Days 3 and 4 in Beijing
Day 3, which was the momentous trek to the Great Wall, started off a bit bleak, with a forecast of rain and fog for the entire day. But as luck would have it, by the time we got to the wall the rain had stopped and did not return until we were leaving. It was a little foggy, but that added to the atmosphere and drama ... at least that's what we were telling ourselves!Most of us made the incredibly long, steep and somewhat hazardous trip up the wall to the "Hero Stone". Chairman Mao proclaimed that if a person can make it to that spot, then he or she is a "hero of the people". And we did, albeit with legs burning. Amusingly, once we made it to the actual stone, we discovered that in order to have our picture taken beside the stone, we had to fork over 30 Yuan -- and the stone was partially obscured by a curtain, just in case one tried to sneak a free photo!
In this regard, the Chinese will sell anything at any time in any place -- even the Great Wall. The wall itself is covered with vendors selling everything from postcards to tee shirts to "I climbed the Great Wall" medallions. Incredible!
Later, many of us had a massage, which was an interesting experience -- very little English spoken. But we definitely needed the massage after the hike on the Great Wall!
Today (Tuesday) we will have a lesson in Chinese calligraphy taught by a wonderful and talented calligraphy master, followed in the afternoon by a trip to a Chinese steel mill. Tonight we will take in a show of the Chinese acrobats, which was a big hit last year. Tomorrow we head off to Tiananmen Square to see Mao's Tomb, followed later by some shopping and then our farewell dinner in the 'revolving top' restaurant, complete with panoramic view of the city of Beijing.
I mention all of this because this might be the last blog posting from Beijing -- we have a couple of very busy days in front of us. On Thursday morning (early!) we fly to Lhasa in Tibet, and I have NO idea whether there will be internet service. So if you don't hear from us for awhile, don't panic. We'll be back in touch with you as soon as we can!
Finally, a couple of photos from the Great Wall. Unfortunately, the students were so enthusiastic and took off so quickly once we hit the wall, I couldn't get everyone together for a group shot! So here are a couple of photos of the students who were with me on the trek to the Hero's Stone. The larger group shot against the wall is at the VERY TOP. I hope the quality is okay. I've discovered that this internet connection is a bit slow, and the big photo files take FOREVER to upload.
Enjoy!
posted by Dr. William Spangler @ 9:42 AM
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