William, a local student at the University of Beijing and a friend of a friend from Rice, could not have been a better tour guide/navigator for Emma and me as we trekked up to Badaling, a section of the Great Wall (quite different from Tiff's and my adventure finding the Great Wall....). He was quite interesting to talk to and, as Emma put it, is more American than we are. Thank you, William!!!
Vanilla Ice. With mango. And black glutinous rice.
At Honeymoon Dessert.
Best throwback EVER to my days in Hong Kong. AND the best way to start off the day: dessert.
Taking a quick train ride up North to the Wall. Emma was a bit more studious than William and me who both fell asleep...
The beginnings of the mountains
Model shot, while effortlessly climbing 5 million stairs.
I wish pictures could capture how steep it was. It pretty much climbed straight up. How did they make this wall so long ago??? Leave it to China.
From inside one of many beacon towers along the Wall.
Back in the day, the towers were used to convey messages like INVASION!! or ATTACK!!! along the whole length of the Wall by signaling from one tower to the next with either fire at night or smoke during the day (usually burning wolf dung which apparently creates a lot of smoke...).
Finally at the top of one of many hills!
With William (next to Emma) and two friends we made while hiking the Wall (from Harbin, of all the wonderful places!)
The girl (on the left) was wearing stilettos.... while walking up these crazy slippery and steep slopes of the Wall. Major props to her. (This is actually a very typical thing for the Chinese to do (she was definitely not the only one). I guess Americans are just not as committed to fashion.)
Attempted jumping photo.
Chinese "graffiti."
Maybe it's just because I can't read Chinese, but I simply can't view this as graffiti. More just really cool looking.
How long did it take for these people to graffiti this??? Seriously though...
William and one of our newly made friends!
Teeny tiny us!
Serious steepness.
William, our sweet "tour guide"!!!
Elderly couples are my favorite. Add a cute little outfit and it's game over.
Typical crowded metro ride back home from the city (a 1.5 hour commute, pretty much no matter what)
Reason #340239 why I love China despite everything that I don't love: random things in the subway like this.
(note the comparison of child on the left with her little bunny hoodie)
This is what happens when you are still perfecting your Chinese, but would like to eat baozi.
I somehow ordered 45 baozi. For 2 of us. With multiple side dishes. Normally, people eat 3 to 5 baozi each. Needless to say, we got some extra crazy looks from neighboring tables as the baozi just kept coming and coming.
Overwhelmed by the sheer number of baozi.
Delicious wonton soup!
Cucumbers. Perfectly refreshing and crispy with a little bit of spice. How do they make such goodness??
I will never understand this. All the packaged and flavored tofu, chicken feet and vegetarian jerky you could ever want.
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