Because China, Part 1: Moving Friends Out, Jixian, and the Great Wall Inspection
I can't express enough my disbelief at how much I enjoyed China despite the bad rep' it has here in Korea.
Examples: "China is dirty" "People are rude" "It's hard to travel" "Why would you want to go to China when you can go to Japan/Indonesia/Thailand/Bali/etc.???"
Well, I spent ten days exploring two or three cities and when the last evening rolled around I was definitely not finished with China- Beijing in particular.
Day 1-Departures and Arrivals
Wake up at 8am in Bianca's furnitureless apartment after having slept on a pile of clothes. This is her last night in her apartment before she begins a new career in the world of online website development, and that morning a good 85% of her good were trashed or given away to thrift stores.
The rest was hastily boxed up and shipped out on a visit to the post office, girl scout cookie presents given to the poor guy that had to deal with her boxes.
She's mastered the art of immediate expansion of her stuff in any location.
Then it was to the airport, BARELY making the flight, and a short hop over to PEK- Beijing airport! We got our first taste of the "hurry up and wait- or buy something"tour we were required to sign up for (death to guided tours, more on that later) then met B's parents, finally got to our hotel, and caught a few much needed winks before our morning departure to rural Jixian.
Jixian is a county that contains the Huangyaguan section of the Great Wall, and with a total population of only about 800,000 it's considered tiny.
Day 2- Jixian and Wall Inspection
The Great Wall Marathon is considered to be one of the most difficult races in the world to run, but also one of the most rewarding. Originally planning to run the full, Bianca and I decided to switch to the half marathon a few weeks before the race.
The Great Wall Marathon. Thousands of people from all over the world.
Our Australian Marathon host debriefed us on the specs of the race and how each group of runners (full, half, and fun run) were going to proceed before we began our own inspection on the 4.5k of the wall that was part of the race.
It's a good thing we did, LOOK AT THESE STAIRS. I fell twice!
Back at the hotel we had a great time relaxing, unwinding, and expanding our thoughts on China and the Chinese language. We then went out about the small quiet town center to see what Jixian nightlife was like. Large low tables arranged outside convenience stores packed full of young people eating takeout and drinking, young kids still riding their bikes around, and yet an almost deserted ice cream shop caught our eye- why not?
No one there spoke any English, so we got a kick out of ordering; afterwards, they approached me for...a photo? A photoshoot.
We had to scoot back to our hotel though to prepare for Day 3- the Qing Tombs, and after that- Day 4- the RACE.
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