The Great Wall

Saturday was the day of our adventure to see the Great Wall. We met promptly at 8:30am in front of the international student building to get on a bus. The last time I was in China I went to visit the Badaling section of the wall, which is closer to Beijing and more prone to attract many tourists. This time we went to the Mutianyu section of the Wall, which was about a one and a half hour drive from Peking University. Though this section of the Wall was farther away there were still many visitors. To get to the Great Wall we actually had to go up many many many sets of stairs up the hill. It was over 30 degrees and sunny yesterday, so I am glad I wore shorts and a t-shirt. My feet were quite warm though, because climbing the Great Wall with flip-flops is worse than warm feet.
Once at the top it was all worth it. The view was stunning. You could see the mountains in the distance on one side and the valley with the neighbouring town over the other side of the Wall. We walked quite a distance along the Wall to visit all sorts of little guard houses (these provided a nice cool area to rest from the sun). I took lots of pictures (179 to be precise) so go ahead and check them out on my Flickr account.
After all the hard work of not just climbing up to the wall but then down as well, we were rewarded with lunch. The International Student office paid for our lunch, which I might add was quite delicious. On the subject of food; two weeks into my stay here in China I have not gotten sick of Chinese food yet, rather I am noticing that I have cravings for certain things that don't usually appear on the Chinese menu. Such items are: Chocolate, Cheese, Corn Flakes, Yogurt, Pizza and Ketchup. Most of the Chinese food is either salty of tasteless. Also the wrong things are salty, for example breakfast items such as spicy salty seaweed! But all is good, at least the food is really inexpensive and a trip to KFC every once in a while should do the trick.
After our exhausting morning and afternoon at the Great Wall it was time to celebrate my roommate's (Alex) birthday. About 40 students from the program all got together at one of the Karaoke clubs. It was called KTV 17 mile. We got our own room with projection TV and disco lights and couches and tables it was really neat. After trying to figure out how the music selection works with a Chinese person, I was on my own and ended up being the DJ for the night. I thank Alexander for his outbursts of random music knowledge, which helped me chose appropriate music. :D Once our time was up at the Karaoke club we proceeded to another Night Club called Mix. There are two clubs facing each other they are called Vics and Mix. Finally, after some more fun at Mix there was light at the end of the tunnel (literally) as we entered the doors of the hotel (after a long cab ride) as the sun was rising.
And that was yesterday. So today I am tired and sore from climbing the Wall and staying out late. I suppose you're only young once *lol*
Now I plan on spending a quiet evening in my hotel room and practicing my Chinese for tomorrow's class. Until next time!
P..S. I have uploaded new videos to YouTube. A video of the little puppies getting a bath and a clip of the Beijing Opera. You can find them under the link that I have added at the top right of the page by the link to my Flickr account.