The Great Wall, Our Shipment, Thoughts

We had a really exciting weekend.  On Saturday, we visited The Great Wall at Mutianyu with our driver, Steeven (the 2 ee's is not a typo-he chooses to spell it this way) and a colleague of Steve's that was in town for the week.  It was a bit of a drive, but I'm told it is worth it as the closest Great Wall site to Beijing, Badaling, is extremely crowded all the time.  The Great Wall is amazing.  The part we visited is supposed to be one of the most beautiful sections and I can see why.  I just couldn't believe that I was there.  I really didn't think I'd ever see The Great Wall of China and kept having "pinch me" sort of moments.  We took cable cars up the mountain to get to The Wall, but there were 2 choices for going down.  The first is to take an open, ski lift chair, the other is to go down the toboggan chute.  Oleg was freaked out by the chute, so Steve & our driver took him down in the chairlift.  Steve's colleague Josh and I took the toboggan. It was pretty cool and a surprisingly long ride.  The biggest peril was avoiding the "Slow Down" warning flags that hung at face level across the track in which you could see the dirty outline of millions of sweaty foreheads.  Josh said he took one to the face.  Best not think too deeply on that.  By the way, it was so great having someone else from Cleveland here for the weekend.  A little bit of home.  Josh also brought Oleg some Malley's chocolates (local Cleveland candy maker) which made it even better!

Map at entrance

Oleg loving the cable car on the way up

Inside one of the watchtowers

Later Saturday evening, Steeven picked us all up again and took us to meet Steve's Chinese colleague for Beijing roast duck.  Soooooo good.  Oleg ate duck's foot webbing in a spicy mustard sauce.  The best part is taking the pieces of crispy roasted skin, dipping it in mashed garlic, then dipping it in sugar.  I know it sounds bizarre, but it is crazy delicious.

Sunday morning the first of our 2 shipments arrived!  It was like Christmas! I can't believe another shipment is going to arrive in 2 weeks.  Not sure where all this stuff is going to go.  I'll have to get creative at IKEA.

Unfortunately, Steve wasn't able to get the right adapter for my water filter.  Something about inches and cm and threading issues.  I think I'll call the manufacturer here in Beijing and see if they can help.

Here are a couple of pictures of some random stuff.  The first is a picture of a street cleaner.  They are out every single morning and all they have are these homemade brooms that they sweep the streets and sidewalks with.  It just blows me away.  We aren't talking a quick sweep up, either.  People litter here CONSTANTLY.  It's a big job with an ancient broom.

The next photo is of a man who rides his bike and parks it in the same spot every day.  He collects cardboard boxes from the delivery areas of the buildings and goes through the trash for plastic and glass all day.  As the day goes on, the pile on his bike gets larger and larger.  He then takes it to be recycled at the end of the day I'm guessing, and that is how he makes a living.  In the photo below, it is early in the day, so the pile is small. By 6pm the pile on his bike grows until it is at least 7 feet high.

Seeing people with piles of things on the back of bikes or scooters is really common.  Often you will see a whole family riding one bike or scooter at the same time, including small children and infants.  I'm not sure what my point was in posting these pictures, other than they make me think and it demonstrates  the contrasts between old and new in China.  These people are working in the midst of shiny, modern, mirrored buildings.  China is hurtling into the modern world so fast, there are a lot of areas that cannot keep up.  Lots more to be said on that, but its too much for this blog post.