Beijing, Great Wall, Summer Palace

Beijing
Early Saturday morning. Before dawn.
Being that I’ve always been a light sleeper that wakes many times in the night, here I am posting for yesterday. D and the boys are all asleep. The air conditioning is turned off for the year already making our room hotter than I expected. The high temperature in Beijing is only low 70’s but it seems to be hotter in the room. We have two balconies. One that opens to the boys bedroom and the living room, and one that opens to the master bedroom. We open them when we are here but cannot sleep with them open because of the construction noise. Last night I watched two different road repair crews bring in heavy equipment and excavate and repair two large road sections all before morning. With the traffic here, I imagine they could never work in the daytime. Tonight I have moved into the living room to blog while everyone is asleep and I can hear a jackhammer and some occasional yelling through the open balcony door. It’s 4am.



Friday 10/21
Happy 40^th Birthday to me! We skyped home before leaving for the Summer Palace and Great Wall. Angela had to loan us some Yuan to buy groceries Thursday night but we were just to tired to go out and ate snacks from the airplane. Unluckily we also did not get ready this morning in enough time to run to a grocery store and made do with snacks again. ADVICE Bring granola bars or something filling just in case. They have been a lifesaver to us. Traffic is bad. Really bad. Angela and the driver decided we should go to the Summer Palace first since it was in town, then drive to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall after lunch. The SP was interesting. E likes that Angela answers his questions so he sticks close to her. We are also accompanied my our adoptive friends Amanda and Aaron. Their 4 boys stayed home but I think E managed to talk as much as 4 children so perhaps it reminded them of home? They have a blog listed on the side of ours and we might be in some of their photos too. The SP was where the royal court moved to in the summer heat. There is a lake to cool things off. The Long Corridor is a covered walkway that is many yards long to make it shady to walk along the shore. The lake was once small but they needed somewhere for Navy practice so the Emperor had the lake dredged out and the dirt was piled on a small island making a now very tall island with buildings on it too. A powerful woman behind the man, Cixi, ruled the SP and for many years make all the imperial decisions. One decision was to use money to build a marble barge on the lake instead of outfitting the Navy as the money was intended. She doesn’t sound much liked today. Because of her bad decisions?

Lunch was at a restaurant Angela said was very sought after and hard to get a reservation. We not eating at a normal lunchtime so we got in. A Lazy Susan rules the middle of the table. Turning so everyone can take out of the serving dishes. Many dishes are ordered and you take a small amount of each. But there was so much everyone could have seconds as many times of their favorites. E likes spicy but not new foods so it was most difficult for him. I see many granola bars in his future. He did like a string French fry dish with a honey coating. No surprise there. The meat was “tough”, the rice and “things” in it, the bacon “might” have had something resembling mushrooms and so on. I’ve got to say the fried rice was my favorite. Of the 10 or so dishes many set my mouth on fire. And these were the supposedly mild spicy dishes! Maybe many granola bars for me too. Can I live by rice alone? Angela said Cantonese cooking is usually less spicy but Jiangxi province is spicy too. Wow, I better start getting used to spicy if I plan on not wasting away here. I never thought about it but I guess I prefer bland foods. Of course, little D liked almost everything and tried everything at least once. When Angela kept saying do you like __?, his answer was always either yes or I'll try it.

The Great Wall. Well, what can I say that hasn’t been said before or that you cannot guess? The drive was long and the wall was high. We took the terrifying ski lift to the Mutianyu section. There was almost no one there and I loved the view. E wanted to walk the entire wall. A just laughed and told him that takes years. A couple had been on the news after walking the entire length and so it must be a big deal. He did get a army cap from one of the vendors who climb up every morning with all their goods to sell to the tourists. If you see him in later photos he has not turned into a communist, just continues to love hats. The steps on the GW are very shallow for horses we believe. Inside the watchtowers the steps become very high and difficult to navigate. No one had heard of hand rails back then I guess. Anyone can see how this impressive and tiring climb would keep invaders away, even without the guards. The toboggan down was fun and even I was told a couple of times to slow down.

On the drive back we stopped at a roadside produce stand. A says this area is famous for their walnuts and her and the driver wanted to purchase some while there. We would have gotten some also but without a way to crack them little D and I had to pass. Being that he loves to eat almost anything we did have a talk with A about food safety for us tourists. She said the produce should be fine. The water is not drinkable and we had heard not to eat anything that couldn’t be peeled. I did allow him to purchase a pomegranate since the edible part is inside. Had to err on the side of caution. The stand owners cannot move their produce without bruising it so they live there in a van. There was even a pen of chickens off the road in large free range pen and so the eggs they sell are very very fresh! The drive back was in the dark and so long both boys feel asleep. And after comforting E I may have caught a couple of winks myself. As soon as we arrived at the room we grabbed a couple of empty backpacks and tried to find a grocery store and some recognizable dinner. There is a major shopping street with traffic blocked just a couple of blocks away. Looks like it is very upscale. Although we did find a grocery we will probably try another direction tomorrow. I was practicing my charades and managed to get us some sandwich fixings for the morning, a box of cereal and milk, juice, water and Coke. ADVICE You have to pay for sacks so bring your empty backpacks to carry purchases home. Backpacks are worn on the front to prevent pickpockets. Dinner was decided when we saw the KFC colonel on a store front. Back home we found KFC Beijing is not quite the same either. Edible but not the same. No biscuits but rolls. Mashed potatoes are real not instant, which I like. But still a welcome end to an adventurous day. I fell asleep in the boys bed while D and D were skyping. Exhausted but happy. Saturday we do not have any plans and will maybe walk to the Forbidden City and T square. Possibly a taxi to Beihia park? I’ll see if D downloaded any photos I can attach to this post. And in the morning I’ll try to get them uploaded to Shutterfly and post the password.