lol you look like a cheesy american tourist! loljk
=P
thats awesome that u got to go for free. man i need a job that will do that...haha
i wouldnt mind going there, hehe. their architecture looks so much diff than here in NY. =] its awesome.
Next shot suggestion - hold your your thumb & your index finger up for a perspective shot - that way you can hold a chinese person like your about to squash em!
Wow Phurst! I'm so glad we got this exclusive, extra special package deal, for the low budget individual, who wants to travel. We get to see all the sights and hear all the tales and you take all the risks! Lol Food poisoning, exposure to crime, language handicap, cultural barriers, jetlag...... Gotta love it!
Thanks a million for all the pics, it's so very good to be able to see the world through the eyes of a friend.
Pearson . I am really enjoying this thread! I want to goto China!
I am going to hijck your thread a minute. We hosted a Chinese exchange student in 2001-2002. We love being host parents and always learn so much about their countries from our exchange sons and daughters. We always tell people that we can't travel the world but we bring little bits of it into our home with every student we host.
Back to our Chinese son. In November he came home from school and asked if we knew about Tienanmen Square. All of us, including our (natural) son who was 13 at the time answered yes. "No, no, no!" says our exchange son, "Do you know what happened there?" When we assured him that we indeed knew what had happened there he said "I have never heard of this before. Has anything like this happened in the USA?" We told him that the closest thing would be Kent State and he wondered if everybody knew about it. We said maybe some younger people were not aware of this but unless you lived under a rock in the 70's you would have had to have known about it.
We always emphasize to the kids that things are "different, not better or worse" when they see that things that are not the same between countries but this exchange sure made me glad that I am an American! What a difference the First Amendment makes!
LOL, yeah, I totally look like a tourist, but it's kinda hard not to here.
It's funny Skurvey mentions crime. This is a HUGE city of 16 million, a large percentage of whom are rather poor. There are also a lot of wealthy (relatively speaking) tourists walking around, yet there is very little crime here. After work I like to go wander around downtown Beijing just to see the city. many times I have found myself walking down narrow alleys, through slums, through crowded markets, or down lonely roads at night and I have never felt unsafe at all. Everyone I pass in those places has a warm smile, or is too busy going about their lives to notice me. It probably doesn't hurt that there are police or soldiers just about everywhere here, but I'm not sure that's why I still feel pretty safe everywhere.
It was far and away the most physically demanding walk I have ever taken It's way up in the mountains, about 2 hours outside of Beijing. Between the fact that the temperature was a balmy 23 degrees F, and there was a steady 20 mph wind, and the fact that the wall is about 5000 feet above sea level, and I do nothing but sit in front of a computer all day, and many sections of the path were at a 45 degree upward angle (one section is at an 85 degree angle), I was absolutely beat when I got to the end. The thing is, it was so incredibly amazing, I would do it again today, and again tomorrow. It's one of those things you read about, and see pictures of, but it's absolutely impossible to truly appreciate unless you see it for yourself. The section I went to was unrestored, and it really makes the history come alive.
This is what you see when you get there. I thought surely that wasn't part of the wall I was going to climb, but it was.
About 200 feet below the closest tower in the picture below, there is a reservoir. That's where you start. From there, you can go east or west. This is a shot of the western path, which I did not take. It's not nearly as steep, and the going is much easier, but the views are not a good either.
This is the view of the reservoir from the second of 12 towers on this section of the wall. That should give you an idea of how steep the climb is.
Here I am at tower 4 or so, with the wall spreading out behind me. Everything to the righ of the wall is Mongolia.
good god... to think that wall stretches for like 1200 miles is insane. All done with out any mechanized equipment. Makes my head spin just thinking about it.
Mine too. And not only did they just build it, they had time to do other stuff as well, like mark all the bricks with the unit that made them and the date:
holy crap, i forgot to ship your ballasts !! i will get them out ASAP !! i completely forgot until i checked your thread. 2 jobs is killing me. sorry man.
__________________ Bobby
"I FORMERLY glued animals to rocks" NO TANK RIGHT NOW, but you never know when I might throw one together !! I have everything I need but the time!!
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What a fantastic trip and reporting. Unfortunately Photobucket has been removing your photos. Is anyone else seeing the box below???
All except your latest photos have been removed.
Keep them coming though. I'll have to return to this thread more often before the latest have disappeared .
Thanks again.
Dick
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
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. I am really enjoying this thread! I want to goto China! 
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It's way up in the mountains, about 2 hours outside of Beijing. Between the fact that the temperature was a balmy 23 degrees F, and there was a steady 20 mph wind, and the fact that the wall is about 5000 feet above sea level, and I do nothing but sit in front of a computer all day, and many sections of the path were at a 45 degree upward angle (one section is at an 85 degree angle), I was absolutely beat when I got to the end. The thing is, it was so incredibly amazing, I would do it again today, and again tomorrow. It's one of those things you read about, and see pictures of, but it's absolutely impossible to truly appreciate unless you see it for yourself. The section I went to was unrestored, and it really makes the history come alive.
