Traveling

What a weekend

Well, I realise that the Terry Fox run was about a month ago in Mtl but it was this Sat in Beijing. I was so surprised at the amount of people that took part! It was an 8k run (i walked, obviously) that went thru a large part of the city. It was so funny to see all these huge street blocked off for the runners, and the traffic that was backed up bc of it. I didn't raise any money, but i had decided last year that I wanted to participate in the Terry Fox run every year from now on in memory of Mr Morelli. So, I was so happy that I was able to do it even here in Beijing.
Then Sunday we had a bus reserved to go to the Great Wall. We left at 8 am and returned at 7pm- it was a 3 hr bus ride away. You can get to the Great Wall in about an hour, but it is supposed to be insanely touristy, so we skipped that part and went the remote route.
In all it was about an 8-10k hike along the wall- they give you 4 hrs- which is a lot of time. There are people all along the wall trying to sell you stuff, but this is like anywhere in China really, I wasn't so shocked to see them here too. The views were gorgeous- I only took about 146 photos ;) I have narrowed it down to 67 and will post them on yahoo soon.
The Great Wall is definitely a close second in terms of my favorite things to do in China, so far. (First is the Gobi at Dunhuang). It just snakes along the mountains. You can't help thinking tho, as you look out at all the mountain ranges, what is the point of this wall? If one can get all the way thru the mtns and right up to the wall, you figure they can also get around the wall. But it seems to have done the trick, right? so I'll digress.

posted by jjoollee @ 12:27 AM