Well, the next day we spent getting our ducks in a row and then heading out to a kid zone area for Annabelle to play. It was hours of fun! Then we took what we thought was an ancient Chinese bike ride to a mall, but it turned out to be motorized! Hilarious! But still fun! After we ate sloppy, juicy, hamburgers for dinner, we headed down a street and for Barrett, the bells tolled, time stood still, and his heart skipped a beat as there before us, was an apple that was glowing! A Mac store! He hasn’t seen one in years! They are still wiping his drool off the displays.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to see this kind of mall and street that was packed with vendors, high end stores, and foreigners galore! It was fun to explore the lights as the moon came into view. But all good things seem to end by the call of our pillows and the expectations of what they next day will bring.
And the next day was filling my bucket list! Seeing and walking on the Great Wall of China! We hired a driver to take us to the spot that we thought would be third worldish and broken down. But as we were soon to learn, China does an amazing job at keeping the tourist areas pristine. We also were beginning to realize that we needed to pay for EVERYTHING. So we had a ticket for the bus to the gondola, the gondola, the alpine slide down (yeah, you read that right), and the bus ride back. We needed a separate bag for our tickets! Then, as we walked to catch the bus we travelled through a market of goods with sellers that begged us to buy. There was a Burger King, Subway, and other eateries as we walked to glimpse this ancient wall that previously just held warriors. So odd.
Up we went to the wall, and we gasped at the view these soldiers saw each day. Glorious mountains, trees, birds, and the smells of flowers and fresh air! We decided to climb as high as we could with Annabelle being dragged, carried, and begged to walk. The wall had hills, varying sized steps, large stone bricks, no hand rails, and steps so steep my legs shook going down them. We sweated. We gawked. We stopped to catch our breath. And we were in awe as we saw the wall stretch for miles.
It was built in the Qin dynasty (220-206 BC). Each village was responsible for completing its section and then they joined them together. It was used for border control and protection against the Mongolians and their horses who desired (and eventually did) take over China and the world! This section was rebuilt so we could experience it. Like it was in its glory days I don’t know how to tell you how breathtaking the views were as well as trying to transport ourselves back to that time and what they would do on the wall all day. We met a lady from a tribe who traveled 2 hours each way every day to climb the wall in order to sell ribbon medals (which we bought), and other souvenirs for the vacationers from around the world that made the trek. We met people from everywhere! We all encouraged each other for each steep step as we shared about our lives.
Then, when we walked all we could…we got on a sled with wheels and slid down the mountain to take the bus back to our driver. Oh man! Annabelle was thrilled as she sat with me and we took the curves and sped down the straight always. Never in my wildish imagination did I think we would ever Alpine slide down the side of the Mountain off the Great Wall of China! Crazy! Crazy Fun!
Then we had dinner next to the Silk Street Market. We met the owner who was born in Taiwan, then immigrated to America, married an American woman, lived their 40 years, then moved to China two years ago and started this Mexican restaurant. Yeah. He was a wealth of information about Chinese government, taxes, and workers. He talked with us for about an hour sharing his knowledge about the bullets of questions we fired at him. We enjoyed him so much that we went back to get a picture with him…only afterward did we notice it was in front of the bar! Ha!
After that, we went into the Silk Street Market and wanted to buy 4 kid t-shirts and a Chinese dress from a very affable lady. Barrett told her he didn’t want to bargain so give him a fair price and we will pay it. She sat and thought for a few seconds…and then told us $175. $175!!!! That was her fair and best offer? We took our innocent selves out of her store and left…even as she yelled at us lower prices. Oh the god of money that all people worship.
So we learned that people want to make money any way they can…whether its climbing a mountain for 2 hours each way, creating an alpine slide at an historical site, or selling knock off goods for astronomical prices. That sounds a lot like capitalism doesn’t it? Yup! There is a bit of that in China. Another surprise for me. It’s impossible to put people or countries into easy categories. Life is complex and we all have things that don’t fit into neat boxes. These were two more amazing days!
And yet there is more!