Beijing

"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man." ~ Mao Zedong

Well I climbed the Great Wall today, does that mean I'm now a true man. It was incredible in so many ways. Incredibly windy. Incredibly steep. Incredibly beautiful. Incredbily breaktaking. I must give credit to all those people who built that wall because it truely is magnificent. I think going in April is the perfect time to go ~ its not too hot and its not overly crowded. We could see a part of the wall where it was overly crowded but that where the cable car and tramride took everyone who didnt want to hike it. We decided to 'ascend by foot' as the sign send and I'd have to say that was a much better idea.

We also checked out Tienanmen Square which was exactly that a square. The Mausoleum and 2 museums surrounding it were all closed for renovations and the Great Hall of People had already closed for the day when we got there. Tomorrow we are going to check out the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven and perhaps the Chinese Natural History Museum. And then take an overnight train to Qingdao where we will meet the ship.

I definitely like this place, although the language barrier is a bit of a constraint. The few who know english are constantly trying to sell you something. There have been a couple that have been helpful but not too many. I'll update more later.