Great Wall & Mongolian BBQ

*Editor's Note: James couldn't access Blogger to post his happenings. I'm assuming this is a country-wide block and not targeted at James. Hopefully, the Chinese Government will not decide that email is too risky/dangerous/empowering to block that, too. I don't know about you, but I'll be a little more grateful next July 4! On with the news!


So yesterday was an interesting day. We started out heading to the Great Wall. We had to go to a different point than last year because the other entrance was closed due to the upcoming cycle race that runs right by. This section had a steep incline to get up (there were many, many people who were huffing and puffing on the climb - including me). The top was great because there was a little breeze, however the pictures all have a great deal of "haze" (or whatever you want to call it). It was interesting to look at all of the different people up at the top and try to guess where they came from (there were Brazilians - easy to tell because they all wore the same shirts, Australians, French, Indian, and of course Chinese). Afterwards, we had to take a circuitous route back due to other road closings (we heard an NBC employee who was at the Wall say that they all had to be out of their hotels by 3:00 pm and to the stadium because their section of the city would be blocked off). For lunch we ate at an authentic Mongolian restaurant. We each had an individual pot in front of us that we brought to a boil, and then put various spices and vegetables in to add to the flavoring. Next, a plate of thinly sliced beef was brought out, and we cooked it in our "hot pot" as some of our group was calling it. It was really good once we figured out what we were supposed to be doing. We had the afternoon off --- actually the students did, while the leaders tried to figure out what to do for the Opening Ceremonies (we thought about taking the whole group on the subway to a bar district, but decided against it due to the logistics, were going to check out the local restaurants but didn't because so many were closed so they could watch the opening, and ended up ordering Dominos and watching on a big screen that our hotel put up ... I think this was our best option both from a food standpoint as well as a relaxing standpoint for our group). The opening was amazing and I hope you had a chance to watch. One side note, our interpreter for the lecture the other day was one of the major producers for the Opening (so that's pretty cool) - he asked us to give him our opinions of it. Please feel free to share your impressions!