Day 3 took us to the Great Wall of China, probably the highlight of the trip so far. It was a longish drive on the bus, but out of the city, so the traffic wasn't as terrible. When we got there first, we had to assemble with all the Legends of China groups and have one huge photo taken with the Great Wall in the background. We were then left on our own to climb. Aisling couldn't really climb, so she hung out with some of the other people who found it a bit daunting at the souvenir shops in the bus parking area. She is quite the little bargainer for a lower price. We headed up, and at the first "bridge" we saw our silk squares hanging there! All the LOC squares had been mounted there for the day. We then proceeded to go up, and it was a really tough climb. The stairs are uneven and sometimes steep, and of course there are lots of them. I wish I had remembered to count! It was hot and sticky. I cannot remember the last time that I was that hot and sweaty. We did make it all the way to the top, however, and it was totally worth it. It's such a foreboding structure. It must have been impenetrable to outside invaders. It's so steep up the sides, and then it's on a hillside, you would need to be crazy to try to assault it. Coming down was almost scarier than going up, I'm just glad they put in the rail for the tourists!
We headed to lunch at a combined restaurant/government friendship store, and then back to the hotel to freshen up for about thirty minutes. Then we headed to QingHua University for a short walking tour. It was interesting, but we didn't get a lot of details about the buildings or the University itself. We then went to dinner in the student dining hall, not the fanciest food we've had, but the convenience store was a big hit. I think I paid 2 yuan for a bottle of cold water and 5 yuan for a beer. We then had the silk banner/olympic ceremony and show. We had three winners for the silk banner contest on our bus - Mike, Carrie and Gloria. The show, which described China's successful bid for the Olympics, was completely done by Chinese students, and other than being a little long, was quite enjoyable.
After the show, we headed out for a night tour of Beijing. I enjoyed this enormously. The bus drove us down Chang An Boulevard, which is kind of like Beijing's Champs Elysee, and it was very beautiful. We passed the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen square. Most of the buildings on Chang An Boulevard are government buildings and are very large and impressive. Some of the street lights were designed to look like fireworks, it was very pretty. We also saw the remains of the original Beijing City Wall. There's very little left of it, much of it destroyed in earlier building frenzies. Our guide (it wasn't Angie) also told us that most Chinese people like to do some light exercise after dinner for health reasons. So the parks were literally full of people either walking or dancing. Apparently, dancing in the park after dinner is very popular. Usually someone brings a radio or CD player, or there may be live music, and other people gather round and dance. We saw lots of people dancing in the parks in Beijing. We saw some waltzes, but probably the most interesting was the country & western line dancing, which apparently is very popular in China right now.
We stopped for a half hour at the Lotus Market. This is a former market and now is Beijing's night spot. It's on a lake, and is very pretty. We stopped in one bar where I had a drink that I can't even describe, except maybe as firewater. We didn't have time to eat, but I know that Gordon was interested in the turtle and snake soup.
After we got home and to bed, there was a thunderstorm in the middle of the night.
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