Beijing, China (Friday)

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Friday

I woke up easily for me, but knew I'd feel the less-than-normally-long-sleep later. I didn't get a chance to get down to breakfast, but luckily I packed a stash of granola bars. I was the first (and only person from my hotel) to get picked up for the tour. We then picked up; one older couple from Sweden, one older couple from Vancouver, and five exotic flight attendants (2 girls, 3 guys) from Dubai Air.

The tours were smooth, the Chinese public toilets were literally holes in the ground- that took me by surprise and I look forward to never using them again. We drove past the Olympic Park (the Bird's Nest) on the way to the Great Wall and the Ming tombs. We went to the Ming tombs first, it was dusty and a little scruffy, but historically interesting. I'm glad I saw the National Geographic special on the tombs or I wouldn't have been very interested. Next we made our mandatory stop at X store that sponsored our tour. This one was a jade place and it had a restaurant where we ate our prepaid lunch, which really wasn't too great, before we finally headed to the Great Wall!

We got dropped off in a dusty parking lot and rode the gondolas up to the main section of the wall. It was CROWDED, mostly on the insanely steep section up to tower 8, the highest tower. We all got stopped and had Chinese people take pictures with us. They even photo bombed our group shots. It was a a very clear day (for China) and strangely surreal. I took more pictures than strictly necessary because it didn't feel real and I wanted to remember I was really there. The mountains and the strange way the wall curved along the tops of them, almost organically, mesmerized me.

After seeing the Great Wall we got on the bus expecting to get dropped off at our hotels. But no, we got taken to a "free" foot massage place where they were going to be pushing herbal medicine on us from the sound of it. I was still trying to get back in time to meet up with Allie and her group to go to dinner together (it was about 5pm at the time) So when the Swedish couple bailed on the massage and Chinese herbal sale pitch, I jumped ship too. We told the guide we had to go and tried to get a cab. there didn't seem to be a single cab in the city. Just when we thought we'd have to take the subway, a cab stopped for us.

We then got to spend an hour in bumper to bumper traffic in hot direct sunlight with no AC. The couple were really nice and paid for the whole cab ride when I finally got dropped off first. I made it upstairs at 6pm only to find a note from Allie saying they left at 5:30pm. ugh. I was too hot and tired and dehydrated to be too upset though. I took a shower and had dinner alone in the hotel restaurant while listening to some of Allie's classmates who stayed behind gossip like 15 year olds. It was really shear force of will that got me downstairs to eat, I would have just skipped dinner and fallen asleep, but I really hadn't eaten more than granola bars all day. I had the peeking duck. It was kind of chewy.

Allie came back as I was getting ready for an early night, it was only about 8pm but I was Tired. She invited me out to a club with her friends, but I was way too tired to go, and knew I'd have a long day tomorrow. So I went to sleep.

(see next entry)