Greetings, readers, and welcome to the fourth and final post of Wandering Aidan's China Series! This one has everything- hiking, dumplings, camping, piles of money… You name it. Oh, and there's some actual sightseeing in there as well. Enjoy!
Final Stop: Beijing!
After our action-packed day in Xi'an, we caught a train to Beijing.
Fun Fact: In terms of comfort, trains are vastly superior to airplanes, cars, boats, and pretty much every other method of transport. There are no seat belts on trains, making them feel less constrained, and they only travel in rigid, straight lines, which nearly eliminates motion sickness altogether.
The first adventure we embarked on during our time there was a trip to the Temple of Heaven. It was slightly dull apart from its excellent looks- at least compared to the other things in the blog that I'm sure you'll want to read more- so I'll spare you the waterfall of a life story that we were hit with during the tour.
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| I'll concede that this part was interesting. This area was called "Echo Wall". If one person stands facing the wall, and another person does the same, but in a spot much farther along, the two can hear each other easily. What startled me was the clarity; there was no echo effect or distortion. It simply sounded exactly like the other person was standing right next to me. |
I should note that before the temple, we walked through a park (since the temple was in its heart). It was a refreshing, green space, and the simplicity was welcome after the complex structures and statues that we had toured previously. The reason I bring this up is this: like I mentioned in the previous blog post, parks are much more lively and interesting in China... So to give you an idea of the activities that go on here, I'd like to present this list.
Activities in the park:
-Cards.
-Choir.
-Hip-hop dancing (Maybe. I'm no expert.)
-Relaxing.
-Playing a strange instrument. It looked a bit like a thin castle, with turret-like pipes surrounding the main pole.
-Bird-keeping.
All this and more was on display. Also, further adding to the differences in U.S. and Chinese parks, many of these activities took place in a cozy, bench-lined, somewhat narrow walkway that lined the main greenery.
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| The walkway. |
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| The odd instrument. |
On our next day, we paid a visit to the Ming Tombs. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty are resting there, and one emperor's tomb is even accessible to visitors. We were visitors, so we accessed it. Here are a few photos:
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| Yes, that is a pile of money. Apparently, throwing money onto the tombs grants people good luck. So much money piles up, in fact, that the tomb's caretakers occasionally have to come through and collect all of it. How convenient for them… I bet this tradition was started by the tombs' marketing department. |
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| More of the tomb, with Devil Aidan in the foreground. This is not a particularly flattering photo. |
Later that day, we set our on the trip you've all been waiting for… *switches to dramatic announcer voice* the Great Wall of China! *switches back* We started with a brief hike around a small area before returning for a delicious Chinese dinner.
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| An unusual part of the wall: an open courtyard, restored to its original glory through repairs. Note the intricate carving on the wall in the background. |
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| We arrived just in time to see an event called the Golden Hill, in which the beautiful sunset light catches on the top of this hill and fills it with a beautiful glow. |
After dinner, we set out on the real hike- a trek through a nature trail and up to the wall… In total darkness.
Once we climbed up the wall, we noticed a miniature fortress on our left. This was to be our camping spot for the night. Yep, we camped on the Great Wall! The wind loudly buffeted the tent all night, but it was a memorable experience.
Fun Fact:
Our guide claimed that he couldn't sleep in the cacophony of the wind, but his loud snores overpowered the gale more than once.
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| This was our fort for the night. You can't tell in this picture, but it's about the size of a quite small room in a house. It was bigger than a bathroom and smaller than a living room. |
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| An adorable dog named Toto accompanied us on the way back (he belonged to the woman who came to collect our tents). As we hiked back the way we came, this cute puppy would frequently plunge into the bushes for a shortcut, only to burst back out at a later point. He was always a step ahead of us! |
After we had breakfast, the real real hike began. We set out on a journey across a vast portion of the Great Wall, culminating in a mountainous section akin to a roller coaster designed by a psychopath.
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| The hike was tricky enough that we brought along walking sticks. |
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| The vantage point of the Wall provided beautiful views. |
The Wall is in various states of disrepair. Some areas are pristine, having been restored recently, and some areas are a bit more on the rubble side of the scale. Oddly, many areas seem to lack walls on the sides, no matter what their condition is, which makes the area… less than safe.
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| Good stairs, good wall |
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| Awful stairs, good wall |
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| Good stairs, awful wall |
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| Going from relatively good (the floor, at least) to rubble |
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| This is that roller coaster bit. |
We returned to the hotel room afterwards, and treated ourselves to a day of rest.
The following day, we toured the Forbidden City, which is actually an expansive palace built by a former ruler. Or at least, that's what I would be blogging about if it weren't, well, forbidden. It turns out that it had been closed because of an economic conference (the APEC, if you've ever heard of it). The connection between these two things is beyond me.
So instead, we went to a park right next to the forbidden city, with a view of the city at the top of a miniature mountain.
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| We can now add "water calligraphy" to the list of park activities. It is common for people to use an oversized brush to paint water onto the ground in the shape of Chinese characters. |
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| The forbidden city, as seen from the peak. |
After that, we visited yet another temple, this one Buddhist. This was mostly filler- since we had time between two activities- so it's not particularly interesting or significant. The buildings and statues were impressive, however.
Finally, we took a rickshaw tour of a small neighborhood. Oddly, though, the tour only had one stop, and it was just some people's houses. Our guide simply showed us the houses and the small (yet quite pleasant) courtyard between them, led us inside, and told us we could look through their scrapbooks. It was weird, but apparently it wasn't the first time people wad visited their houses.
Our final activity was dumpling-making, a relaxing activity to conclude our epic journey. My dumplings looked like wounded birds, but it was still an enjoyable experience.
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| The one in the front is Dad's, not mine. Even I, with my awful dumplings, don't want credit for that one. |
Thanks for reading!
Bonus: Aidan's Mandarin Lessons, Episode 3!
Today's topic is dates- part 1! In this, you'll learn numbers, which will be followed up with dates in the next episode.
One: yī
Two: èr (pronounced "arr")
Three: sān
Four: sì (pronounced "sǝ") (That's a schwa, by the way. It makes a sound like a u. You might want to look it up if you want to know for sure what it is, since I'm not particularly reliable.)
Five: wǔ
Six: liù
Seven: chī
Eight: bā
Nine: jiǔ
Ten: shí (pronounced "shǝ")
When making numbers above ten and below twenty, simply say ten, then a number. For instance, "eleven" would be "ten one" or "shí yī". When making numbers twenty and above, simply say a number, then ten, then a number. For example, "twenty" would be "two ten" or "èr shí", and "twenty-three" would be "two ten three" or "èr shí sān".
