Sunday, June 29, 2008 8:35pm Beijing
Wow, what a day… It started early; we left at 8:00, though Mr. Chisnell and the rest of our chaperones were late, “One dollar,” as Lu Xia said. XD
Anyway, it took about an hour and a half to get to the Great Wall, so we stopped at an authentic enamel factory specializing in a type called Cloisonne. The way all the wonderous things are made is a long, rather complex prcoess involving making shapes out of copper wire, sticking them on a vase or whatnot, filling those shapes with the different colors necessary through the Cloisonne powder, and firing it…a lot. 8 layers of enamel! Which means firing the thing 8 times! Lu Xia said it could take 2 to 3 months to complete a single small vase. We stayed at the shop there for about an hour before it was back on the bus to the Great Wall of China!
The Great Wall is 4000+ miles long and would take one and a half years to walk from end to end. We walked for only an hour or so, but even that was challenging; lots of very steep slopes and what seemed to be thousands of stairs of varying sizes and heights…>< Even though, it was satisfying. I loved every moment of it, even as my legs were shaking on the way back down and I felt like I would die; I fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine, and I’m only sixteen. It almost seems to have a dreamlike quality to it. The only thing I regret was that it was foggy and visibility was really limited so we couldn’t see a lot of the wall. But it was still amazing.
After lunch at the Friendship Shop, we shopped a bit. There were so many beautifully cut pieces of jade that were HUGE and cost over $50,000! Chisnell SAYS he bought two…but don’t believe him…he’s a big meanie…as you’ll soon find out.
After being completely awed by the things Chisnell SAYS he bought…we headed for the hutong areas; community plazas really. We took a rickshaw through the area… THAT was different, even a bit frightening. There were so many times I thought we were going to crash…><
Halfway though our rickshaw run, we stopped to visit a local family who lived in the hutong. Apparently, if your family owned the hutong first there was a way you could get it back from the government and continue living there. They’re really worth a lot, even if it’s just a small space; 30,000 RMB per square meter! After that, we finished with our rickshaw and came back to wait for Mrs. Ding, Amilly’s mother, who also treated us to dinner at a local restaurant on a street called Ghost Street. …Mr. Chisnell was very mean to me… He wouldn’t teach me the secret to the Tommy riddle! How awful is that?! I figured it out though…it’s all about the hands…
And now we’re back at the hotel, packing for our flight tomorrow. We visit the Peking University tomorrow and then we fly to Xi’an. Well ‘night everyone!
Olivia!
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