Erikam's Travels

We are alive and living in New Zealand!

Apologies to all our loyal readers who had assumed we were still stuck behind the red curtain! Back to the real world has meant a drastic drop off in blogging rates unfortunately. To be fair it started long before we made it back and had to deal with moving, job hunting and dog exporting - right around the time we joined KGHM and Marian on the internetless, but magnificent Annapurna circuit.

Back to life and Erika has a job, Cam is writing papers, and Bugsy and Oscar made it through their 30 day quarantine period with only a few permanent scars....

Don't worry though! We will be finishing the blog for our own personal record and anyone else that is still interested (before we forget all the good stuff). Getting charged by monkeys on Emei Shan, the trip through Tibet, and a great time with good friends in Nepal and Europe is all still to come.

So stay tuned!

Filed under // update

Posted August 24, 2010 by Cameron McDonald

Tiger Leaping Gorge

One of the most famous natural sites in China is Tiger Leaping Gorge. The gorge has been cut by the Yangtze River and is bounded to the east and west by the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Haba Snow Mountain ranges, respectively, each of which are about 5,500 meters high. Visitors come here to view the dramatic gorge, raging rapids of the Yangtze, and one or more of the three rocks claimed to be the one the tiger used to leap across the river to escape a hunter in local lore (the story that gave the gorge its name).

For these reasons, as well as a good warm up hike before Nepal, we traveled by bus from Dali to Qiaotou, the town situated at the southern end of the gorge. The gorge trail begins at Qiaotou and runs along the west side of the gorge for nearly 30 kilometers with guesthouses along the way where you can eat or stay the night. Officially, there is a high and low "trail" through the gorge, but the low trail is really just a dusty road the Chinese have blasted out of the gorge walls.

On the way up to our guesthouse in Qiaotou, we were hailed by a somewhat official looking man who insisted we read a large sign. Like many English translations of signs in China there were lots of grandiloquent language that made no sense whatsoever when put together in translated sentences. The best we could make out was that the low trail was closed but that we could still hike the high trail as planned. Later we found out the true meaning of the sign, and although we didn't sign anything, it was a serious CYA ("cover your ass") moment for the Chinese government!!

The planned to stay in Qiaotou at Jane's Guesthouse, and then start walking early the next morning. As we were settling in, several breathless people bustled back into the guesthouse desperate for a beer after a hair-raising van ride back on the low road. But the low road is closed you say?? Only a formality in China really. Among the survivors was a 50 something Canadian couple who told us that there was a landslide across the road, which meant taking a van to the landslide, running across the landslide with your pack, then getting in another van for the remainder of the ride back to Qiaotou. They were quite shaken up from the ordeal, but we (mostly Cam) dismissed the stories as exaggerated (if only because it couldn't possibly be as bad as they were saying) and decided to make the call on how to get back later...

The next morning we headed out about 9 am planning to spend two days hiking to Walnut Garden (small town at the end of the trail). We stopped for a nice lunch shortly after tackling the steep section of the trail aptly named "28 Bends." The view from our lunch table was quite spectacular! We found ourselves at the midway stopping point not long after lunch feeling strong and confident that we could make it to the end of the trail that day. After another hour or so of hiking we started seeing the signs for happy hour from 6 - 8 pm at Sean's Guesthouse in Walnut Garden. The signs also gave estimated walking times to Sean's, so we knew it was within our reach to finish the trail and enjoy some happy hour beverages at Sean's that night! We decided to press on...

All went well until the last few kilometers. We split off from the primary trail to take "Sean's special trail" directly to the guesthouse. So (not realizing exactly what we were in for), instead of going down to the road and walking the last couple kilometers on a flat wide road, we took a trail that went up a river valley, down a steep slope to cross the river (and a dead sheep lying on the footbridge!!), back up the steep loose soil on the other side of the river, and down the other side to emerge from the fields behind Sean's. It really was a gorgeous part of the hike but we weren't quite feeling up to it after 20+ kilometers of walking. What made it worse is that we kept thinking we were almost there; we followed the red arrows and "Sean's this way!" signs painted on rocks all the way thinking we were closer than we were. Luckily, we did finally arrive at Sean's around 7 pm, in time for a couple happy hour rounds:)

The following morning we hiked down to the river (on tired legs!) to view the rapids of the Yangtze and the northern most acclaimed tiger leaping rock. In the afternoon we enjoyed some overdue relaxing and met some of the new hikers that arrived at Sean's that day looking forward to happy hour beers that the same signs promised them!!

Several factors played into our decision to attempt taking a van via the low road back to Qiaotou the next morning instead of walking the 28 km high trail, including (1) our still-weary legs, (2) Sean's nonchalantness about the idea of crossing the landslide by foot (surely it must have been mostly cleared away since the Canadian's crossed it??), and (3) our new friends' ignorance to even the existence of the slide and their willingness to share the cost of the van ride.

((Mom/Mum and Dads, you can stop reading here. The rest of this post is really quite dull. Nothing of interest to you I'm sure...))

We left for Qiaotou about 9 am the following morning, and arrived at the very much still present landslide about 30 minutes later. The slide was approximately 100 meters wide and ACTIVE! By active, I mean rocks (sometimes very large rocks) sailing at high speed down the slide. Crossing the landslide involved us waiting for the driver who dropped us off to tell us it was "safe" to go then running as fast as our feet would carry us across large rocks up and over the slide. If we looked up, there was a chance of twisting an ankle, so we ran looking down at our feet hoping not to hear the whistle of a rock falling towards us that would carry us with it to the raging Yangtze hundreds of meters below. If this all sounds a bit insane, its because it WAS INSANE. One minute we were looking at the falling rocks wondering what the hell we were thinking, the next minute we were starting to run across because someone yelled "Eh! Eh! Eh!" just to turn and run back again because the rocks kept coming, then the "Eh! Eh! Eh!" again and we were off. Luckily there was a break in the falling rocks for the minute it took us all to get across. Afterward though, we all stood on the far side of the slide and looked, photographed, and videotaped a solid stream of rocks tumbling down the slide. Phew!!

The rest of the trip to Qiaotou was thankfully less eventful and involved a short walk to another new (< 2 day old), but not active rockslide where we had to crawl over large boulders that workers were embedding dynamite in to eventually clear the slide. On the far side of the second rock slide we got into another van that took us along the last few dusty kilometers to Qiaotou. The only casualty of the day was my Itouch, which dropped between boulders while crossing the second rockslide. Luckily, some friendly workers retrieved it for me amongst the dynamite wires, and it is still functioning with a cracked screen and some tape;)

After a victory lunch at Jane's (the victory being that we were still alive) Cam and I hopped in a private van organized by Jane and headed to Lijiang!!

Filed under // China Yunnan

Posted June 8, 2010 by Erika McDonald

Old Dali and another birthday!

After our stay in Kunming, we took a 4 or 5 hour bus ride to Dali. Well, specifically Old Dali, which has become a backpacker haven, and now a tourist town which the soi disant "real backpackers" avoid in search of the next untouched-by-tourism hangout. Xiaguan or new Dali is the capital of the prefecture and could be almost any small city in China, so most travelers bypass it to head straight to old Dali about 20 minutes further on. Unfortunately every bus running to old Dali stops in Xiaguan; fortunately, I read enough Mandarin to figure out which side of the road to stand on for the bus to old Dali ;) Things like Da (big), Xi (west), and Men (gate). Much of the original architecture in old Dali has been preserved though so the look and feel of the town is very cool, even if all the old buildings now house souvenir shops or bars. One of the streets in town is lined with bars and has a large water channel running right through the middle which you can sit next to. The local minority women probably miss the "real backpackers" more than we were - several times they would approach us and after listing through the trinkets on offer furtively lean in and whisper: ganja?

One major problem with tourist towns is the expensive beer! Our first night in Old Dali we went on a mission to find a cheap drink. After a seriously overpriced beer at a tourist trap bar we walked literally across the street to a locally-run, non-English speaking restaurant for the same beer at a fifth of the price! Halfway through the third beer we were were getting a bit and hungry so we asked for a menu. Of course it was all in Mandarin with no pictures, no English speakers around and no desire on our part to inadvertently choose from the dog section of the menu. The friendly family that ran the restaurant invited us back into the kitchen phrasebook in hand to help solve this dilemma! There were several shelves of bowls holding various types of vegetables, and after some pointing, gesturing and failed attempts with the phrasebook we headed back to our table and waited to see what would arrive. It turned out to be one of our best meals in China! We ended up with three veggie dishes - a lemony-flavored shredded potato dish, an eggplant dish, and a mushroom dish - along with a bucket of rice. Yum!

Dali was also where Erika turned the big 3-0!! On her birthday we skyped with her parents in the morning (it was still Mary's birthday the day before in the US!) and then headed up to the Green Mountains (Cang Shan) near old Dali for a walk. We probably would have had time to walk up or down as well as between the two lifts to the trail (a chairlift at one end and a gondola at the other), but the tour agency we stopped in for a map convinced us to buy the combo ticket for both lifts because of the "difficulty" in finding the paths up and down. Due to our cushy modes of transport up and down the mountain it was a pretty relaxing few hour walk on a flat, paved path halfway up the mountains at around 8000 feet in elevation. At the end of the walk, we enjoyed a brew and the beautiful scenery at the one lodge located on the mountain above the top of the chairlift. The chairlift down was fun too, even if we were both missing the ski slopes! We splashed out for dinner that night on lots of great food, and Erika also tried the local Yunnan Province wine! (not recommended;)

Filed under // China Dali

Posted May 15, 2010 by Cameron McDonald

Walmart meets China

We only spent a couple nights in Kunming and most of our time was spent relaxing as I came down with a bit of a cold during the 18 hour train ride from Guilin to Kunming. We did visit a few places in Kunming with some interesting sites though....

On the day we arrived we wandered into a nearby food market where we scored some tasty cheap dumplings (baozi). We noticed a lot of the meat at the market was a really dark deep red color, like beef, but different. Then we saw the tails - it was a whole lotta donkey meat!! We didn't try any donkey meat products at the market as it was expensive. Luckily, most of the meat you may not be interested in accidentally trying in China (dog, snake, donkey, scorpions, etc.) is expensive so they won't just throw it into a dumpling if they run out of pork.

There is also a Walmart in Kunming; I'm not sure how many Walmarts grace the great nation of China but it was the only one we saw in our travels. We were really excited about the Walmart because of the prospect of finding peanut butter there! Many a morning or afternoon we had wished we had some peanut butter to eat with bread and bananas for a simple, inexpensive, and non-greasy meal. The upper floors of the Walmart stocked non-perishable foods and health and beauty products, similar to your typical US Walmart, and we picked up a $4 thermos to take advantage of the ubiquitous hot water on offer in China to make instant coffee and tea. But, the downstairs was the fresh meat floor, which was stocked China style! Not sure the pictures below of the "Aquatic Product" section do it justice. Among other things for sale were live frogs and turtles! Mmmm.... (the third Walmart food photo is a bin of hard-boiled quail eggs)

We also spent an afternoon at Xi Shan ("West Mountain"), which is a site of buddhist shrines and statues built into the hillside. It was pretty cool, but the admission fee was too high (the same as the forbidden city in Beijing), especially given the poor visibility on the day we visited. The most impressive thing was the tenacity of the trinket sellers at Xi Shan. One woman chased me down in heels after I walked away from her stall without a purchase!

Filed under // China Kunming

Posted May 15, 2010 by Erika McDonald

The Dragon's Backbone

After the South China karst, we headed north from Guilin for a night in the Dragon's Backbone (LongJi) rice terraces. The terraces are some of the most impressive in China, spanning an area of about 65 square kilometers and ranging from about 300 to 1,000 meters in altitude. Construction of the terraces began in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and continued until the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

We decided to bus to LongJi in the morning and walk between the villages of Dazhai and Ping'an to enjoy the spectacular scenery. Our guide book said the walk would take about 4 hours and was "well marked," the latter of which was far from the truth (another item to write Lonely Planet about!). Dazhai and Ping'an are populated by the Zhuang and Yao minorities. Our afternoon and one evening in the area did not allow much time to interact with these minority cultures, but the one thing we did learn is that the women of these cultures are incredibly strong, both in mind and body!! On the steep paths between the two villages we saw women carrying amazing loads on their backs, including entire trees!! But, none of these women would hesitate to leave their burdens on the side of the trail to aggressively offer their guiding services to us (obviously a much more lucrative business than carrying tree trunks). Unfortunately we do not have any photos of the colorfully-dressed women as they demand a donation for every snapshot (or else a curse be put on your head!).

We continually refused the women's guide services but did often ask which path to take to Ping'an. Despite Lonely Planet's claims, after about an hour on the trail there were absolutely NO signs and we encountered many criss-crossing paths made by the locals and their livestock. Only one woman was so insistent that we use her as a guide that she actually refused to tell us which way to go. I was pretty annoyed by the situation given that we had started this trek late in the day (due to the long bus ride between Guilin and Dazhai) and because it was drizzling rain most of the afternoon. Instead of continuing to try and communicate with this woman (while Cam changed his camera batteries under shelter from the rain) I started to select each of the three potential paths one at a time hoping that she would tell me if I had chosen incorrectly. Luckily she did, as the correct path was the third one I randomly chose!!

We arrived in Ping'an in well under 4 hours, despite a 1/2 hour detour down the wrong path until we encountered some locals that turned us around (who knew the correct path required walking by an actively working digger in the middle of the road?!). Despite the drizzle and fog-filled afternoon, the terraces were an incredible site. The village of Ping'an was also amazing; its built right into the side of the terraces with "streets" no wider that 6 feet across. We ended up in a little restaurant for dinner run by a sweet gentleman who was the owner, bartender, and chef of the place. He went to the kitchen next door to cook our dinner for about a half-hour, leaving us alone right next to the fully-stocked bar! Now thats some trust;)

Filed under // China Guangxi

Posted May 5, 2010 by Erika McDonald

Amazing karst formations - China style!

Imagine Halong Bay, Vietnam drained of water barring a few verdant ribbons left to thread their way through the impossibly picturesque towers of stone, add in some ancient towns and villages and you have a pretty good picture of the countryside around Guilin and Yangshuo in China's Guangxi Province. The South China karst is another world heritage area and in some ways even more impressive than Halong Bay itself. Experience taints impression of course - in Halong Bay, by aquatic necessity and sheer weight of tourist numbers you are guided, managed through the wonders; in Yangshuo we had the freedom to be lost and virtually alone amongst the stone pillars. There are still waves of tour boats filled with Chinese tourists plying the Li, shouts of "bamboo" everywhere selling river cruises on rafts now more PVC pipe than bamboo, and ladies selling soy boiled eggs on seemingly empty and remote river banks, but the area is so vast that not even the Chinese have figured out a way to charge a large entry fee, and solitude among the stones can be yours!

We had a restful night in Guilin, and the next day became victims of the "local bus scam" to Yangshuo. This is where you pay the express bus price (or more if you don't know what it should cost) and get put on a local bus that takes twice as long, with your friendly scammer paying the fare collector on that bus - leaving him the difference and a small profit. We should have known better, but when there is no compunction about lying directly in response to our questions it makes it tough to spot. We looked around Yangshuo that afternoon - an old cobblestone lined town where locals still fish with cormorants - now almost most buildings are in someway related to the (mostly chinese) tourists that populate the place. The next day we caught a bus to Yangdi to the north and hiked the Li river valley from there to Xingping - the setting for the scene on the 20 Yuan note. This was where we were chased down by the egg vendor while carrying both her goods and her cooking appliance! But it was mostly just us and the scenery was spectacular. Xingping is escaping a medieval time warp and is definitely worth visiting before it gets all the way out! The next day we hired bikes and went exploring in the smaller, quieter Yulong river valley. You can really get in amongst the karst with no one else around in the Yulong valley and it was a great day - only getting lost once, but not for long enough to miss our bus back to Guilin that night!

Two more things I should mention about Yangshuo, both food related - 1) The nearby market is not for the squeamish! There were live animals of all descriptions for sale, and it was the first place we had seen dog carcasses (whole and quartered, with tails still attached) hung up for sale. 2) Here is where we discovered the "batter cake": consisting of batter spread on a hotplate like a crepe, smothered in hotsauce, then filled with lettuce, green onions, luncheon/balogna meat sausage and crispy batter sticks among other things before being rolled up, cut in half and served - all for about 60 cents! Mmmmmm - delicious.

Filed under // China Yangshuo

Posted May 4, 2010 by Cameron McDonald

Holy Night, Frozen Night

Baking cookies is a good metaphor for this post - when you are baking a pan of sweet yummy chocolate chip cookies, the recipe usually calls for some salt to round out the flavors. Similarly, sometimes a traveling day consisting of mainly Fun A needs a dash of Fun C to bring it all home...

While in Xi'an, Cam and I decided to take a trip out to the nearby holy mountain, Hua Shan, which is the westernmost of the five holy Taoist mountains in China. There are five peaks on the mountain, the highest of which is the South Peak measuring in at about 2,120 meters (just under 7,000 feet). There is basic accommodation on the mountain and the sunrise from the East Peak was described as "stunning" by our tour book so we decided to hike up and stay overnight. This mountain is pretty far north in China though (only about 1,200 km southwest of Beijing) and we visited the mountain in early March, hence the title of this blog post.

The hike up the mountain was itself stunning. We started seeing snow on the ground very early on but its hard to get cold when you're climbing 2,000 meters (6,600 feet)!! The path was paved and had many many steps (which was a theme we discovered, at least for the two holy mountains we visited in China). We passed several Taoist temples on the way to the top and were treated with spectacular views of the granite cliffs surrounding us in every direction. Except near the top of the cable car, we saw very few tourists as well. I guess not everyone is as interested (crazy?) as us to hike this mountain in the winter...

Since we didn't start the climb until early afternoon, we set off for the East Peak (from the top of the cable car) after 4pm. The going was a bit slower after that due to icy and snowy staircases up and down the ridges along the top of the mountain. By the time we reached the East Peak, it was dusk and getting very cloudy and cold. We had also checked the routes to the next peaks and they were covered in snow (i.e., no footprints to reassure us there were open guesthouses at other peaks!). So, we decided to stay in the cheapest room on the East Peak of Hua Shan; here is where the Fun C comes in...

First of all the room is, to date, the most expensive accommodation we've had on our travels - 200 yuan (almost $30 US). Secondly, the room was a 10 bed dorm room (although calling planks of wood "beds" is pretty generous). Thirdly, there was NO HEAT in this room. And finally, we got to share the room with four young Chinese gentleman who smoked and talked until about midnight (remember we had climbed nearly 7,000 vertical feet that day and we were planning on getting up for sunrise) and apparently didn't feel the cold because they kept leaving the door open when they came in and out.

Cam and I managed to stay warm that evening by sleeping together on one plank, I mean bed, under three blankets (luckily not all the beds were taken). I also slept in two bottom layers, four top layers (it was a struggle to remove my jacket and gloves), and a hat. When sunrise did come, Cam was brave enough to leave our cocoon to join the other Chinese gentleman for the spectacular site. However, just the thought of getting out of bed at 6am made my teeth chatter so I stayed behind. The thermometer on Cam's watch in the morning hanging inside our room read 19 degrees F (it warmed up to a balmy 28 degrees F in the room by the time Cam got back from the "sunrise"). I put "sunrise" in quotes because unfortunately the horizon was too hazy to see anything very spectacular that morning.

After some instant coffee and bread we had packed in, we spent a couple hours walking around to some of the other peaks, including the highest South Peak where there is a very large monument of an, er, well, check out the photo of me hugging the monument below;) Although it was still chilly, the sun was shining brilliantly in the sky warming our spirits and making us laugh hysterically about our accommodations the previous evening. After some more hiking and pictures we headed to the cable car. This was a better route down for us as we had to get back to Xi'an for a flight that evening to Guilin. The cable car ride down was well worth the $10 tickets as it provided another perspective of the beautiful scenery around us!! (and all from the relative warmth and comfort of our private cable car;)

Filed under // China Xi'an

Posted April 29, 2010 by Erika McDonald

Xi'an after the Terracotta Army

So what to is there to do in Xi'an after you've seen the clay armies? Xi'an is full of non-terracotta history, it was the capital of China under thirteen different dynasties and also the Eastern terminus of the silk road and there are myriad other archeological wonders around the city. Today it is a city of over 8 million (medium sized by Chinese standards), struggling to move on from it's historical importance into modernity.

The day after the Terracotta warriors (1AT) we spent on bicycles. First to ride around the most intact old city wall in China. We couldn't take our rentals up there, and it wasn't free on Sundays as we'd heard, but it was good, clean, tandem fun nonetheless. We then took the rentals into the chaos beyond the city walls finding some delicious baozi (dumplings) for lunch at about US7c each and swinging by the big and small wild goose pagodas. After being run out of the huge fountain show at the latter by soldiers and police (they really didn't like us wheeling bikes around) we headed for the temple of the eight immortals near the east gate. Unfortunately it was closed, and even more unfortunately we stumbled upon the "antiques" market right next door where Erika managed to come away with a brass Buddha head. I guess she felt her pack was just a little too light.

The best thing about Xi'an AT though, by far, was the Muslim quarter and their magnificent street food! We couldn't get enough and sampled all sorts of goodies for dinner and dessert both nights. The quail egg kebab is highly recommended!

Filed under // China Xi'an

Posted April 11, 2010 by Cameron McDonald

How to conquer the heavens

Step 1: Ascend the throne at age 13 in 246 BC.

Step 2: Subdue and annex four neighboring kingdoms while surviving at least two assassination attempts and declare yourself the first Emperor of China.

Step 3: Force over 700,000 of your subjects to construct the largest tomb the world has ever seen over a period of 38 years, including a larger than life-size terracotta army many thousands strong ready for battle.

Step 4: Die at age 50 and hope your terracotta army follows you into the afterlife.

It's something right out of an Indiana Jones movie; the tomb itself has yet to be excavated since the account of legendary Chinese historian Sima Qian speaks of "rivers of mercury", crossbows set to fire on intruders, and other surprises. Testing by modern archeologists has found mercury levels far above background in the area seemingly confirming this tale. Archeologists believe that some pits of warriors remain undiscovered and many of the warriors in the largest pit have not been uncovered since they don't know how to preserve the ancient paint. What has been uncovered is quite amazing however, each warrior is unique and there are thought to be thousands - generals, infantry, standing archers, kneeling archers, horses, chariots, and charioteers. There are also many less bellicose figures: animals, teachers, servants, and administrative officials. Essentially, the Emperor Qin Shi Huang was trying to recreate his entire world for the afterlife....When he wasn't planning for the next world though he was accomplishing a fair amount in this one, albeit in tyrannical fashion. Our guide Tommy explained that he is number three on the all time China top ten list (presumably authored by the CCP), and that Mao is only number six! Qin achieved his number three status by (1) unifying China, (2) standardizing weights and measures, (3) standardizing the currency system, and (4) beginning the first part of the Great Wall. As such, Qin is a pivotal figure in Chinese history.

After arriving early in Xi'an following a decent sleep on our overnight train from Beijing, we headed straight out by local bus to see the army (arguably the archeological discovery of the 20th century). When we arrived at the site, it started to snow and we were immediately accosted by "Tommy" who offered his guiding services. He was an average guide but entertaining and really only cost a dollar since he got us in for Chinese student prices. The location of this massive tomb and the very existence of the army were unknown until a local farmer came across a few terracotta body parts while drilling a well in 1974!! This farmer by the way is now quite the macdaddy celebrity. He sits in one of the gift shops in a navy pea coat, wool hat, and thick rimmed glasses smoking a 3 foot pipe looking like the Chinese love child of James Dean and Woody Allen. No photographs allowed (see below for our secret attempt) and he'll only sign books purchased at the gift store - he refused twice to sign our admission tickets waving us off nonchalantly. Behind him is a huge photograph of him shaking Bill Clinton's hand during a visit by the president to the site.

The reality of the warriors is somewhat less than the story, but still impressive. There are three pits enclosed by aircraft hangar sized buildings: Pit 3 is the generals and command center, Pit 2 is largely unexcavated, but has some original warriors encased around the edges, and Pit 1 is the largest with infantry and accompanying archers thought to contain over 6000 warriors, many of which are uncovered and lined up as buried. Another UNESCO world heritage site, the terracotta army is literally (perhaps) out of this world!

Filed under // China Xi'an

Posted April 5, 2010 by Cameron McDonald

The greatest wall...

...we've ever seen!

It's not visible from the moon and most of it is not 2000 years old (though parts are much older); it is not even one wall, but a collection of walls built at different times by different dynasties. There is no doubt however, that it is great! Great in scale, great in purpose, and great in our imaginations. No one knows quite how long it is. There are parts being buried in the Gobi sands thousands of miles to the west, parts threatening to be built over by ever expanding Chinese freeways, and parts that likely haven't even been discovered yet. Walking along a remote section of the Ming dynasty wall was quite a surreal and awesome experience.

We walked West to East (towards Beijing) for 10km/6mi on the wall from Jinshanling to Simitai. This section is several hours and many buses from Beijing so we had paid for transport through our hostel including entrance fees and an average lunch, every trip since though we've done on our own, navigating touts, local buses etc saving literally dollars, maybe tens of dollars in the process;) It was largely deserted most of the way (apart from the occasional old lady or small boy selling Oreos and beer), crumbling in places, and impossibly steep in others (particularly east of Simitai). This section of the wall like most near Beijing dates from the Ming dynasty in the 1400's and was supposedly defended by upwards of one million men, successfully keeping the Manchus from raiding the capital for over 200 years. As Genghis Khan supposedly once said though "a wall is only as strong as those who defend it"; in 1644 after a peasant uprising one of the generals guarding the wall well to the east of Simitai simply opened the gates after hearing that his concubines were mistreated by the new rulers. The Manchus strode in, sacked the city, and the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of Imperial China was born. Chairman Mao may have been one of the worst criminals of the 20th century, and according even to the modern communist party only "60% right", but when he said "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" he was clearly right as you can see from the first photo below!

After a pretty average chinese lunch we headed back to town just in time for Chinese Acrobatics at the Tiandi Theater. We had booked these tickets online the day before for 100 RMB when trips through our hostel were going for around 200 ($30US), and consequently were quite pleased with ourselves. We had to meet a guy at the box office an hour before the show who had come in from outer Beijing. A little dodgy, but it turned out great - we even got upgraded toward the front and then discussed real estate prices in Beijing and San Francisco before the show! BTW they are not too different which is absolutely crazy - central Beijing is 40,000 RMB per square meter (SF maybe $60,000 - $80,000?). For the next hour and a half we were watching acts with names like " juggling balls and vigorous bounding", "juggling umbrellas", and "bicycle skill and running". We think these guys were the up and coming superstars of Chinese acrobatics - each of the acts was pretty incredible. Unfortunately there were no photos allowed though and Erika wouldn't let me break the rules.

The next day we headed out of Beijing on our first Chinese train ride. The Beijing West train station was simply a seething mass of humanity. Imagine the busiest airport you've ever been in, multiply it by ten, add a smoke filled atmosphere, and then if you have any floor space left, fill it in with the kids, luggage and the cigarette butts and hocked loogies of the aforementioned humanity. Although we couldn't sit up fully in our top berths, the bed was pretty comfortable to lie in and most of the train ride was overnight. Overall a pretty easy trip.