Beijing Jan 28th, 2006

Ok, I woke up had breakfast and a quick shower, then I headed out o see some sites. My travel book told me that Beijing wasn't pedestrian friendly and they were right, especially in the winter. In Wuhan, I practically walk everywhere or walk a fair distance to get to a bus to where I want to go, but walking in Beijing is exhausting. Especially with the cold weather and the fact that I was still in a fair bit of pain from the train, it made things even less pleasant. Anyway, despite all of these inconveniences, I made it to Tien'an men square. It's quite huge, about the size of 2 or 3 Sky Domes. Plus there are alot of other sites just in that area alone. Mostly museums but they were all closed due to the holiday, but I got to see something interesting. It was the countdown clock to the Olympics. It showed how many days, hours, minutes and yes even seconds till the big opening day. Since there isn't anything to do at Tien'an men, I didn't spend alot of time there and then headed very to the forbidden city. that was some good time spent. I picked up a couple souvenirs and made jokes the vendors. Then I figured, I had had enough and got a cab back to the hotel. I had considered packing it in but instead I hung out at the coffee bar and after a little bit went back out. Firecrackers and fireworks were going off all over for new years. I took some pictures, mingled with the locals and then came back to the hotel. I made arrangements for a trip to the Great Wall and also made some enquiries about a room for 2 nights and transportation to the airport. My mom is coming on Feb 1st and I wanted to get things ready. Anyway, I paid for my Great Wall trip and was told that the bus left at 6:30 in the morning. I made it a point of going to bed early but unfortunately that did me no good. I lay in bed for 5 hours and listened to the sound of 1000 kettles of rapidly firing popcorn with the occasional kettle exploding. That's what it sounded like. At a quarter to midnight it got louder and faster. Then at midnight, it was almost a steady but very loud hum. Extreme rapid fire and impossible to ignore. I felt disturbingly exhausted and still in pain but I couldn't sleep. I think after 1 am or so the noise started to die down and maybe around 2 am it stopped. I think I fell asleep around 2:30 or 3 o'clock. I had my alarm set for 5:45 am. I knew there was no way I was going to make it to the Great Wall. The section of the wall I chose to go to is less popular but it also a bit of a difficult hike. I knew it wasn't a good idea for me to so. I shut off my alarm and tried to go back to sleep. I was successful at that but probably should have told the tour group I wasn't going. They came knocking on the dorm door maybe around 6:30 am. I felt bad about not getting the door but someone else took care of it. The guy tried to wake me up but I wasn't hearing it. He left and I went back to sleep.