Great Wall at Jinshanling

Yesterday I went to the Great Wall on a free trip organized by the school. We went to a part called Jinshanling, which isn't too far from the part that Scott and I went to five years ago which was called Simatai. 

My roommate has gone to Qingdao for the week (a vacation is just starting today, so I won't have to attend classes for the next 5 days or so), so she got up at 4am the same morning. As a result, I was utterly exhausted when I got on the bus, as you can see from the photo. I was really feeling like an old loser compared to all the other people around me. Zoe and I decided to sit separately as we hoped that we could make friends with the people sitting next to us. Unfortunately, the bus was filled with Indonesian students who were already all friends and who all sat together. Thus, I had an empty seat next to me the entire trip. Oh well, it was worth a try. I'm not sure I would have wanted to sit next to someone as haggard looking as I was then either.

There were tons of students...about 9 buses worth. We left the school at around 8:30am and we arrived at the wall around 10:30am or so. We were then given about three hours to climb the wall however we liked before we had to leave at 2pm. It was really a fabulous Great Wall site and the views were absolutely amazing. In spite of the hoards of students there, it didn't feel ultra touristy at all.

I have to say that being on the wall, although fabulous, also made me rather homesick. The last time I was there was with Scott and I couldn't help but remember how incredibly happy we were to be there (it was rather challenging to get there...we had to hire someone to drive us). I really do miss him and everyone back home, in spite of the fact that I am still enjoying being here.

Here are some pictures from the day and evening....not sure how many i can include in one post, so perhaps there will be a couple posts.

The next few shots were just taken from the bus window on the way there:



Man, I was tired:
These are all from on the wall:









A weird bug that landed in Zoe's bag:



One of the squished millipedes that were all over the wall:




A French father and son sitting on the wall having a smoke. They looked so funny I had to take their picture:
On the bus home. All the local villagers were harvesting corn:
Much more awake:
A couple more from on the wall. One of Zoe and one of a live millipede:

Later that same day I went with some Thai people and Zoe to a Thai festival. The thing at the top of the picture is a gigantic screen.