Beijing Adventures

The much anticipated arrival into Beijing has finally happened!!
My first day entering the freezing city (i was very thankful for the the ability to wear layers) my friends sarah, mashawn and myself trekked immediately to the Olympic village. Although it was night and very very cold, it was a very neat sight. The Birds nest and the water cube are side by side with only a street between them, and are both architectural wonders. You look at the birds nest and wonder how it stands because it lacks any kind of sturdy looking support. It was cool to be in the place where the biggest sporting event in the world took place a mere few weeks before. It was also a little awkward because though the Olympics are a very big deal and bring much to the city that hosts them, these structures are there forever and only got a few weeks of use....hopefully it will bring people to Beijing for more reason than just the Great Wall...
DID YOU SAY GREAT WALL? WELL, YES I BELIEVE I DID!
Have mercy this was the coolest thing I have seen in my life. We went as a group (cast, musicians) and chartered a bus with a tour guide who told of the "communist magic" that brought Beijing to where it is today and then went on to talk about the wall...(funny little man). From the bus we could see the wall scratched into the mountain side from a far distance, and it was awesome even from afar. The trip we took was to a less touristy spot on the wall where there was a cable car up to the middle of the wall where you could climb up (literally...up) or down to where I shot that Youtube video for everyone, onto the luge that zigzagged ridiculously fast back to the village below. I again went with Mashawn and Sarah but after peaking up, we climbed down and parted ways, each of us wanting our own moment alone on the Great Wall. you know, just to say we did. Mine included making video letters to home and frolicking like a fool down (as literally down as it was up....) the wall and leaping and turning until i could barely breathe. I figure if i was going to die of a heart attack, it might as well be on the Great Wall of China. No? I thought so.
I then had a near death ride on my own personal luge where they constantly were screaming at the loud speeding americans to "slow down!!! no photo!!! be careful!!" (again, if i'm gonna go, i'm gonna go while speeding down the mountain FROM the Great Wall of China...still no?)
We did make a side trip to a tomb after the wall...but once a tomb, always a tomb. we probably should have seen it before the wall so that it wouldn't look so lame to us. I took pictures..and then erased them, it wasn't worth it. It was no Terracotta Warriors. Obviously.
Beijing concludes my time in mainland China. I have to admit that it's a very sad thing to me now. In the beginning I was impressed with it's history and culture, in the middle it was it's people that really got to me (see: Noodle shop man) and in the end, it was a genuine blend of the two. Between the lights, food, drink and music of Shanghai and the wall, shopping, and the pleasant people of Beijing, China now holds a very special place in my heart. It was not the first time i'd received the message of not judging a book by it's cover, but this was the most resounding in my heart.
I should also mention that with the end of mainland comes the end of the Ukranian orchestra, my dear friend Yang, and our head wardrobe mistress, Colleen. All very sad losses because all have helped make this tour what it has been for me. Especially Yang, my late night hospital trippin, dancin, irish bar lovin, Californian/Shanghainese Noodle buddy. He only wonders why we all hate rice so much:-)
Cheers