Climbing the Great Wall

At the top of the Great Wall, no more climbing steps to make. But a lot of steps to go down.


Where's Hon anyway?



Yesterday was a day of worry for me. I did not join the rest of the gang when they went out to the Summer Palace--my mind was 6,800 miles away in Bay Ridge Brooklyn. A tornado hit Brooklyn and elsewhere, and one of the areas hardest hit was Bay Ridge, and one of the hardest hit areas in Bay Ridge was my block. Several houses were damaged very badly.

After some hours of working the e-mails and phones, I determined that my house was undamaged. Whew!

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Today, all of us took a ride up to the the Badoling section of the Great Wall. It was a long, steep climb to the top. Several times, we thought we were at the top, only to find a switchback, and many more steps to go. But everyone made up--and almost as tough-back down.


This section of the wall was very steep in spots.

We had a Chinese lunch at at Badoling, then continued on to the Dingling Ming Tombs , which are not too far away from the Great Wall.

The drive back to the Park Plaza was awful, due to the unbelievably bad Beijing traffic. It's surprising how many "modern" highways there are here, and how little good they do. The traffic just does not move. There will be a major expansion of the subway next year--something they should have done before they put in these damned highways.

Soon, will post some photos. Off for a Steak/frites dinner in a half hour. I could eat Chinese every day, but some are lonely for a western meal.


We drove past the Olympic Stadium this morning ("Birds Nest")