Changde and a Decently Sized Wall
A small homage to my favorite C. Springs breakfast place...
This is a bit of a back track, but it’s worth it… Merely a few days after our arrival here in Beijing, the Program directors took us on our first excursion to see this amazing country. We left two Monday mornings ago (unfortunately not giving any of us enough time to see the Super Bowl). The Super Bowl was actually playing here at 6 AM! A small group did manage to make it to one of the local bars for at least the first few minutes of the game, but had to return quickly to catch our busses.
Interesting side note regarding NFL football here: each day that I have ridden the subway, little televisions will display short clips of the NFL playoffs. Most recently, highlights from the Super Bowl played with
Chinese announcers. I wonder if I stuck out a little bit with my eyes glued to that little television?
To continue the stories of our first adventure: we piled onto the busses without much of an idea what
wewere in for except for the first landmark that we were hitting—The Great Wall of China. After roughly three hours in the bus, we had arrived at the “Jinshanling” section of the Great Wall—the most restored and preserved part. Below is a video of Chinese hackie sack with some younger children at the Great Wall.
As we ascended to the wall from the parking lot, the views just kept getting better. Once we were finally on the wall, the views officially took your breath away. To the north, Mongolia, and to the south, China. As we continued to walk along the wall, it seemed to snake further and further into the distance, rolling across the rough terrain. It is simply stunning.
The beautiful flowers near the Great Wall
We stopped not to far along the wall for lunch. We had all packed our own, and I had purposely packed myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I wanted a bit of home with me as I took in this awe inspiring site. At lunch, I spotted the only real color I had seen all day. It being winter here, green doesn’t exist yet and the flowers are also hiding. I did manage to find a small bundle of orange flowers that were incredibly beautiful among the drab and plain landscape.
We returned from the wall to check in at our hotel for the next two days. That night dinner was accompanied by a short performance from the hotel staff. I’m not entirely sure what the performance was about or where the origins of it where, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
That night, a large group of us ventured to our first KTV karaoke experience in the town of Changde. About fifteen of us got a very nice private room. We lounged on the couches with Tsingtao’s watching each other take turns singing karaoke songs at the large projection screen. We sang everything from Britney Spears to George Michael.
The following day brought some of the best and unexpected experiences of the trip thus far. We visited the Mountain Palace in the morning as well as the Puning Temple and another palace in the afternoon. At the Mountain Palace, a large lake had frozen over, allowing for some fun times on ice. A large rink had been set up for people to ice skate, while a small stand rented out these ice chair contraptions for 10RMB/hour. They were essentially wooden sleds with a small stool on the top. The rider sat on the stool with his/her feet on the sled and propelled forward with two iron sticks that were like ice picks (but significantly less sharp). I hope that these contraptions make it back to the US soon—they are LOADS of fun!
While sliding across the lake, we met a young Chinese girl who fell in love with us. Those of us who spoke
The little Chinese girl that we met on the ice. We are sitting on the really fun ice chair contraptions.
Chinese spoke to her and relayed messages to others. We must have hung around with her for at least an hour. We took several pictures with her—as you can see by this one, she loved to make faces!
We finally had to leave her to catch our bus (she wasn’t too happy about it, but her dad smiled at us and took one big group picture for us).
First thing in the afternoon, we visited a palace that I currently can’t name. This was an unbelievable expansive space filled with beautiful architecture that inspired the imagination. Here, I purchased a small pendant from a vender near the top of the palace. Unfortunately, my bargaining skills are that of a novice right now, so I didn’t get much of a deal. It was special, still.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Puning Temple, which turned out to be part our hotel. This was one of those experiences that firmly planted me in the moment. From the entrance, it was beautiful, but it only continued to impress as we walked up. Once at the top, a large Buddhist temple sat with incense burning in front and a small musical ensemble. I walked past the music and into the temple. What now stood in front of me was the largest wooden representation of Buddha in the world. I stopped speaking and just observed. Pictures were not permitted, so I abided by the rules and let this one experience be wholly my own.
That concluded out trip to Changde. We returned to Shaoyuan # 5 the next afternoon. It felt good to be back—the room was starting to feel very much like home at this point.
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