The Great Wall of China and a Carleton Miracle

September 19, 2012- Last weekend Lex and I decided to head to Beijing.  We had a 3 1/2 day weekend, and I was ready to start seeing the China of all the travel books.  The Great Wall!  The Forbidden City!  The Olympic Stadium!  I was so excited to see it all, but as it happened, the most amazing thing that happened to me in Beijing involved getting lost on the way to our hostel.
On Friday, I had to teach two classes right away in the morning, and then we were off to Beijing. After an uneventful train ride, we alighted in Beijing and headed straight for Tiananmen Square.  It's the largest public square in the world, and it's very imposing and stark.  I wouldn't say that it was a highlight of my weekend.

Tiananmen Square

By the time we were through exploring Tiananmen, Lex and I were ready to stop at the hostel and drop off our backpacks.  Of course, this meant two subway rides and asking for directions several times.  By the way, when in China, if you don't have directions and addresses in Chinese characters, you might as well have nothing.  Anyway, by this time we were both getting tired and hangry, Lex was asking for directions, and I was looking for any hint as to where we were, when all of the sudden I saw a very familiar face walking towards me.  It was my friend Marios from my freshman year floor at Carleton!  I still can't really believe that this happened.  There are approximately 20 million people living in Beijing, and I just happen to run into someone I know!  After a round of exclamations and questions and hugs, Marios helped us find our hostel and then took us out to dinner with one of his friends.  We ate at a dumpling place, and Marios ordered, thankfully.  He's in Beijing studying Chinese, and after dinner he brought us to meet some of his other friends from the program.  They were all expats as well, and it was wonderful to spend an evening speaking English and catching up with Marios.

Saturday took us to the Forbidden City.  In older times, the Forbidden City was home to China's emperors and royal family.  It was forbidden for ordinary people to enter, hence the name.  That is no longer the case, and Chinese tourism being what it is, the place was crowded.  It was still amazing and beautiful though.  Most of the buildings were closed, so I just walked around outside the buildings and took lots of pictures.  I met an American university student and talked with him for a while.  I guess that part of being a foreigner in China is being automatically drawn to other foreigners.  In America, you would never randomly introduce yourself to someone just because they were also blonde, but in China it's perfectly acceptable to do so.  I actually think this is great, and it's really nice to meet other people who are traveling and exploring China.

The Forbidden City, with characteristic crowds and uncharacteristically blue skies.

On Sunday, Lex and I decided to set up a tour through our hostel to the Great Wall.  I was skeptical about this, because I wanted to be adventurous, and not take the easy, safe way of getting places.  I think it actually worked out well, however.  We got to go to an almost deserted section of the Wall, that was only partially restored.  It was wonderful to get away from the crowds and I'm not sure we would have been able to get there on our own.  We had about 3 hours to explore the wall on our own, and hiked about 5 miles.  I took hundreds of pictures.  Everything that I've seen so far in China has been interesting or perplexing or spectacular, but it didn't actually feel real until I was standing on the Great Wall itself and seeing it stretch off into the distance in both directions.

On Monday we had to return to Baoding to work on getting our residence permits, and there was a lot of confusion and disappointment and waiting.  Getting my residence permit has so far involved: having a physical exam done in the US, waiting to get my TEFL certificate just minutes before leaving for the airport, having my parents send me an original of my diploma, having another physical done in Shijiazhuang where I gave them my American physical paperwork, getting about 50 passport photos taken, finding out that I needed to have the paperwork that I had given away in Shijiazhuang, and having another physical done here in Baoding.  The amount of blood alone that I've had to give to be a teacher in China is ridiculous.  I have a feeling it will all be worth it, but I can't say for sure yet.