My day started at 6:30 am. I got 8 hours of sleep but it was not continuous. I did not think the 14-hour plane ride would be a problem because I have been known to sleep anywhere. But I have met my match with the plane ride from Newark to Beijing. The hotel had a buffet style breakfast on the 5th floor of the building. They had local cuisine on one side and more Western styled food with fruit on the other. I had my usual coffee and orange juice but also other traditional food including fried rice, and noodles. The two students from the Asia Institute joined us during different parts of the day; Jane and Nancy were very friendly and were very helpful in showing us around.
We had wheels up at 8 am. We boarded a bus and met our tour guide Joe. He said he had a long and complicated Chinese name, but Joe was easier for us to remember. He kept us entertained during the bus ride to our first stop: The Great Wall of China. We had to hike up many flights of stairs to get to the top of the mountain where the wall is. My phone clocked in 81 miles for me as well as 10,800 steps! But it was worth it because the view and the pictures were amazing! We hiked along the wall and met Joe at one of the towers. Since we were in the Mutianyu section of The Great Wall, we had the ability to take the toboggan down. The toboggan was so exciting. There was a long and windy metal slide that stretched from the top of the wall to the bottom. To use the slide, we sat in a cart that only had a bottom and a stick in the middle to slow down or speed up. To slow down, you pulled the handle towards you and to speed up you push the handle away from you. In the beginning I was pulling the handle towards me quite a bit until I got the hang of it. When Dr. Li told us to put our phones away during the slide, so we didn’t lose them, I knew I was in for an adventure. The slide was about 5184 feet long and filled with fun during ever second. After the Great Wall, we had lunch at a local restaurant in the traditional Chinese style; our group sat around a table and different dishes were placed on a rotating platform in the middle. We didn’t have just one dish but many. And they were all amazing.
Next stop was the Summer Palace. Our tour guide Uncle Joe, that’s what we all call him, gave us the historical background of the cultural site. But nothing could’ve prepared us for the beauty. The Summer Palace was over 700 acres large and was all built for a single person for their birthday: the Dragon Lady. The locals were also not used to seeing Americans, so they took lots of photos and videos of us. I’m sure I’ll get used to it but for now it still surprises me that people want pictures with us.
For dinner, Dr. Li, one of the program staff, took us to a hot pot restaurant. At the center of the table is a large boiling pot. We ordered various types of meats and vegetables that we cooked ourselves. It felt like we were a family passing food around and sharing stories from the day. I really enjoy this style of eating.