Miranda's plan for today was to have us see the Great Wall, do some shopping in downtown Qinhuangdao, and then make it back in time for dinner with some of the other English speaking foreign teachers who work at E&A College.Needless to say, we got an early start.
Rather than talk about any of the other Friday activities, today was truly about the Great Wall, and so that is what I will talk about!
The Great Wall (Changcheng in Chinese) is quite appropriately one of the seven wonders of the world. It is so spectacular that it simply takes your breath away. This is especially true as you see it for the first time, or as you begin walking along it. For obvious reasons the whole " wall" is not maintained (after all it is some 2000 year old and 4000+ km long). Therefore, visitors to the Great Wall choose one of several different "viewing" locations to see the great "Changcheng".
In our case, our visit was to Shanhaigan, which is where the Great Wall meets the Yellow Sea. Shanhaigan is usually referred to as the Dragon's Head....because from the water, the Great Wall looks like a giant dragon's head reaching out into the ocean.
To get to the Dragon's Head, we jumped on the 32 bus, which took us downtown....and then transferred to the 25 bus.....and after total travel time of approx. 1 hour - we were at our destination (NB: total cost 3 RMB...or 43 cents Canadian)
As you enter the site, there is a giant temple that acts as kind of a great wall "museum". This is kind of cheesy, but still worth the 30RMB it cost. Plus, as a bonus, this fee also covered the cost of touring the Buddhist Temple next door to the museum.....and this part of the tour was very cool!
After these tours, we paid our 100RMB to go see the wall (this fee included a boat ride which was absolutely hilarious). You throw on an old lifejacket and jump in this rickety, leaky, old bucket of a boat (that I'm sure was around when the Great Wall was being built) and immediately begin racing 100 miles an hour out into ocean. The little boat crashes through the waves, and after about 10 minutes of this, you begin to wonder:
a) what the hell is he doing?......and way more importantly.....
b) where the hell he is going??????
.....just after you think you are about to land in South Korea, the boat driver (no English, of course) turns your little boat around, and races 100 miles an hour back into the shore.
We think the idea is for you to get a better appreciation of what China's enemies felt as they were trying to invade China and breach the wall......the bottom line is that it was a hoot - dangerous as hell, but all-in-all, still a hoot!
After the boat ride, you simply begin walking in, around, beside and on top of the Great Wall. As I already said above, this was honestly an incredible and completely moving experience (see.....who says I can't teach touchie-feelie courses?).
Below are just a few of the 1000 pictures I took during this adventure
We stayed at the Great Wall until later on in the afternoon and then headed back downtown for some shopping (I think Miranda had 11 cents left in her wallet and was determined to try and find some more bargains before she headed home!) I am just kidding, and this was very helpful to me because I was able to get some more presents.....I got Heather and Jordyn a Gucci and YVSL(?) Wallet; they were about $6 Cdn (each)!
In case you are concerned, I believe that these are, in fact, real Gucci and YVSL products. the reason I say this is because I asked the lady at the booth if they were, and she nodded. This gave me great confidence......although the only minor worry is that neither of us had any idea what the other was saying during the entire transaction. I was not even 100% sure as to how much they cost. I just kept handing her money until she gave the wallets to me (and then stood there for a bit, just in case she was going to give me back some change). Just kidding (again), Miranda did all the negotiating for me. HOWEVER, I am not kidding when I say I am in trouble when she leaves tomorrow and my training wheels come off. So far, whenever no one else is with me, that is truly how I am buying stuff! I buy my fruit, meals.....basically everything but beer (surprisingly, I know how much that is) the same way. I pretend to ask how much, they say something totally foreign to me, I hand over money until they smile.....and then I stand there for a few seconds after the purchase in case they want to give me some change back....yikes!
P.S. In case you are wondering, yes we did make it back in time for dinner with the group. They go every Friday, and it is quite an EVENT (I even saw/used my first "hole in the ground" toilet pit....AND ate the food there.....makes my hair curl just thinking about it!) This crazy crew and their zany adventures are definitely worth more than a paragraph or two (plus pictures) and so will save one for another Friday! New record, stayed awake all the way up to 12pm!
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