China — Day Two

Back home, waking up at 5 a.m. is typical of one of my work days where I often get to work by 6:30 or so and leave around 3 in the afternoon before rush hour traffic hits and a couple of hours before my lovely wife gets home. In China however, waking up at 5 a.m. is approximately the equivalent of waking up at 8 p.m. in the states, or right around my bedtime (I am a growing boy, after all). Still, waking up knowing that China was right outside my window made it a little easier to bear the early morning (or early evening, depending on how you saw it) start. Unfortunately, for some reason, I woke up long before my wake-up call, which was scheduled for 7:30, meaning I was able to get in some much-needed television watching. More Paris Hilton television watching didn’t really suit me, so I headed over to HBO where I got to watch an Eddie Murphy movie, complete with Chinese subtitles, for a couple of hours until the day got started … and oh, what a day it would turn out to be!!!

To start the day off, we visited a jade factory where we were introduced to the wonders of jade and the many carvings, earrings, and other types of jewelry that jade can be made into – including a ship and if you want more details on that, ask Eric. Perhaps the thing I was most fascinated by at the jade factory was how well people there spoke English. Jade was beautiful and all, but it was nice to be able to have a conversation with someone from China without having to depend on Lili.

After that, we hopped in the bus and made our way to perhaps China’s most famous site – The Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is just like the one that sits outside my condo, except the one outside my condo is red brick with some cement on top … oh, and that one in China measures around 4,000 miles long, was built more than 2,000 years ago, was built to keep forces from invading the southern parts of China and is supposedly visible from space. All that nonsense aside, seeing this spectacular image as you approach by bus is a sight to behold. On television, it looks like just a wall but when you’re driving up on it, it’s unbelievable. The thing just takes over the side of a mountain, slithering up it to the very top before climbing over to the other side. Needless to say, it’s impressive. Actually getting to it and climbing over its various-sized stairs and scary handrails proved to be quite the challenge, one I was not ready for with my jeans and sneakers on. Still, I tried to keep up with the leaders of the pack, who made it to the very last tower, which I believe was the sixth one. Sadly, I made it to the fifth, looked around at the women in high heels passing me and decided that I had gone far enough, a decision that’ll likely haunt me for the rest of my life or until I find something that is more impressive that I fail at, but that’s another story

.

Following the Great Wall of China, our exhausted band of travelers made our way to a restaurant where we had – Chinese food!!! After this, we shopped at a store with all kinds of trinkets and whatnot before going to get foot massages. Having all 30 of us in the same room was nice, as was soaking my size-12s in a tub of tea, but the nicest/most uncomfortable part of the trip was having a guy massage my feet for 20 minutes, staring at me and smiling. Good times, for sure. That was interrupted by a doctor who came over, looked at my tongue and told me I was fat, then another trek in our now-very-familiar tour bus.

 At this point, I pretty much relied on instinct to get me through dinner and whatever else happened after that. Something about climbing that wall in 147-degree weather with no visible sun that sort of drained me. I remember getting back to that hotel that night and plopping down face-first onto my plywood bed. Day two, one of the greatest, most fun days of my life, had come to a subtle end.