Day 2 in the Capital

The next morning, we decided to head out to see the Great Wall. It’s something that I felt I had to do, but that didn’t hold a lot of interest. I mean, it’s a wall, right? I’ve seen walls, new and old. But holy cow – what a freaking wall! I have to say that Simatai was a highlight of my exchange trip. It was amazing. We hired a cab for the entire day for about $120 Canadian and packed ourselves and our KFC breakfast in for a long day of driving. The section of the Wall that we went to was about 2 hours out of town, though Beijing extends almost that far. We drove into the wooded mountains, past tiny little villages with goats and birds and poverty out to a 10km section of the Wall that sits on the top of a steep mountain ridge. We took a rickety cable car up the bottom half, and then discovered that the mini-train was not worth taking and hiked the rest of the way. Two local ladies accosted me on my way up, but I didn’t have the heart to get rid of them because they repeatedly called me beautiful… flattery really does get you everywhere. In this case, the nice ladies were content to sell me some postcards and bottled water. Sitting up on top of the Wall was amazing – you could see it meandering out into the distance. It really is an incredible display of power. Defensively, I can’t imagine it being that effective – I mean, the ridge it’s on is already really steep and the actual structure isn’t that tall. The boys went wandering around and I sat on the ledge taking in the view and thinking about life in general. While we were on the Great Wall, the rest of our class was at the Year End Gala, partying together one last time. Although all three of us were a bit sad to have missed it, I realized that I wouldn’t have given up the Wall, no matter how good the party was. When we got back, Rodrigo and I met up with Sammy and Joyce for some hotpot and our own little year-end shindig. It was so good to see the two of them, especially since Joyce was my first-day-of-school friend from back in the pre-Core. It all comes around… I had half-expected them to be all settled in and enjoying and understating china with no real issues. So wrong! We had the greatest night, comparing all of our strange adventures and experiences. Turns out, they don’t understand the system either. I think it made Rodrigo feel a lot better about living in Shanghai.
Frederik arrived that evening and went out for duck with one of Ivy’s friends. Then we all headed for bed, as we were visiting the Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square the next day.