A Good Wall

Nicole had arranged for a driver to pick us up in the morning to take us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It is fairly close to Beijing, but not the closest and is therefore less crowded. It seems all the tour buses stop elsewhere and the fact that it was the end of October probably helped as well. We had to take a ski lift to the top of the mountain to get to the wall. There were about 10 watch towers that we could walk between. The wall was sometimes flat stone and sometimes steep steps, and we really had to watch our step because it was uneven more than not. It was unique to see the fall foliage surrounding the wall as I feel that it is not often photographed under these conditions.

There were other people on the wall, but it was not impossible to get a picture with very few people in it. It was an overall relaxing experience and we were able to take our time without feeling rushed to get back to our driver. We had the option of taking a toboggan back down to the bottom, but having watched a few souls fly down the mountain below us, we mutually agreed that the ski lift would do. It was about an hour and a half drive back to Beijing, where we were quickly reminded that pedestrians, under no circumstances, ever have the right of way.

We walked down the street from our hotel to Tiantan Park to see the Temple of Heaven. It was a very hazy day in Beijing and I pointed to some skyscrapers to Nicole. It took her a good 30 seconds to actually see what I was pointing at. We watched the sun slowly make its way down to the horizon. I had done a quick Bing image search before we left (Google was blocked. Obviously nobody ever actually uses Bing under normal circumstances). It looked like the temple was lit up at night which could make for some nice photos. After killing time by doing several laps around the temple, the sun set, but no lights. We waited around a little bit just to make sure, but it became clear that it was going to be a dark temple. When I did eventually get back to the hotel, I image redid my search for the temple at night and realized that the illuminated temple in the images is one I had seen already, but it was not here in Beijing. It was in fact in Central Florida at Epcot's World Showcase. Sometimes the fake is just more photogenic.

We spent the rest of the evening plotting out where to stay in Hong Kong (our next destination) and reminisced about how "relaxing" Beijing had been. I had been cut in line about 5 different times, nearly run over by multiple cars/bicycles/scooters, and narrowly dodged a few snot rockets from passersby. There is not a lot of emphasis on personal space or personal hygiene. "The bathroom smells strongly of urine" seems to be a common TripAdvisor review in these parts. Despite being an otherwise very nice hotel, our own bathroom smelled like someone peed on the wall. This is most likely do to the high probability that this is exactly what happened.

Judging by the signs I see at public restrooms that remind people not to stand on top of the toilet seat, I can only imagine what people are doing at the hotels. Clearly someone stood on the toilet and fired away at the wall and floor. It is the only possible explanation. Beijing is a fine city with a lot of history, but it's really dirty, disorganized, and not the friendliest place on earth. I look forward to our next destination.