After a long and hard 14-hour flight, I was very excited to begin my adventure in Beijing. When I arrived, I felt like I entered a different world; I found myself in very unfamiliar territory. Not being able to speak or navigate created many handicaps. In fact, when I tried to order food at a restaurant, I resorted to pointing at pictures to tell people what I wanted. This experience demonstrated how tackling language barriers can be difficult.
This morning, we travelled by bus to a local Chinese restaurant near the great wall. One very interesting thing about the meal was that it was family style with a revolving piece in the middle of the table that allowed different dishes to be passed easily.
The Great Wall of China was one of the best experiences of my life. We walked up a huge, seemingly endless flight of stairs to reach the magnificent wall. A stunning view of the mountains and a well-preserved section of the wall awaited us at the top of the stairs. After taking a ton of photos, we took the toboggan down. This is a type of roller coaster that fits one person in a car and takes you all the way down the mountain. The ride took about 10 minutes and was much easier than the trek up the staircase. Overall, visiting the Great Wall of China was an amazing trip and provided the best sightseeing that I’ve ever had. I can’t believe its only been one day on the trip; I can’t wait to see what else is in store!