Day 7 of BJT07

Day 7, 24/11/07, Saturday

The Great Wall of China, a wonder and pride of the Chinese people; many people talked about this magnificent structure and how 1 can feel its ‘ba qi’, well, I feel so lucky to be able to visit this megastructure in person! It's the coldest,lowest temp we experienced since we arrived in China; I guess coz of the location, mountains and valleys. The bad thing abt a famous tourist location is the crowd density. Got an astronomical no. of people already walking up the wall when we arrived. It’s very difficult to walk among the crowd and the steep steps and slopes makes it worst. Then cannot stop anyhow as the people behind are still walking up and u will be against the flow. However, it’s a maybe once in a life time experience; the view from any part of the wall tells different story, that is, how it is used to defend China against the Mongolians and how peasants in the past sacrificed ( erm...mayb forced to..) themselves to build this structure. Took alot of pics there even though can hardly stop to. at the so called quite high spot on the greatwall got this stall they selling certs with ur name n pic on it. Lol, i tink itsa total scam, can just print that myself la... and jus take some pics, put name in all language somemore then haolian to every1...

The awe doesn’t end with just one historical site, after lunch, we went to see the Ming tombs. Strangely, as I walked around the tomb, the outside and inside, it does not give the eerie feeling like any grave, it’s more like a peaceful and soothing feeling. The area is full of trees, within a valley and even though it’s like afternoon, the surrounding is rather dim. Maybe the place is ‘spiritual’ and supposed to be built in a rural area. It’s a tomb after all, not a graveyard or cemetery, the word to describe is GRAND; I can’t imagine there are more of these kinds of tombs even though we only visited one of the 13 tombs around the area. Oh, then there are lots of these taboos and like 'not to do stuff' while we were inside... No photographs, no shouting, no talk rubbish, no leaving any matter inside the tomb. Quite obvious la, its kinda spiritual place and no harm being abit superstitious, its also to show some kinda respect to the dead. 1 particular thing is the entering of the 'spirit gate', must say 'im comin' wen entering, then also must shout, ya, SHOUT... ' I M Back', then must like 1 leg walk across the door, ledge? guys left leg n girls right... Oh, then b4 that must wipe off dust from ur clothes then also stam the feet a few times.

After spending the whole morning on history lessons, we were off to dinner then another shopping district Wang Fu Jing. This place is more classy, no more ‘bargain shops’, it’s like orchard road in Singapore and the only difference is that it’s an only-pedestrians area. Went to bookstore to look around, then Shenghong and Kahkian they all got lots of books, probly for the sch... coz the teachers sae we can pick for sch. Then also went to eat some rubbish... lol, i ate starfish, its super tough then the wadeva sauce they put on it is god damn salty... That nite felt quite sick but nth serious happened la. Then they also sell seahorse, some bugs n also chou dou fu which is oso nice. Wang fu jing oso got quite some pretty girls la, even at the bookstore la... but i tink for that, Shanghai still got alot... so now score is [Shanghai 2, Beijing 0]. Lol, i tink i abit biased, i should find some crap factors to compare so that Beijing gets some pts.