Tuesday, December 10, 2013

great day on a great wall

When in China you have to climb the Great Wall. We even heard on a Chinese variety show that you're not a real man until you climb the Great Wall - so we had to do it, to secure Andrew's manhood. Zach and Wenjing arranged a driver to take us out there, because from Beijing, it's about an hour drive. When we got there we saw why it was called "climbing" the Great Wall. It's not just a wall next to the parking lot that you climb up onto, it's on top of a mountain.

That's the wall on top of the mountain.
 So, new shoes ready to get broken in, we headed up the mountain.




 It really wasn't that bad of a hike and before we knew it we were on top of the Great Wall of China.


Andrew celebrated making it to the top with a beer. Because if climbing the Great Wall of China doesn't earn you a beer, really what does?



 The views from the top were pretty spectacular. The wall went off into the horizon on both sides.





After a walk down the wall we headed back down.

After a car ride back, where everyone fell asleep, we needed a good meal. Zach and Wenjing wanted to take us to a Sichuan meal (Wenjing is from Sichuan, so it was her local cuisine). Sichuan food is known as the spicy food of China because it uses two peppers, one that is very similar to the red chiles used around Asia but the other a pepper that makes your mouth numb.

We had a serious feast

It was all very delicious and spicy, and we capped it off with a bottle of Bai Jiu, the local liquor. They don't sip liquor here--they have tiny shot glasses, and everyone takes these mini shots together at various points through the meal. It was some strong stuff.

When looking through Chinese menus, you come across some strange things, and this one needed a picture taken of it. It was called Sichuan Sister Hairy Belly and yes, that is stomach with the furry lining. We were glad they didn't order this.


After the meal we took a walk around the famous Ghost Street of Beijing, known for its many restaurants.



On our walk we came across the coolest Starbucks ever. Yes this is a Starbucks.


1 comment:

  1. The construction of the Great Wall China began in the 7th century B.C., under the Dynasty Zhou. This wall was constructed along many hundreds of years. The first version of the wall was constructed to support invaders far from the villages that cultivate the land for the Chinese border. I have come to know about it during my last visit of china before niagara falls canada tours. This is one of the masterpieces in Chinese history.

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