June 5th - The Great Wall and Tiananmen Square (Anja's Analysis)

Today we got up and took the train about an hour outside of Beijing to The Great Wall. As we got closer we could see parts of the wall from the train. I can’t even being to explain how beautiful it is and how completely miraculous it is to see it. When you think about how long it is, about five and half miles, and that it’s around 2000 years old it really just blows your mind. While we were taking pictures people started asking if they could take pictures with us and a line began to form. I don’t think any of us have ever experienced anything like that. We honestly felt like celebrities there. I thought there would be a lot of white tourists there but I was wrong. We weren’t the only ones but there weren’t many. I don’t know how much we walked but it was a lot of fun. Sometimes it’s walking up stairs, or down a very steep ramp. You can tell as you go that it was manmade because of the uniqueness of each part. After climbing and walking for a while we found a rollercoaster that took us partway back down. We got off by a shopping area so we wandered around and made our way back so we could catch the train.

After taking the train back into town we headed to Tiananmen Square. To even get to the square you have to go through security and there are cameras everywhere. The square itself is huge and a very nice place to relax. Important buildings surround the square, the most recognizable is the Tian’anmen Gate, the entrance to the Imperial City with a large portrait of Mao Zedong. His portrait has been there since 1949 with a few exceptions. For example when Joseph Stalin died his portrait was put up. On the opposite side of the square is a large obelisk, the Monument to the People’s Heroes, for those who died during the revolutionary struggles of China. On the West side of the square there is the parliamentary building, known as the Great Hall of the People and on the East side, the National Museum of China. There were a lot of people just hanging out waiting for the lowering of the flag. We stayed for that and then Mike treated us to a special dinner.

Bejing fried duck is famous and he wanted us to try it. It was possibly one of the best dinners we had while in China. We all loved the duck and everything else that night. It is carved in front of your table and you eat it in a thin pancake with spring onions, cucumber and hoi sin sauce. We also had fried rice, small corn muffin pancakes, peapods, soup and chrysanthemum tea.