the first section. In any case, pretty much all of the members of our group who were not new parents decided to attempt the climb, and even a few parents armed with Snugglies chose to give it a shot. We are a little embarassed to admit that we were beat to the top by one of the couples carrying a baby (hanging our heads in shame). But still, we made it. It wasn't easy, as every time we thought we were almost there, a new section emerged from the fog, causing groans and moans from the out of breath ladies. It was so hot and humid that Magda had to take off her glasses halfway up because they were fogging up so much! But again, not many fantastic views were missed due to lack of glasses, because of the ever-present fog. The bonus of making it to the top was that the crowds were a lot thinner up there...

Chuck at the top!
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Most of the climb was on stair-like steps that were all completely different sizes. Sometimes the steps were only a few inches high, and sometimes it was a foot and a half. Challenging to climb up, but even more interesting to climb down, especially for the parents with a baby strapped to their belly. But all who attempted it made it to the top, and back down just in time for the bus departure.

The bus took us to a local "traditional" restaurant for lunch (read: tourist trap). Most people seemed pretty exhausted by the excursion, so we were all glad to have some food and drinks to help us recover. We had a bit of trouble dealing with the lazy suzan on the center of the table, but aside from that we did pretty well. After the food we did some more souvenir shopping (didn't buy anything this time), and then it was time to head for the hotel.

After recovering for a few minutes in our room, we decided to head for the Silk Market again to get a suitcase and a few more memory cards for our camera (we have filled the two 256M cards we had brought with us). Chuck did a lot of negotiating, and got the sellers to drop their prices by 60-75%. How good of a deal that is, we're not quite sure (not sure we really want to know). The sucky thing is that when we got back to the hotel and we tried the memory cards, only one of them worked. The other one kills the whole camera temporarily... Win some, lose some, I guess. We paid less for the two cards than we would have for one of them at home, so we're still ahead of the game in the end...

Tomorrow, we're planning to visit the Summer Palace. It will be an early morning!!

P.S. Sorry for the paucity of pictures, but the connection here at the hotel sucks!!! and is fairly expensive, so we're trying to limit the damage to both our wallet and our patience...