The Unexpectedly Great Wall

Tiffany, one of my close friends from Rice, came to visit on her way through to Hong Kong!!

As you can see, she has proficient use of chopsticks.

 Excuse me, in which aisle can I find some bumf?

Our journey to the Great Wall....

First of all, we hit an INCREDIBLE day for seeing the Wall (aka the pollution count was really low, quite a rare sight to see, literally).  And we wanted to go to a more remote, unrestored part of the Wall and decided to attempt it with some public transportation... Needless to say, it turned out to be quite an unexpected, yet very successful trip, thanks to very nice locals.

The 1-2 hour long bus ride we got on, only to realize, midway through, that we got on the wrong bus.  To make a very long (but quite exciting) story short, we made friends with some Chinese people (who did not speak English)...  Communication was made "possible" by a Mystery Lady on the phone who knows both English and Chinese. 

Meet Jelly, our tour guide.  Sweetest person ever.  Doesn't speak a word of English.

Before the Great Wall, they took us to a lunch... or a wedding lunch... or something of the sort.  Who knows.

But I do know that it was some of the best Chinese food I have had here...

  

 After the lunch, we walked.  And walked.  And walked.....and walked.  Not completely sure if we were going to walk all the way to the Great Wall or what.  Eventually, we got in a black taxi and drove another hour and a half to the Wall entrance area, at which point we walked..... again.  Until Jelly randomly hired a van with some tourists in it to turn around and drive us up to the actual Wall entrance (where we walked some more).

 "Unrecovery"

Creative way to say "trash"

THE GREAT WALL!!!!

The journey there itself was already an adventure... 

It was VERY cold though - most of the walkway was covered in black ice as you can see.

Jelly, our wonderful tour guide!

 

 

Photo credit: Tiffany

Photo credit: Tiffany 

 Glut workout.  Bring it on.

Photo credit: Tiffany 

 Photo credit: Tiffany

So much cold.  So much beauty.  So much conflicting. 

Photo credit: Tiffany 

LOVE the way it follows the mountain ridge for miles and miles.

Photo credit: Tiffany 

Photo credit: Tiffany 

Photo credit: Jelly

Quite an incredible and unexpected day.  Could never replicate it to save my life.  The Mystery Phone Lady said a very heartfelt goodbye at the end of the day and Jelly emailed this poem (translated on Google translate - he mentioned that the Chinese characters carry a lot more meaning so a lot is lost in translation...).  

"Staring at the winding of the Jinshanling
I saw you that day
Sprinkle in the afterglow in the smile
Bright throughout the evening
Those small snow foam
Melted in my heart
Stand overlooking Shanhaiguan
Wide Pacific
How many thoughts barrier
The other side of you"