Beijing // Day 2 - The Great Wall of China

Good evening, yesterday was a crazily tiring day! We were thankful to be able to visit the wall during the best weather Beijing has ever experienced in a long while.

Woke up at about 8am(i was late whoops) and rushed to get prepared before meeting the lady, Mary, that would bring us down to the wall. We went to the part of the wall that was further from Beijing and therefore wasn't that crowded. Mary told us that if we were to go to that part of the wall instead of seeing the Great Wall of China, we'd be seeing a Great Wall of Tourists. LOL.

So onto the car we went, and we were off for a 3 hour long car ride. I slept through it (hahahahhahaa) and when we arrived, Mary opted to help us get the tickets while we visited the restroom because there were, obviously, no toilets up on the wall. Before entering the entrance to take the cable car up, there was a market and we were told NOT to buy from there unless we had really good bargaining skills because they jack up the prices so high that it doesn't even make any sense! We also heard from Mary that at times, they can say a certain price but when you really buy it, they ask for a much higher amount of money :< how horrible. 

Anyways, climbing the Great Wall of China is definitely no chicken feet. I used to think it was walking the Great Wall of China but now I know that it really is, climbing. Most of the paths were slopes and stairs. To find an actual flat path is almost impossible! Despite that, Sean and I, along with Mary, walked quite a great distance and we had a lot of fun! Mary was really nice and friendly, telling us the history of the great wall as we went and even her past experiences up there as a tour guide. On our way back to the cable car, we bumped into a few foreigners who actually wanted to take a photo WITH us but i mistook them for wanting us to help take a photo of them hahaha they were so cute.

After all the climbing and perspiring, it was time to have fuuuuuuuunnn! (not that climbing the wall wasn't but yeah you know what I mean HAHA)

Back at the place where we arrived on the cable car, we took a slide down!!! It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN. Except for the fact that the person in front of me was moving really slow so I had to slow down occasionally and couldn't speed all the way down :(

 On the open-air cable car!

 The slide dooooooown :}

 Love love love how blue the sky was!!

 A shot with Mary ;)

Next up was lunch! We visited a small restaurant not too far from the wall and Mary helped us order a few dishes. When it arrived, we were taken aback by the portion, especially since it was only a meal for 2 (Sean & I). The food was fairly okay and I have no idea what the restaurant was called because I fell asleep in the car yet again and was too blur when I woke up to notice haha.

 We had eggplant, diced chicken and fried long beans. All the dishes were rather tasty!

After lunch, we took another long drive down to the Beijing Olympics Stadium. It was a nice place to visit but the people selling things there were really annoying.

Sean & I wanted to take a photo and this man kept bugging us to let them take it for us instead with their professional camera because our faces would be dark cause of the lighting yada yada yada. Our photo turned out fine anyway so he had nothing to say. Slowly as we walked deeper in, we encountered more of such people and some were selling kites! The kites were nice to look at but I most definitely would not pay for that.

All in all, it was quite a nice place to visit just for the experience plus Mary told us a lot of things we never knew about how scheming the people that are selling things at tourist attractions are and, of course, about the Beijing Olympics.

 Puny me with my favourite UFO-like building!

 Carving of all the names of winners!

 The icon carving for wrestling is so cute omg HAHA

 Olympic torch!

 A map showing how the river is actually shaped like a dragon :o

 Bird nest stadium

We were driven back to my aunt's place not too long after and I was so glad to be back there because the weather started becoming murderously cold. Really hate how the temperature drops by about 10degrees between the day and the night :/ we stayed indoors for awhile more and waited for my aunt to get back before heading out for dinner. Was quite thankful for the time because I could catch up on my drama! Heh heh heh. Kim Soo Hyun is such a cutie.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant in the Temple of the Sun. It is such a scenic place that, if time allows, Sean & I intend on going down there again in the afternoon to snap photos like how to did today at the Temple of Heaven! 

The restaurant looked almost like a hotel and I was really satisfied with the atmosphere! We had a crazy lot of food for dinner and my favourite was the spicy beef!

It looks like mala(麻辣) soup but it, thankfully, wasn't as spicy as mala(麻辣). The cucumber cold dish was really tasty too. For some reason, everyone loved the Peking Duck there but I was only so-so with it. The duck was quite dry to me(probably because i even find breast chicken meat dry lol I always eat another part!) and the wrap overpowered the taste of the duck. All in all, the food there still tasted good and I would most definitely go back there again.

 PEKING DUCCCKKKKK

My aunt wanted to visit a supermarket for foreigners so that was exactly where we went next. I tried looking for Oreo-o's but sadly, to no avail :( I did, however, see a few intriguing items like the wide variety of different shaped pastas. They sold spongebob, patrick, gary(the snail not the singer), pooh bear, any many many more different shapes of pasta! Of course, we didn't end up buying any of 'em aaaaand we caught a cab home after walking out to the main road.

The drivers here are so reckless :< the particular cab we look sped towards us as if it was about to hit us before alighting it's passenger and allowing us to board I mean, isn't it a lil' unnecessary...? Oh well.

After getting back, I had a quick bathe a headed to bed ASAP. I was soooo tired! It was, however, a really fulfilling day :)