Beijing Duck Soup

Na'Hou:
For those of you freezing your "you know what's off" just thought you would like to know that it is 10:00AM-Beijing time and already 36 C outside. There are about 7 squillion people lined up to view Chairman Mao [it takes about 1.2 hours so i am told] and on the sunny side of the street [the whole of Tian Amen Square] you could fry eggs on the ground.

Still, it was cooler yesterday- by about 3 degrees. This was the day we went climbing up and onto the Great Wall- the views were spectacular and getting there was a feat. The hills of katoomba got nothing on this believe me. As you can see from above, I made it to the top- about 1/2 hour after everyone else on our tour....[Jude, please notice that your workers rights badge is still on the shirt]. The hike up was totally amazing.

First you have to run the commercial enterprise gauntlet -the path being lined with sellers from postcards to carpets [I mean, who is going to schlep a carpet up to the wall and back- unless you want to bury yourself underneath it because you will never be able to walk again and you are about to die from heat prostration- but otherwise it was fun]. Then there is the climb- upper left photo- it is mostly what you see: uphill! My legs were shaking so hard I could hardly take a step and had to stop a lot. Which ended up to be a good thing, because the views were simply divine...worth the trip.

Nevertheless I made it up there and eventually ran into some people from the tour [who are all out in the blistering sun in the Forbidden City, while I am here in the dark, in front of a computer]. You can take a chair lift back down to the bottom, which is stunning. The views as I said-are great- but since it has taken me 3 goes each photo, you will have to wait for the slide show to find out the rest.

I found the grooviest little park to walk in each morning- lots of locals doing their exercises- walking backwards, doing Tai Chi, working out on these amazing machines that do everything from working your legs to rubbing your back. This morning- my 2nd time there, I got some smiles, nods and hellos- though most people here say hello because they want to sell you something. I am anxious to get to the country where it is not so busy and frantic and you are not approached because you are a potential source of income.

Beijing has changed so much in the 9 or so years since I have been here. It's so commercial, so up market, so sell sell sell...lots more modern high rises, business offices and SHOPPING MALLS! [arghhh] The little markets are hard to find.

Last night, we did find one- where they sold ful on squids, scorpions, snakes on a stick and starfish on sticks- among many other things [goats penises etc- yum!] This was at a place called the Night Market, which was very old fashioned. Around the corner was like downtown metropolis- mega billions of shops and bars and lights lights lights. It was really weird -like stepping through a time zone. I want a cut of the electricity bill for the main streets here. The city comes totally alive at night- and is more casual than in the day. There are still millions of people in the day, but at night they seem to be floating- not rushing from one place to another.

Tomorrow, we are headed to Ulan Baatar on the train. We leave at 5:30AM- and do not know if we get to have food on the train or not- so I need to hit one of those malls and buy some food stuff. So far, I had resisted all kinds of tourist junk and it has been pretty easy. But of course I can never resist food. It promisies to be an interesting trip.

So long for now....don't know when I will be able to connect again...but hopefully soon.

Genie