Today was our first full day in Beijing. I was still tired from the flight and the jet lag, but that’s nothing that some Tylenol PM and a good nights sleep will fix. We started off the day with breakfast provided by the hotel which was amazing, despite the fact that it was just hotel food. It was a mix of traditional American breakfast foods like waffles, toast, and Cheerios with some traditional Chinese foods such as spring rolls, dumplings, and rice. That coupled with two coffees gave me enough energy to start our journey to the Great Wall.

We met up with our guide Joe, who told us many interesting stories about Beijing and the Great Wall along with some jokes as we embarked on our hour long bus ride to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. On our journey there, I learned how large of a city Beijing was, over 23 million people live in an area the size of New Jersey. We could see how many large residential towers and buildings there were on the way out of the city just showing how large the city of Beijing truly is. Joe told us how even though Beijing hosted the summer Olympics in 2008, they were to be hosting the winter Olympics in 2022 in cooperation with a city three hours north of Beijing. It was interesting because we could see the construction of a high-speed bullet train line as we headed out of the city. This bullet train would shorten the ride from three hours to just less than one. We will be experiencing the bullet train ourselves when we travel to Xi’an at the end of this week.

Once we got to the Great Wall, we took a shuttle bus to the entrance of the stairs and cable car that would take us all of the way up to the wall itself. Our group took the stairs which was a mistake. The stairs seemed to go on forever and after multiple breaks to catch our breath and drink some water, we were at the top in no time. The view was breathtaking, the wall itself seemed to go on forever, stretching over top the many mountains and peaks. The wall was surprisingly not flat and had us walking up and down many sets of uneven stairs. In the end it was worth it, allowing us to see the beautiful landscape and mountains for miles while also giving many good opportunities to take photos. When we made it to the final tower, I was sad that our journey was over, but it in fact was not. There is a huge alpine slide that stretches all of the way back down the mountain, making it worth the long climb we made earlier. I hopped into a toboggan and sped down the mountain. When I say sped I mean I went fast for 20 meters before having to stop because of a slow group in front of us. In the end it was still fun and overall the Great Wall was an amazing experience, but we would still not be done for the day.

Finally we took our bus to the Summer Palace, which was built for the emperor in 1750 during the Qing dynasty. The place was beautiful with very ornate architecture and design that stretched throughout the entire grounds. The long corridor was mind-blowing with various unique paintings on each section of the corridor. That on top of it being right next to the lake made for an amazing experience that I will never forget. The various Chinese people that were taking photos and videos of us was also something that was kind of unsettling, but I got used to it as time went on. In the end, I wish we had more time for the Summer Palace since it seemed like there was a lot more to explore and look at if we had the time, but coming back early to go out and get Hot Pot made it worth it.

In the end, today was an amazing, packed first day that just made me even more excited for the next days to come. I can’t wait to visit the university tomorrow and Huawei and VIPKID the day after that. While being tired and jet lagged isn’t fun, everything we have done so far has made up for it and I’m excited for what will come next.