We survived The Wall

... where we came in

In order to tell the story of The Wall, we need to start at yesterdays delicious dinner. After having spent the good part of an hour looking for a place to eat where we could understand what we were ordering, we finally settled for a place that had pictures of the food on the menu. This is always a plus when all the writing are in Chinese. Despite that, we ended up eating the following:
Dumplings - Quite good, not so tasty but good enough
Fried balls of something with spicy sauce - The yummiest
Exhibit A - See below
We have no idea what this was, but look at the picture. Its round, hollow, and it was not a snake. It was pork, something, and the waitress pointed at her belly (after we had ordered). Sophie had one piece, but Joakim joyfully munched away five whole pieces before his appetite was somewhat destroyed once he realized that it was probably one of the following:
Pigs intestine
Pigs bowels
Pigs belly
or, the "best", Pigs testicels.

Needless to say, he ate no more. The cucumber that was served with it was nice though.

So, fast forward to the night. Last night we decided to go to the Simatai part of the Great Wall instead of the much overpopulated Badaling part. However, in order to go there, we had to go by local transport, and hence had to get up very early (approx 5 in the morning). But there were things we needed to check up first, so we didnt get to bed until after 12 at night. And, whaddaya know, none of us could sleep at all. So, after five frustrating hours, the alarm finally rang and we couldnt believe that we had not slept at all. We werent even tired at that point. So, we got up, took the metro to the long distance bus station, all the time being stared at immensely by this guy that had a very "chunky bite". We took the bus to a town near the wall, Miyun, and took a cab from there. Thanks to Sophie we managed to bargain down the price, to about half, but Sophie was not entirely satisfied with it anyway. One thing you notice here, though, is that if you are white some people are constantly trying to overcharge you for everything. The right thing to do is to just walk away and appear uninterested.


We arrived at the Simatai part of the wall and it was very nice. This part of the wall has barely been rebuilt so it gives a much more genuine impression of what it could have been like. Also, it so much less touristy that we were actually the only people on the wall for 40 or so minutes. When we were heading back down again, we met the crowds as they were making their way up. Although nowhere near as many as in Badaling, it would have been enough to disturb the quite peaceful moments we had at the wall.

Even though the Simatai part of the wall is not very touristy, it still has its share of peddlers trying to sell things to you. And it doesnt matter if you say no, they follow you for a long long time anyway, until you eventually buy something to get rid of them. However, Sophie devised a plan which involved turning around and aggressively shouting something Swedish at them (Forsvinn!!!). And, it worked very good. They gave up immediately and headed back home. And, on the way down, they didnt even try to sell things to us again. So, thats a good tip.

Since Beijing is arranging the Olympics in 2008 they have set up all these signs all over in English, or more like Chinglish (see link to the right). Here's one we saw on our way back from the wall. Others included:
No naked flame, and
Remember, the fire is heartless

Any suggestions as to what any of these mean, please feel free to comment.

Thats all for us as of now. Tomollow, we are sleeping in, and then going out shopping and relaxing. Also, we need to check out since our plane for Xian leaves at... uhmm... 7:20 in the morning day after tomollow... thats insanely early!

Next time youll hear from us, well be in Xian

Isn't this...