My name is Tiffany and Yes, I'm a Tourist

to drive through and up enormous mountains. One jagged edge after another, they rolled on for what seemed like forever on either side of the road. A first glimpse of the wall most likely begins with a look up towards the peak of a mountain and a tower rising from it. Then your eye travels from the tower and follows the famous line of stone down and across the mountain. It will silence you for a moment.

Another thing that might silence you, the amount of cameras carried within our group. Everyone had at least one and some of us (myself included) went back and forth between two. Hellloooo tourist. It was semi-ridiculous.   

I bet you didn't know you could shop while strolling along one of the 7 World Wonders? Picture when you go to a market where people haggle you constantly and ask if you want to buy (insert location: NY, San Francisco, Orlando) hat, shirt, mug, random figurine, picture, rug, scarf, doll, stuffed animal, whatever. They ask if you'll pay a certain amount, you say no, they drop their price, you perhaps give in or rush past them. Times that experience by 300. That is what it's like at The Great Wall. Those little entrepreneurs are EVERYWHERE. They travel in packs and space out every so many hundreds of feet and shove the item for sale in your face. If you can get past that, its a breathtaking experience. And mind blowing when you think about how the process was ever actually executed. (Not to mention makes one thankful to be born during a time period where trucks carry materials to sites and cranes lift heavy things.)

We headed from there to the Summer Palace. Imperial Rulers used to come every year from April to October to chill. A Hyannis Port or Camp David if you will. But wayyyy bigger and older. In the center is a land made lake (again bless the souls who had to dig that up) as well as the "longest corridor in the world" or so we were told.

The best part on this particular stop was the people. I passed a man with an Alabama hat on and said: "Roll Tide!" The smile that erupted across his face... Little children ran in between ancient archways and under dragon statues. Apparently in Chinese culture, the kids don't use diapers. Instead they have a slit in the appropriate areas of their pants. I didn't believe this when I was told about it. Until I looked up and saw a firm representation of the "easy access slit" style in front of me, bent over, standing on the steps. There it was, poor kid with everything exposed for all the world American's to see.

We left there and headed for a traditional Peking Duck dinner. Granted at this point, I'm worried my face is going to fall in my soup because the day has been so long. The tables are round with a revolving centerpiece. On it, the waiters place different plates of food. You use your chopsticks to select what piece of food you want and then spin the center so someone else can select what they want, perhaps off of the same plate. You might as well just say, "I'm going to try it... all of it, regardless of looks, smell or the fact that they tell me its duck and it looks like straight up cat food." If you aren't willing to take the risk then go home.

Which is where I'm at now... and time to go to bed! Zaijian!