I ate too much again at the buffet-style breakfast. We English 8 met in the main lobby at 8:30 a.m., then traveled an hour or so by mini tour bus to the mysterious Great Wall.
Some facts about the Wall:
- Sticky rice soup and mortar were used to glue the bricks together
- Started -200 BC
- Has been worked for over 2,000 years
- Still has bullet holes from last battle
- Needs expensive maintenance due to time and tourism
What a happening place. Tour buses clogged available parking space. Small shops galore offered touristy goods for sale, from postcards to fridge magnets, hot tea, cold drinks and all sorts of knick knacks. One, a department store type business, carried everything you might imagine. Would you pay $39 for a T-shirt or $25 for a kid-sized one? Would you pay six or seven dollars for a two-inch square fridge magnet? They also carried silk, jade, pearls, life-size Terracotta warrior replicas and furniture. Prices included shipping. For the life of me, I couldn’t sort out the prices aside from the shipping costs out of curiosity.
We left the tourist traps behind and headed up-hill to the entrance of the Great Wall. We saved shopping time for later. The walk was steep. People from all over the world rubbed elbows. A light drizzle began. Sue and I escaped inside a battlement. Inside and out we meandered. Hordes and throngs of people stared at us everywhere. Our English Group 8 wandered off in different directions with a specified time to meet at the large department store.
Carolyn lost her camera on the Great Wall. She’d taken off her coat due to overheating and left it on a ledge and walked away. Ten minutes later, she realized it was missing. Dreading it would be gone, she and her husband retraced their steps anyway. Had it been me, I would have cracked under the stress and gone into shock. Forget going back to be disappointed.
When Robert heard the story, he insisted on checking if the camera had been turned in. What were the chances of such luck? He knew who to ask and was informed an announcement had been made over the Great Wall loud speakers about ten times regarding the camera. A security guard had picked it up and turned it in. Each of us rejoiced as if it had been our own camera. Carolyn glowed.
http://www.history.com/topics/great-wall-of-china/videos/seven-wonders-the-great-wall
Higher Now
Beijing driving and cars:
- Rush hour is all day long, not at any specified times
- Driving restrictions by last two digits of licence number / odd vs even
- Penalty for ignoring, sometimes 100 points
- Drivers have 12 points per year
- If you lose your points for the year, you must redo licence.
- If caught driving drunk, or even after 1 glass of wine or beer, can lose licence forever
- 3 million more cars since the Olympics
- Cost of a car (i.e. Hundai), $10,000 each, manufactured in China
- An Elantra in 2005, cost $25,000 U.S.D.
- Lots of new models now because more citizen able to afford cars
- They like German models
- Gasoline 7.8 Yuan / litre, about $1.30
Next on July 4th, Beijing, Day 4, Part 2: Ming Tombs
For all related posts, click on China Tab at the top of the page.
June 27, 2014 at 4:34 pm
Looking good, Tess! Sounds like a LOT of walking. I was somewhat surprised at the crowds…I shouldn’t have been but I rather thought it wouldn’t be overrun with quite so many people. What a great trip you had.
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June 27, 2014 at 6:09 pm
Busloads of tourists as well as busloads of Chinese and you get a packed everything. I don’t like such crowding. We’re not used to it here.
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June 27, 2014 at 4:36 pm
Sure looks like you and fun 🙂
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June 27, 2014 at 6:09 pm
I don’t know why I didn’t lose 20 pounds a day. 🙂
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June 27, 2014 at 4:42 pm
The crowds are intense Tess! Such a fabulous story about the camera. Had I been there I would have been squealing with delighted for your travel companion.
Those women are 80? Whatever they are drinking I want some. 🙂
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June 27, 2014 at 6:11 pm
We were jumping up and down and hugging. I thought my face would crack. I can tell you Carolyn’s almost did, she was that happy. Who would have thought?
We all wanted to know what they were drinking too. These ladies were under five feet tall and wizard but when they walked, they marched with strength and energy. Amazing.
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June 27, 2014 at 6:16 pm
Get me to China I want that secret. My guess is all that marching is serving them well.
Happy endings can come. One day soon I will do a post about losing my IPad and passport and money belt on arrival in Slovenia last year. Makes my hands sweat just writing those words .
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June 28, 2014 at 9:35 am
Andrew mentioned his wife lost her camera during one of their travels and someone had turned it in. Awesome, eh?
Passport and iPad. Ouch. I look forward to reading about that. ❤
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June 27, 2014 at 4:47 pm
Reblogged this on mihran Kalaydjian and commented:
Beijing Day 4 / Part 1 – The Great Wall
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June 27, 2014 at 4:56 pm
Love the cool pic, Tess. Don’t know that I would want to go through all of that touristy stuff to walk on the Great Wall. I know it is THE Great Wall, but still!
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June 27, 2014 at 6:14 pm
The tourists bring in the money but I didn’t go to shop. What a skinflint I am. 😛
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June 27, 2014 at 5:01 pm
Its a great monument…… even if its history has been so bloodied…
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June 27, 2014 at 6:15 pm
It’s overwhelming just thinking of the years and lives and you’re right. Pretty much built with blood.
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June 27, 2014 at 5:20 pm
I bet you didnt walk the length of the wall…. seems you had a great time if your photos are to go by. 😉
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June 27, 2014 at 6:20 pm
No-one can walk the length, not only because of the distance but because in part it isn’t passable. There are mountains in the middle. 😮
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June 27, 2014 at 5:23 pm
I don’t think I’ll be going in the near future, so it was great to see your photos and read your experience. Thanks for sharing!
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June 27, 2014 at 6:21 pm
I’m glad you’re enjoying the read. I had never planned to go there. The trip was a fluke and 1/3rd the cost of going to Australia.
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June 27, 2014 at 9:02 pm
Australia’s another place on my list!
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June 28, 2014 at 9:50 am
After this LONG flight, I’m not sure I want to fly to Australia. It’s longer still. 😀
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June 28, 2014 at 10:01 am
Yes. That’s one of the things that’s putting me off, too!
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June 28, 2014 at 10:13 am
Sigh.
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June 30, 2014 at 5:15 am
From the land downunder….. Australia isn’t REALLY that far! And we have a country that is pretty awesome…..
Maybe I should work for a travel bureau!! 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 11:17 am
Maybe your s.h.o.u.l.d. work for a travel agency. 😀
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June 27, 2014 at 5:58 pm
I love your picture! 🙂 I would like to see the Great Wall. But I would want to keep walking, and going, and going. Getting to the points that most of us would never see. I love the pictures of the older ladies. They look FANTASTIC! The Great Wall must have some great health benefits!
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June 28, 2014 at 9:33 am
Those ladies traveled a long way to visit the Wall. I wasn’t out of breath but felt my leg muscles working. Those woman looked like they were not affected at all.
Parts of the Wall you cannot get to unless you climb a mountain.
😀
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June 28, 2014 at 12:48 pm
I would love to have the ability and chance to climb that mountain! It reminds me of the Irish ladies who climb Croagh Patrick in their bare feet!!!!
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June 29, 2014 at 2:09 pm
This is a multi-mountains area. I don’t like heights so I can join you. Ha ha.
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June 29, 2014 at 8:36 pm
I don’t like heights either. But if my feet are on solid ground it’s much easier to deal with. 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 11:10 am
😀
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June 27, 2014 at 5:59 pm
This trip just keeps getting better and better. I am so glad you allowed us along. I love looking in the background at the grey trees and seeing the bits of early bloom coming out – the white pear trees and a few cherry at the wall. I can hardly wait for the post for the 4th!!!!!
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June 28, 2014 at 9:34 am
You are an easy guest to please on my presentation. Thank you, Kansen. 🙂 ❤
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June 28, 2014 at 2:51 pm
🙂 ❤
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June 29, 2014 at 2:12 pm
❤ ❤
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June 27, 2014 at 6:46 pm
What an amazing sight that must have been to see. Love the pic of you there. How wonderful that your friend’s camera was returned to her. Speaks to the good in the world. As for the driving, I now understand why so many people there ride bikes. Yikes.
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June 28, 2014 at 9:40 am
The bikers look like schools of fish even while vying for position with cars. Looks dangerous.
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June 28, 2014 at 9:40 am
The bikers look like schools of fish even while vying for position with cars. Looks dangerous.
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June 27, 2014 at 7:17 pm
I heard the gift shop there is called Wall Mart.
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June 27, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Very good! Did you make that up yourself?
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June 28, 2014 at 9:54 am
Ha ha. Isn’t Carl funny?
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June 28, 2014 at 9:44 am
Ha ha ha. You ARE quick, Carl. 😀
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June 27, 2014 at 7:31 pm
See, I would have bought a magnet. My refrigerator is covered with magnets that I buy when I travel lol
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June 28, 2014 at 9:45 am
My friend paid the high price as well because she collect them from her travels and yes, they’re on her fridge.Later we found replicas for $2.00. Was she ticked.
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June 28, 2014 at 6:17 pm
I bet she was. They always get the tourists at these places. If you ever get to Australia, watch out for that at the Three Sisters in Katoomba. You can get other souvenirs in town at half the price.
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June 29, 2014 at 2:24 pm
I’ll tell her. She’ll most likely get there way before me, or not.
Thanks for the suggestion Suz.
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June 29, 2014 at 6:00 pm
I’ve travelled a lot of the east coast of Australia and I can steer you to the non-touristy places lol
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June 30, 2014 at 11:04 am
Thanks so much. If only my friend would sit at her computer I’d give her your link but she one-finger types and only uses it to Skype with her daughter.
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June 27, 2014 at 8:55 pm
You look fresh as a twenty year old! Loving this story epic … 🙂
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June 28, 2014 at 9:49 am
Thanks, Gigi. Sheesh. I turned over twenty many, many times.
😀
Glad you’re enjoying the tour.
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June 27, 2014 at 9:15 pm
Now that’s a walk through history. Great photo of you and I really like the two older ladies and their costumes. 🙂
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June 28, 2014 at 9:51 am
Thanks, Paulette. Our guide couldn’t identify which part of China they were from. They wore all this twinkly disks as necklaces which tinkled as they walked.
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June 27, 2014 at 9:39 pm
Thankfully Carolyn’s camera was found. Sticky rice and mortar? That threw me. One day I may go, if only in dreams. Loved your photo, still standing made me smile – so thank you for showing us and your travelogue. xx
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June 28, 2014 at 9:54 am
Yes, especially way back when. Even now when you cook the rice the water is quite ‘gluey’.
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June 27, 2014 at 11:14 pm
Fantastic photos. You’re going to have wonderful memories saved! Thanks for this post. Enjoyed it very much.
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June 28, 2014 at 9:55 am
Thank you. Glad you’re enjoying the tour. 😀
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June 28, 2014 at 1:51 am
I’d really like to see that wall without all of the crowds and the commercialisation. Nice story about the camera. Kim left her mobile on a boat trip in Saint-Petersburg and declared it gone forever but I went back several hours later and it had been handed in!
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June 28, 2014 at 9:56 am
Warms the cockles of your heart when people are honest. 🙂
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June 28, 2014 at 2:03 am
What wonderful photos Tess. I’m glad to see what the Wall looks like on an ordinary day as the ones in the tourist brochures don’t show such crowds. I’ve heard that there are other sections, even more spectacular, less crowded in other parts of China. I really hope I get to see some part of it one day!
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June 28, 2014 at 9:58 am
Thank you. It’s a l-o-n-g wall and goes in several directions. There are parts you can’t traverse unless you climb a mountain. All that work, blood and loss of life and it didn’t do it’s job.
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June 28, 2014 at 3:26 am
Nice to see a shot of you Tess , looking good girl! Great result on your friends camera. Had your life sized warrior replica arrived yet? 🙂 🙂 🙂
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June 28, 2014 at 10:01 am
Ha ha. Why do I need one ? So he can scare me in the dark? Ha ha ha.
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June 28, 2014 at 7:43 am
BRAVO! You did it. I like this theme too. Once upon a time I used it too.
Sticky rice! My sister-in-law (who is Chinese) has a rice cooker full of the stuff all the time. In her house, it’s the main food group. 😛 And to think it’s used for building walls too. I wonder what it’s doing to our stomachs.
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June 28, 2014 at 10:05 am
Thank you, Glynis. One of these days, when my son-in-law bakes some cookies, I’ll steal some, break them, make crumbs and take a picture. You had the same idea and I thank you for it. I just didn’t want Tim Hortons on my page. Ha ha.
The rice probably keeps you ‘glued’ together. 😀 😀
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June 28, 2014 at 7:47 am
love the new look of your blog! nicely done. I love how you share the interesting facts along the way. loved the story of the lost camera. thank goodness it was found! great photos too. now I have an up close visual of the Great Wall. thank you for sharing your journey, it’s so interesting!
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June 28, 2014 at 10:07 am
Thank you and thank you, Toby. I like the down-to-earth facts. I guess they interest me more than others. 😀
I’m discovering things as I post these that I’ve forgotten about and it’s only been two months since I came home.
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June 28, 2014 at 10:12 am
Glad you’re still standing like the Great Wall (and Elton John). I paid £10 (about $18 in Canadian, I think) for a fridge magnet outside Pompeii and that was 15 years ago. Who was the mug?
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June 28, 2014 at 10:14 am
If you mean what / who was on the magnet, they were Terracotta Warriors among others. My friend collects them on her travels.
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June 28, 2014 at 4:37 pm
I had to chuckle when I saw that sticky rice soup was used as part of the glue to hold the wall together. Maybe they need to use a bit of that during road construction in the US. Another great post, my friend.
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
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June 29, 2014 at 2:13 pm
You could have knocked all of us over when we heard the sticky rice soup part. Must keep innards together as well. 🙂
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June 28, 2014 at 6:46 pm
you look great and you have hiked the great wall, what an adventure.
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June 29, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Thank YOU, Val.
And been drizzled on, and pushed, and unbalanced, and ….Ha ha, but I continued standing. Surprised me all to hell. ❤
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June 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm
I think you are an awesome adventurer!
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June 29, 2014 at 3:00 pm
I DID enjoy it, Val. I surely did, 😮
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June 28, 2014 at 8:12 pm
What do the Chinese think of the Wall? You did an awful lot of walking on this trip. Did you lose weight?
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June 29, 2014 at 2:29 pm
The Chinese people from ALL over came to see the wall as well as us foreigners. Not sure what they think of it. It’s a tourist attraction. Whether they think about it’s actual uselessness, I cannot say.
Ha ha. Did I lose weight. I thought I must. Surely. I DID tighten up, that’s for sure. All those stairs all over the place and upward climbs in a lot of places made me feel like 20 again. I had buns of steel. I tell you! 😀 Two months later, I’ve lost them to the chair. Sigh.
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June 28, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Tess – You keep getting better and better.
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June 29, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Sheri, you make me blush like a Delicious Apple. Your kind words carry me when I am down. Thank you. ❤ ❤
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June 29, 2014 at 3:15 am
When I first read the bit about the camera, I thought you it said that Robert insisted on checking if the camera had been turned ON, rather than IN, and that it turned out a security guard had turned it on. So I was imagining it was some super clever camera with GPS or something in that sent out a signal when it was turned on so that it could be traced. Oh dear…it’s early, I’m not properly awake yet! That was good thinking though, and worth remembering, our first thought in that sort of situation is obviously that someone stole it, and it’s a shame that we think that when clearly there are lots of good people around!
There’s a TV show over here where a guy goes travelling but he goes on the road less travelled as it were. He went to the Great Wall, but he managed to get to a part that tourists never go to, it was completely run down, almost like rubble in places and quite treacherous for him to climb over. Interesting to see though.
You look fresh as a daisy in that photo! No sign of weariness.
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June 29, 2014 at 2:44 pm
Ha ha. I had to go back to make sure I hadn’t written turned ON instead of in. My fingers have a mind of their own a lot.
There is a lot of crumbling. This part where the tourists go have been maintained because it’s such a tourist draw. Even if crumbling, you still cannot walk the whole wall because mountains dead-end the wall walk and continue on the other side. I wonder what will happen? If only part of the wall will be maintained–an expensive project.
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June 29, 2014 at 7:21 am
Wow, Tess, you brought TGWOC up close and personal–felt like I was up there with you! Thanks so much and thanks for all the fun facts. Relatively speaking, gas sounds like it’s more expensive there. Love this series!
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June 29, 2014 at 2:45 pm
How much does your gasoline cost now? Our is comparable to theirs but since the warm weather picked up it’s up to $1.43 a litre here. Grr.
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June 30, 2014 at 8:09 am
I guess our price is relatively not bad. We’re paying anywhere from $3.33-3.55/gallon. I’m figuring you’re paying a little more than that–$4+/gallon. (1 gallon = just under 4 liters). That price, however, is for the cheaper, bottom-of-the-line gases. Premium here is ~$4/gallon, at least on the east coast, where I live. I believe it’s more expensive as one goes inland.
Wish we would lay our own pipelines and knock off the foreign dependency we have on petro.
Have a great day, Ms. Tess! 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 11:20 am
I remember paying under fifty cents a gallon for gasoline. Oh my. With us it’s all the taxes added on to the price of gas.
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June 30, 2014 at 7:02 pm
Probably for us too. I remember 33 cents/ gallon. Go figure?
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July 1, 2014 at 12:56 pm
My last memory sticks at 38 cents. Wow. 🙂
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July 1, 2014 at 3:21 pm
So we’re essentially looking at a 100% increase since then, yes? Or is 1000%? I am so bad with math. Words are much more my thing, lol.
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July 2, 2014 at 7:28 pm
Math’s no my forte either but I can settle for the answer of TOO much of an increase. 😀
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July 2, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Amen, Sister.
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June 29, 2014 at 9:29 am
The Wall and the stories accompanying your pictures were all spectacular! Your experiences are awesome, so glad you stopped by my blog, will have to read these excellent posts, soon! Take care and enjoy! Get plenty of rest and drink water in bottles! Smiles, Robin
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June 29, 2014 at 2:48 pm
We drank a L-O-T of water while in China especially because of the weather and hard work of walking, walking, walking. 🙂
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June 29, 2014 at 4:57 pm
Love the bag, loving the series.
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June 30, 2014 at 11:00 am
Thank YOU Willow. I bought that bag before my trip and guess where it was made? Yup. China.
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June 30, 2014 at 11:07 am
well it had a small carbon footprint …… until you bought it, that is!!
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June 30, 2014 at 12:14 pm
😀 😀 😀
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June 29, 2014 at 5:03 pm
Very nice reading and I love your photo “still standing”, you look so cool and composed despite the crowds and energy around. A magical place I would imagine but still must be tiring.
Bring on more! 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 11:02 am
Thank YOU and for reading, as well.
Every night I fell into bed like a stone. I have no idea how I managed to roll out of bed, without sleeping till noon, every morning.Oh, I KNOW. Breakfast was calling. I was always hungry in the mornings. 😀
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July 4, 2014 at 5:32 pm
I love hotel breakfasts, especially if they are buffet style with cold and hot options (like scrambled eggs!). 🙂
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July 4, 2014 at 7:29 pm
The buffet provided N.A. as well as Chinese goodies. There were too many items to choose from but choose I did. 😀
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July 4, 2014 at 7:48 pm
What’s “N.A.”? Lol!!
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July 4, 2014 at 7:55 pm
North Americans. Food westerns like / prefer. 😎
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July 4, 2014 at 7:58 pm
Ooooh! Of course. Sorry about my ignorance! 🙂
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July 5, 2014 at 1:15 pm
I meant westerners… 😦
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July 5, 2014 at 7:20 pm
🙂
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June 29, 2014 at 6:44 pm
I have such enamored ideas about the Great Wall, and then hear about the sticky rice soup and mortar, and the thousands of tourists. Yikes. This world has become too small. But then again, isn’t that a wonderful thing? However, I will never eat my sticky rice again without thinking of you and China.
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June 30, 2014 at 11:06 am
Excuse me for laughing out loud.
There are miles and miles and miles that are crumbling. Of course we didn’t see that. Where we had access has been maintained.
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June 29, 2014 at 7:03 pm
Love reading about your trip and seeing your picture, too!
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June 30, 2014 at 11:06 am
Thanks, Len, and for stopping by. ~(*_~)~~ ❤
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June 30, 2014 at 5:19 am
Another enticing post! So pleased about your friend’s camera. It is lovely to read about kindness and honesty.
I am not fond of crowds, so perhaps your post will be as close as I ever get to the great Wall!! 😆
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June 30, 2014 at 11:18 am
I’m not comfortable with crowds either and hung on to my purse like it was gold. 😀 😀 😀 Yes, we learned there ARE honest people everywhere.
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June 30, 2014 at 10:04 am
You look so good my friend! A lot of walking and also nerve-wracking about your friend’s camera, so glad it turned up like that and was safe and sound, great relief! I had to laugh about the fridge magnets, we always get one whenever we travel for our fridge but that was expensive. Seems everywhere you go these days there is always someone trying to get us to buy souvenirs at twice the price of the usual price…whatever that is!!! Amazing that you got to go to the Great Wall, I doubt I ever will so great to be able to experience it through our eyes 😀 ❤
PS Like the new blog look 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 11:24 am
Glad to have you along for ‘my’ tour. Ha ha. Thanks so much for reading and commenting.
I’ve been thinking about changing the theme for ages but too much of a ‘fraidy cat to try it. Something got into me before the weekend and I didn’t break anything. Shocked, I was, and happy with my success.
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June 30, 2014 at 12:07 pm
Well you did a great job, well done! I love the look, nice and glossy, if you know what I mean 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Yes, I do know what you mean and I thank you. 😛
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June 30, 2014 at 10:05 am
Darn…hit too fast. Meant to say: ‘through your eyes’!!! Yi yi yi….sorry about that 😦
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June 30, 2014 at 11:25 am
Don’t worry. I find I’m doing that too…more than ever. My fingers and brain don’t listen to each other. 😦
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June 30, 2014 at 11:59 am
Oh I know that feel… 😦 Of course it doesn’t help that I’m blogging while watching Wimbledon at the same time!!! 😉
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June 30, 2014 at 12:17 pm
😀 😀 😀
You are far more talented than I gave your credit for.
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June 30, 2014 at 5:11 pm
What a great photo. You needed every calorie you had for breakfast for the trek, right? We spent several hours on the Wall a year ago. How did we not discover it was held together with sticky rice? The traffic IS TERRIBLE, isn’t it? Looks like you still had a fine day. Cheers.
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June 30, 2014 at 6:14 pm
Our tour guide told us that and then I looked it up because I thought he made it up. It’s true. Who knew?
I’ll use any excuse to eat and although I don’t believe I lost weight, I developed buns of steel. Ha ha. Now I’m back to dough again after two months of sitting and blogging.
One year ago you were there? Awesome. How long was your trip? Did you go with a tour?
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June 30, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Yes, the writing life can lead to doughiness. But it’s worth it, right? We went for 10 days, on our own, with the help of friends to visit in Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Trip Adviser’s handy GPS app.
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July 1, 2014 at 8:55 pm
You are soooo brave. I wouldn’t have the energy to worry about all the added details even though you can take care of them before you leave home. Singapore, eh? We made to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau and many stops in between but not Shanghai. Hmm. I wonder why not?
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July 2, 2014 at 12:24 am
I wonder too! Shanghains like to think of themselves as Apart and Cosmopolitcan because of the western influence back in the day. Interesting place.
We didn’t get all the details right, but, amazingly, all went well. We enjoyed ourselves. Probably missed a lot of what you learned from your guides.
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July 2, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Yes, I’d forgotten all the interesting added information our tour guides threw around. Made the trip much more interesting. 🙂
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June 30, 2014 at 8:50 pm
Tess, thanks for taking us with you on your journey, with so many beautiful details. Many of us get to know about and see the beauty of this country with your words and through your eyes. 🙂 ❤
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July 1, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Oh, Pshaw. I do my little part and am glad is you enjoy. This is such a complicated country, I cannot begin to understand, but there is some interesting information I can share…. ❤
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July 1, 2014 at 8:04 pm
You sure can. You could have been a reporter, lol. ❤
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July 2, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Ha ha. Well, let me add, then, that I hadn’t expected to see so many Chinese people visiting the Great Wall. I imagined it would all be foreign tourists.
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July 3, 2014 at 10:07 am
Lol, well that would be like going to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and not expecting to find many religious Jews there praying. 🙂
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July 3, 2014 at 1:50 pm
hahahahahahahahahahaha
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July 4, 2014 at 3:54 pm
🙂
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July 1, 2014 at 1:52 am
Wonderful, amazing and you look great. So nice for you to share. Enjoy always, T
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July 1, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Thank YOU. 😀
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July 1, 2014 at 8:21 am
Tess, it looks like you climbed the Wall on a good day. When we were there it was so crowded that we were nearly carried along by the crowd – particularly tricky on those narrow bits! 🙂 ~Terri
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July 1, 2014 at 9:11 pm
Glad you made out well. We had drizzle. You know, bad hair, feeling crap, that soggy feeling, wish I were anywhere but here feeling? Can you please explain yourself?
Sorry, sorry, sorry. What were we talking about?
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July 2, 2014 at 4:05 am
one of the old ladies I used to visit told me it was made of rice. I went ‘pff’ (without actually saying it, you know) but turned out to be true!
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July 2, 2014 at 7:43 pm
I thought our guide was pulling our leg(s). Who knew?
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July 3, 2014 at 6:06 pm
I’m glad you’re still standing! Great photos. I’ve never been, so I appreciate taking the trip through your images. 🙂 Best, Emily Grace
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July 3, 2014 at 9:06 pm
I’ve never been either and NEVER considered such a trip. The whole thing was a FLUKE. How lucky is that? 😀
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July 7, 2014 at 9:56 am
Very! 🙂
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July 7, 2014 at 12:23 pm
😀
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July 5, 2014 at 8:39 pm
Totally amazing that the camera was found. Good photo of you too girlie. 🙂
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July 6, 2014 at 11:38 am
Thank you, Karen. Nice to have you along. My make-up and TV crew did a pretty good job with what they had to work with. Ha ha.
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July 6, 2014 at 12:05 pm
🙂 I forgot you travel with your entourage!
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July 6, 2014 at 4:23 pm
Ha ha.
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August 20, 2014 at 3:13 pm
Great photo of you standing on the Great Wall of China! That is one long walkway…I read it is 5,500 miles long! Imagine the building of it! Mind-boggling! What a treasure that you were able to walk on it!
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August 20, 2014 at 6:55 pm
It is a long wall with mountains in the way (dead-ended). The problem here is that the reason for building it and all the lives lost and buried beneath it wasn’t a success. The plan didn’t work. They were invaded anyway.
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September 12, 2014 at 7:22 pm
These are great shots that really help us envision the place and the experience–I love the travel stories too. So glad Carolyn got her camera back!
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September 12, 2014 at 9:30 pm
Isn’t that amazing about Carolyn’s camera. Never in a million years, we all thought but Robert the guide pushed for a check and he was RIGHT! I suppose thieving might not be good for the tourist business. I wonder if that’s why Robert was so insistent on checking with security. Hmm.
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September 14, 2014 at 4:59 am
The great wall, now that’s something I might like to see.
Remember the Gary Larson of it? I can’t find a pic, but it shows two guards standing on the wall. On says: Now let’s see that dog get in here!
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September 15, 2014 at 11:14 am
All I can say about the Great Wall now is the countryside was nice to see while walking it. Still, everywhere we went we felt the history beneath our feet.
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April 11, 2015 at 5:57 pm
Love the photos of the Chinese women in ethnic costumes. Do you know if they were performers, or is that the way they dress no matter what they do? Fascinating all around. I wonder if there are people who walk the entire wall, like folks who walk the Appalachian Trail, or the Pacific Crest? I guess parts of the wall they would have to circumvent. Great trip you’re having.
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April 12, 2015 at 12:41 pm
No, these women are not performers. That is their ethnic dress. For women of this age, they were energetic and strong. The wall ascended and descended and was hard on the legs. I asked the guide what ethnic group they might be. He wasn’t sure. I thought Tibetan but he said no.
You cannot walk the whole wall as it stops and starts at dead ends (mountains). Also, it is crumbling. Parts of it have been spruced up and shored up for visitors but only a certain amount. In the end, the idea why the wall was built in the first place failed. The enemy attacked anyway.
Yes, this is a stunning trip. In posting about it, I amazed more now than when I was there. We were on automatic pilot from the day we arrived. No time for jet lag. Gone all day from 9:00 am and sometimes until 9:00 pm. Fall into bed and up early the next day. I ate like a horse but gained no weight. Firmed up a lot form climbing all kinds of stairs and walking, walking, walking.
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