China Day 3: “Delicious Scorpio breakfast” and the Great Wall

1^st of October

The first day of October is known as National Day of People’s Republic of China. I had this honor to be there and see how streets are nicely decorated with traditional Chinese red adornments and people seem happy about having 1 week holidays. However, it was also such a hustle and bustle in the capital city Beijing. Even the Tiananmen metro station was closed, so it definitely wasn’t a good idea to visit the Tiananmen Square on that day as it was so crowded!! Because of this reason we decided to just walk around Wanfujing station and visit the exotic market. Why exotic? Well, to find scorpions, all kinds of bugs and other insects to be sold the same way as other goods eatable and non-eatable is not very common practice, I believe…Are you hungry already?

After such a ‘delicious’ breakfast we decided to escape the big crowds of the National Day and visit the The Great Wall. There are many parts of the Wall you can visit; we decided to go to the closest one – Badaling. Before climbing the wall, we also saw the Great Wall Circle Vision Theatre, 17 minutes long movie about how Great Wall was built and how it looks in all seasons. It was really fascinating to stand there and be surrounded by pictures and views of the Great Wall in summer, winter, spring and autumn all around you. That was the magic of the Circle Theatre.

During climbing the Great Wall, we took a lot of pictures and…I was taken in lots of pictures as well, mostly with Chinese kids who or whose parents wanted to have a memory with the Great Wall and a Girl. A Foreign girl. I guess, it’s exotic for them. But for me, by the end of my trip I was already thinking of charging from those photo-lovers as I became “every day celebrity” wherever I went. I could have made some money. J

After the Great Wall, we went to Qianmen to have traditional Chinese dinner. Well, actually it wasn’t going, but running to the place as the last order was taken at 9pm, but we managed. And the dinner was good. Though it can’t beat our breakfast. J

After the dinner I was trying to catch the last metro, but not successfully, so I had to take a taxi to reach my new host’s Alex place. That night it was raining heavily, but in the end I was warmly welcomed in the cozy Alex place with having my own bed and a spacious room. Alex is a guy from Venezuela who has been living in China for 5 years and doing his PhD there. He has learned a lot about China through the years spent there and he shared with me a lot of stories: about expanding Chinese economy, the huge difference between big cities and small villages in China and completely different lifestyles there. It was very interesting to listen. Thank you, Alex. J