After breakfast, we climb aboard the bus to head to the Olympic Village complex of the Beijing Olympics 2008. This stop was not on the itinerary but, after all, I find that I'm glad that this was included. It covers an area quite a bit larger than I had imagined, but a lot of it isn't in use just now though the "water cube" will be open to the public beginning next year some time, Sunny says. Four buildings next to one another have been designed to look like a dragon from afar which is pretty impressive. The Olympic music from the 2008 event is being played for everyone to hear. An amusement park is planned for the area also. Farmers were moved out of the area to make way for this whole complex. (Note to myself: If Annapolis ever tries to vie for hosting the Olympic Games, be sure to get Historic Annapolis Foundation involved and begin to protest right away since an Olympic Village would obliterate the town). During the Oympics, Beijing was pretty deserted because some driving restrictions were imposed and the government paid some people to stay away. We don't go inside the Bird's Nest stadium since it would cost 40yuan per person to do so, but we walk around. The Olympic Village's location is in keeping with feng shui so there is a manmade river next to the stadium. As we approach a small bridge to look more closely at the lotus flowers and plants in the river, we notice a small rowboat on the water with an older woman rowing while a young man is clearly refilling empty plastic water bottles with water from the river. About 10 persons in pink shirts that look like a uniform are on and around the bridge standing around. One young man tries several times to stand directly in front of me, but I move to his side at the railing of the bridge each time to watch the refilling of the bottles while Richard pulls out his movie camera to record the refilling. Don't really know what their intention was with refilling the water bottles, but the young man's attempts to shield me from the sight are enough to raise our suspicions that someone will try to resell this water to an unsuspecting person. Ugh. We have new reason to be cautious about checking to make sure that the water we buy is from a vendor and has is properly capped.
Also while in the area, a group of children with the adults with them ask to have their photo taken with our group. We learn that they are from Hebei, the province that is adjacent to the municipality of Beijing.
Next stop, the Great Wall, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, about an hour and a half away, the later part of the trip on two lane roads. In a word, great. The photos will do a better job of telling about this visit than my words can. My notes here should include a few comments though. We enter the Great Wall at the Mutianyu entrance where we take the cable car up to some flights of steps up to the path of the Great Wall. Of course, there are an ample number of hawkers en route up to the cable car so we can expect to find our "I climbed the Great Wall" T-shirts pretty easily on the way down. When we were last here with James and Ross, we came in at a different entrance, and I think we saw the Ming tombs afterwards. The steps are uneven and there are no railings in some places so we step carefully. The views of the mountains in the distance are gorgeous. At one point, Anna looks over the wall near a Coca Cola kiosk and sees a donkey! We figure that the donkey likely assists with the carrying of Coca Colas to the Great Wall. This is a far cry from the beginnings of the Great Wall back in 220 BC by the first emperor Qin Shi Huang. (Additional note: The Qin Dynasty is credited with the development of Chinese currency, written language, and measurements). The Mongolians took over thereafter and moved the capital to Beijing. Conflict between those in the north and the south continued through the ages so construction of the wall continued for about 200 years. 2 million soldiers at a time continued to work on building the wall during the Ming Dynasty, some of them losing their lives in the treacherous process. The Great Wall can be seen from space, thanks to those builders. Some think that the Great Wall is in the shape of a dragon.
After obliging the hawkers and our impulses to buy (- always wondering "if we will see this again"...), we head to the bus which next takes us to the Flying Acrobats' performance at the Chaoyang Theatre which is nothing short of phenomenal in terms of the performances, choreography, lighting, scenery, costumes, music. I pulled out my IPad during the intermssion which was a big hit with the young children around me.
Out to dinner afterwards in a local restaurant followed by being bused back to the hotel for the night.
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