Wild Wall

One of the things we knew we had to do before leaving was return to the Great Wall. When we visited a year ago, our tour included the wall, of course, but it was totally Disneyfied, and we wanted to see the real, unrestored version.






There are a few different sections of wall near Beijing. The closest, Badaling, is also the most touristy and restored. If you remember from the pictures I posted last October, the first part of the wall was jam-packed with tourists, and it took us 20 minutes to get out of the bottleneck to where we could at least go at our own pace. (That was also during one of the biggest holidays of the year, so there were extra tourists, but it's still supposed to be pretty bad all year round.)







Lucky for us, some hostels do tours to the unrestored portions of the wall. We chose to do an 8-kilometer hike from Jinshanling to Simitai, two sections of the wall that are about 3 hours outside of Beijing. At both ends, the wall is fairly restored, especially at Simitai, but in between, it's all wild wall (as they call the overgrown sections of the wall).







It only took us about 3 hours to do the hike. In parts, it was steep and a little tricky because of the rubble, but for the most part it wasn't a hard hike. It was great to get out of the city (even if the sky was still a little hazy), and the wall itself was incredible, obviously! Our pictures don't do it justice.






I highly recommend the hike, which is through the Beijing Downtown Backpackers hostel. Even if you're not much of a hiker, though, I would still recommend Jinshanling over the other sections of the wall. You can take a cable car to the top, and it's not fully restored--it's the real deal. It's well worth the extra effort!

October Is the New June

Last year, we missed two different weddings during the month of October. Aside from the whole megaexpensive plane ticket thing, there was no way we could have gotten off work. And now this October, one of Joel's best friends from high school is getting married. Since we're coming home for Thanksgiving anyway, it seemed silly not to come back a little early for the wedding. The wedding is on the 20th, but we have to leave China by the 12th because of the 60-day limit on our visa. It turned out to be $500 cheaper to fly to LAX and then buy separate tickets to Des Moines, so we're leaving Beijing on October 6th and spending a week in Santa Barbara before leaving for Des Moines.

After the holidays, our plans are up in the air. Buenos Aires is calling my name, but so is a puppy, not to mention the Goid. One thing's for sure, though--we're not staying for the Olympics. Our original plan was to stay in Beijing until then, but any desire to go to the 2008 Games has disappeared, and I'll show you why.

When we came back from Mongolia, we went from this:

Fresh, clean air! Beautiful blue Mongolian skies!

To this:

Sadly, that's not fog. Yuck!

Beijing in August is hot and polluted. This picture is not an anomaly--there were maybe two clear days the entire month. On top of that, there's the little matter of the more than 1 billion people who are dying to go to the Games. After seeing the madness that is Chinese domestic tourism, you can count us out.

Anyway, now that it's September, the weather is back to this:

Finally, we can breathe again!

There are still a few smoggy days, but for the most part the weather has been clear and pleasant--perfect for all the sightseeing and shopping we'll have to do when we get back from Tibet. (Oh yeah, by the way, we're taking the train to Tibet tonight. We'll spend about two weeks there, and when we get back, we'll only have 10 days left in Beijing. Yikes!!)

Dog Days of Summer

Actually, there aren't any dog days, at least not at the moment. After a month of pollution and heat, the past week has been cool and relatively clear. Perhaps it's just been a mild summer, but if that's all Beijing has to offer, it's safe to say that Iowa summers are still the worst I've experienced. Korea had a period of about 3 weeks that were the most intensely miserable I've seen, but the summer rains kept it bearable the rest of the time. And I can count on one hand the number of insanely hot days we've had in Beijing this summer, which means that Iowa, with its scorching days and stifling nights, wins.

Even without the heat, though, it feels like the dog days. I have tons more to post about Mongolia but am in major procrastination mode. Today we did manage to drag ourselves across town to a cobbler to get our feet measured for some shoes. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high because the shoes might not turn out as amazing as I'd like, but the experience of having shoes tailored has been pretty fun in itself.

Right now I could really go for some Coldstone Creamery birthday cake ice cream with sprinkles. Or maybe some fresh lemonade from the state fair. Why hasn't anyone invented a machine that lets you be in two places at the same time already?