Goodness, Gracious, Great Wall of China!

This past weekend was the Mid-Autumn Festival, which meant that we had Monday off of work. Our goal this year was to take advantage of seeing China and not just using it as a launching pad for other things. Time to check off the "Great Wall of China" box on our list of things to do. And, not just the "I got the shirt and rode the toboggan" kind of visit. I'm talking the "I don't think we should tell our moms" kind of visit. Wee!!

Here's the breakdown:

Mark and I, with our friends Brian and Anja, left school on Friday afternoon and got to experience the glory of waiting at the Shanghai South Train Station until we boarded our overnight train to Beijing. We had a room with four beds to ourselves and arrived in Beijing at about 7:30 AM. (Heads up for future travelers: the dining car only had water and snacks, including a vacuum-sealed bag of chicken wings. We, luckily, had ordered bagels to bring with us on the trip and had the first of many PB&J bagel sandwiches.)

Man raisins?!

Our driver, Bruce, picked us up at the train station, took us to 7-11 to buy water, and then drove us two hours to the Jian Kuo area. After agreeing to meet him at 4:30 PM to pick up our sleeping gear, off we set up the mountain to reach the first tower.

Glimpses of the Wall through the trees 

From the top, looking to where we're going

Here we go!

Looking back at the first tower that we started from. 

Also a little friend that was following us for awhile!

How nice of the builders to provide stairs!

Again, looking back at where we started - the top-most point. 

Uh oh!  The wall disappeared! What to do?

Thanks, Mark. :o)

I'll have you know, most of my rock "scrambling" was done one-handed because I was holding my camera with my other hand. 

The best part. Not sure why the others were worried. I thought it was just fine!

Just a relaxing stroll through one of the great wonders of the world. 

No joke, one of the coolest things we've ever done. A turn around and back the way we came had us meet up with Bruce at the first tower. A car ride, a language-barrier-induced disagreement, and a mad scramble uphill through thorny brush with a villager brought us to the paved walkway that parallels the toboggan track. Puffing our way up a zillion steps, we chose tower 8 of Mu Tian Yu for our sleeping quarters. 

I was pretty beat, but definitely appreciated the change of clothes!

Check out our new dorm room!

It was obnoxious to carry, but the thick exercise mats really helped making our night loads comfier. Not to mention my sleeping pill. :o)  I was completely beat up from the day, but I cannot sleep on rocks!

Breakfast! And another hazy day.

As you can tell Mu Tian Yu is restored wall, as opposed to JianKuo being "wild wall." You can take a bus to the town, a chair lift OR gondola up to the wall, and toboggan down. That is not to say this part is easy. Not one bit. We're talking a ga-zillion stairs and pretty gnarly inclines. 

Another friend!

Here's the fun part: see the light line going up in the right third of the picture??

That's this 40 degree angle of stairs in front of us. 

We counted. On the way down at least. 453, if you were wondering.

View from the top!

I wish it was a clearer day, but what a blessing to be alone on the Great Wall of China. The way back included other visitors showing up and quite a few protests from our knees and ankles. We were really looking forward to tobogganning down with camping gear, but it was closed due to the moisture. From the chairlift, it looked really fun though!

We found Bruce back at the bottom. A nap in the car back to Beijing, a shower at a hotel that rhymes with "Share-ee-ott" by "going to the pool," and back to the train station. We opted for the "express train," though that still took five hours.

I can't tell you how nice it was to sleep in a bed on Sunday night! 

All in all, a highlight for sure. And in such a short amount of time! 

Now where did I put that IcyHot?

I'm walking on sunshine!

Whoa-oh!

I was just so excited to wake up this morning and not see rain!  Check out this beautiful morning:

Pretty darn exciting, even if it's not your traditional "beautiful morning."

:o)

Also exciting: after bothering our landlord to fix out main A/C unit 4 times and surviving with only the bedroom A/C unit since we got back to Shanghai, they finally agreed to replace it! The old one left today, and we're supposed to get the new one tomorrow. Here's hoping that it works better!  

Holy Bao, Batman! It's a post!

(a Bao is a bun or dumping, something "put together." Also, getting something "to go" at a restaurant is "da bao.")

HEY!  I'm back!  Maybe?

We had a wild and wonderful spring and summer, and I'm hoping that this is that start of "back to normal" postings. Heads up: I'm hearing rumblings that VPN's aren't quite doing the job that they used to do, and posting on this blog needs a VPN that works!  Cross your fingers that this is just a blip.

 To recap....

Last spring saw the lower school put on "School Daze" with the 2nd-5th graders. 

We also moved and paid 3 months' rent + 1 month deposit + .5 month for realtor fees in cash!! 

 That's 21,100 RMB right there.

Our new place also needed repairs done on the AC unit.

Why, yes, that's a repair guy climbing on the outside of our balcony with just a rope around his waist.

Why, yes, we do live on the 12th floor.

Yikes!

Mark also put on a music festival at the upper school. Way successful!!

We got to hang with some of our most favorite professors. 

I also got to conduct middle schoolers. 

Way fun!

This summer, we had a new addition to the family....

Meet Maggie!  She's the blonde one in the middle. 

I'm already being replaced... My parents are giving the squirt my stuffed animals!!

Coming back to Shanghai was bittersweet. 

I, for one, didn't like having to travel the long haul by myself. My seat mate didn't let me sleep on him. Imagine that!!

On the other hand, we got to come back and have dumplings. 

YUM!

Now if only it'd stop raining...

Day number 6 of constant rain!

We're missing you at home and wishing for some sun!

XOXO

Castle in the Clouds

by Mark

I love being in a new city because things like a trip to the glasses store can turn into amazing adventures out around town. 

A few weeks ago, my eyes were feeling a bit blurrier than normal so I decided to get them checked out. A friend of ours recently got glasses from Jins, a Japanese company, for $50 including the exam. I figured I might as well give it a try since I haven't had glasses since my eye surgery. Jins is downtown in the Shanghai World Financial Center ("the bottle opener" ) so we planned our trip for Sunday morning with Brian and Anja. When we got downtown, we realized just how nice it was outside. You could actually see a nice blue sky and visibility was better than it had been since summer! On a whim, we decided the best thing to do was to hit the sky bar on the 92nd floor for a quick drink and some views. Amazing decision!

The lobbies of the elevators have some interesting art. 

See the Jin Mao in the foreground?

Itty people!!

After the drink, I headed down to get my eyes checked and my face fitted for glasses. With the help of Jessi and Anja, I chose some nice blue frames that make me look extra smart. 

Our plan was to go the the fake market so Brian could get some jerseys and an iPad cover, but that would have to wait as there was another giant building next door that was calling our name. The Jin Mao tower is the third tallest building in Shanghai (second, if you don't count the new one that is not open yet) and has a very interesting outer design. The best part is the inside though. There is a grand Hyatt hotel that stretches from about the 50th floor to the 85th floor, and it is completely open on the inside! You can stand at the bottom and look up 35 floors!

 At the top is, you guessed it, an amazing bar with 360 degree views. 

Have you seen the video of the guys who climbed this?!

Inside the Jin Mao, you can see the outside of it!

It required 4 elevator rides to get there. If you lived on the ground floor and worked at the bar you would have a 15 minute commute each day.

I can't wait for the new building to open!!