Beijing: Great Times and Great Walls

Those of you who have been reading the blog for the two years of its existence know a couple of things:

1. I like to write about travel
2. I'm not so good about posting unless I'm traveling

So, first of all - thanks for being patient. I will say in my defense that Facebook and its likes are sapping the will to blog from people such as myself. But that's a topic for another post. Today - I'm talking about May 3, 2009 - probably the most action packed travel day since Vietnam in June 2007.

Today, I am in Beijing, China - and I went for a 3 hour hike on the Great Wall. Then I spent the evening watching the city of Beijing wind down a holiday weekend. Like my first day in Vietnam, this is one of those days I know I will never forget.

To start out, I want to give a shout out to Cycle China Adventure tours (http://www.cyclechina.com/) and all the staff at Castle Hill Fitness in Austin, (http://www.castlehillfitness.com)/ but not limited to Corey, Mel and Jerry. If not for the latter I would not have survived the former.

My excellent guides, Jane and Reagan (sorry guys if I am misspelling your names!), picked me up this morning and we drove about 2.5 hours out of Beijing. From there, we hiked the first hour on a trail that was 100% the same steepness as the very end of the Mt. LeConte trail, on a good day. We took a lot of breaks and were super happy to have the dried mangoes from my new colleagues, Mel Dominguez and Idel Esagunde at Dominguez PR in the Philippines. Thanks guys! You also saved me today.

Here are my trusty guides, a the onset oour hike, on a 20% at least grade, while I was sweating profusely and taking a much needed break.

We arrived at the first watchtower along the great wall and were super happy! Here is Jane coming up the stairs (I use the term stairs loosely, this was steeper than the temple atop Siem Reap).

From there we hiked along the wall itself. The first part of the wall hasn't been restored and it's pretty broken up. You can get a sense from these photos.

About halfway through this part of the hike, we crossed into the restored area of the Wall. Reagan and Jane told me that the restoration was fairly recent, about 199o. The walking was still steep - up and down inclusive, but no major gaps in the road. You can really see a difference.

When we arrived at watchtower 8, after 3 hours on the go, Jane asked me if I wanted to hike to watchtower 15, or take the cable car down. Along with my tired legs, I picked the cable car. We rode on down, and I asked Jane how far we'd hiked. I was sure it was at least 10k.

"About 3k," she replied.

Great. But I am sure at least I burned 1000 calories.

Back in Beijing, it was early enough to see a couple of things. I showered, and grabbed a cab to the Alien Market, also known as the knockoff of the Silk Market (Beijing's famous designer copy market). Although the quality of product was not completely on par with the Silk Market, no one hassles you! That's because they are mostly Eastern Europeans and figure you don't speak Russian. Also, it was the end of a holiday weekend and you could tell everyone was partied out. I got a couple of things but I can't say what because people who are the recipients might be reading the blog, and it would ruin the surprise.

After the market, I walked back to this computer mall I'd seen where the new Adamo by Dell ads are being shown. Check it out here:

At Jane's suggestion, I went to the Ghost Street. I did not see any ghosts, and it was too crowded with people for me to stomach waiting in line for roast duck. I did take this photo, right before I got in my cab to the hotel (sorry Jane, you obviously had a great recommendation because the restaurant was packed).

That is a lot, and all for now. More soon and enjoy the photos.