April 30, 2007Ni Hao from Beijing, China… AGAIN! I was barely able to get out of bed this morning from all the walking yesterday. This was the first morning I slept past 5:45am since I have been in China. Paul and I were supposed to meet at the hotels gym this morning before breakfast, but neither of us made it down there. I feel guilty. Hopefully tomorrow morning I will be able to get down there before we meet for breakfast.
We had another day of tours today. I was really excited for today’s tour. The Ming Tombs and the Great Wall were the stops on today’s agenda. Below you will see what we saw on our tour today. Click on the link to learn a little about each spot. It will take you to a China Travel Guide website that gives a small summary and pictures of each location.
First stop was Ming Tombs:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/ming_tomb.htm
Second stop was the Great Wall @ Badaling
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/badaling.htm
The Ming Tombs were very interesting, but I was the most excited about the Great Wall. If you tell someone I went and saw the Temple of Heaven while in China, they would say, “Really, that’s cool! What is it?” But if you tell someone you went and saw the Great Wall of China, people know what it is. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.
We walked some of the wall for quite a while. Trust me, its no walk in the park. Parts of the wall were really steep, and hard to walk up. Bill and I ventured up this one part that we literally had to crawl up the steps on our hands and knees because it was so steep. You know the saying, what goes up, must come down. The walk down was just as hard going up. If you fall going down, there is a good chance you are going to tumble and roll for quite a while. That would not be a happy ending. The wall was so steep, while walking down, your toes feel like they are going to burst through the front of your shoes. Through all the sweat and pain cause by walking the wall, it was definitely worth it. In the end, it was an opportunity of a lifetime that 99.9% of Americans will never get to experience. I can really see why the Great Wall is one of the 7 Man Made Wonders of The World. It is truly amazing.
When we got back from our tour in the late afternoon, we decided to go to the mall under our hotel. I found a store that sold DVD’s that I wanted to buy. You know me, I can never pass up a good deal. The had some fairly recent titles that have just come out. I bought 7 different DVD’s. I was so excited. I got back to the room to try them out, and guess what, none of them work. DANG!!! Well, hold on, let me rephrase that. They work, but they come up as wrong region. Wrong region means they are only formatted to play in DVD players and computers formatted for China. I put my brain to work (I know… I know… I didn’t hurt myself), and was trying to think of a way to make these work. Then I came up with a brilliant idea. Ready for this?..... I am just going to buy a cheap, small DVD player out here in China so my DVD’s will work when I get home. TADA! That way, I don’t have to worry about the DVD’s being the wrong region. Brilliant idea right? The region setting on the DVD player will match the DVD’s I buy in China. I’ll let you know if it works. DVD players are so small these days, I should be able to find one that will fit in the backpack for the trip home.
Well, we are headed to Chengdu tomorrow morning. I will give you an update soon.
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