Thursday, May 5, 2011

Camp Out in China

The day began rather quickly. Simply waking up and doing the menial 
tasks of the morning was normal. Then I transferred all of the 
things from the bag I packed the night before to my backpack. It 
would be for the Great Wall and I figured it would be more 
comfortable than a shoulder bag. 
 
We met Judy Du near the front desk. Judy was our tour guide. She was 
cute and her English was great. We always love when we can joke with 
them because then we know we can communicate well enough. Our driver 
was also nice and he taught us some Chinese while Judy went into the 
next hostel to get four other people who would be joining us. They 
took longer than we did since we were excited and practically ready 
the night before. Then we picked up one more guy from a hotel. 
Surprisingly, all five of our new friends are from Australia. I 
appreciate their accents and friendly personalities. The four from 
the hostel are actually two couples: Brett and Zoey, Adrian and 
Jasmine. Aaron is here because his girlfriend's grandparents live in 
China. I assume she is staying with them and he is just doing all 
kinds of sightseeing.
 
Judy Du our tour guide
 
Ash, zoey, jasmine, adrian, Aaron
Our first stop was the emperors' burial place for the Ming dynasty. 
There were lots of statues and the animals represent something 
different that a country needs. The lion is power. Transportation 
was the camels' meaning and peace was the elephants'. There were two 
Chinese mythical creatures that stood for protection at night not 
only the day. 
 
We only saw one tomb out of 13 or 16. At first we were going to see 
Ding Ling's but it was too busy so we saw the third emperor's. His 
name sounds like Judy. That is all I can remember. It was 
interesting to learn more about the history of China and the culture. 
By the end of that, we were starving. We did not get lunch until 
14:30. It was a superb meal though. It was at a pretty nice 
restaurant. Green beans, broccoli, eggplant, peanuts, and rice is 
what I ate. I felt completely stuffed. As a little bit of dessert 
there was also a little pastry and a sweet sauce to dip it in. It 
was a little bit like a donut. Then we were off for a 2 hour ride to 
the Great Wall. 
 
The moment we could see the wall, we were astonished. It is long and 
massive. Just like the pictures. Millions of steps are all along the 
wall. We stopped to use the restroom and to get a drink. Then we 
climbed up to a lovely area to watch the sunset. What a gorgeous 
view!! I think I took 30 or more pictures of just that sunset and 
area. The steps are old and have odd differences is sizes. I sat 
back and watched the beauty of the Earth. Our group took pictures of 
each other and had a nice time. I could not help but wish there were 
some other people here that I love so they could experience it with 
me. I felt a little alone as I walked back down for dinner. 
 
Amazing!!!!
At dinner, which was at someone's little home/shop, we gorged 
ourselves on dumplings, cauliflower, cucumbers, egg, and some other 
dishes. The people putting this together gave us each a flashlight. 
They were ones you can pump to recharge. They made loud noises 
though as one recharged them. Mr. Wong is a pretty cool guy. He only 
learned some English from the people who come here. I think his 
favorite word is beer. Which the Australians had a few of those. I 
am surprised at how Aaron could get them down. He had at least four. 
Anyway, he seemed to handle it well. Mr.Wong hiked with us up some 
more steps to the tower we would stay in. We all got a sleeping bag 
and two small pads. Ashley,Kim, and I found a good corner. We could 
see all of the stars. It was gorgeous. I felt like I had not seen 
them in years. Pollution, clouds, and the fact that I am usually 
inside and not paying attention to the sky at the school plays a 
role in that. It really was beautiful. We were camping on the Great 
Wall. 
 

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