Here we go again…

First, let me tell y’all about my class schedule for this semester – it rocks. Here’s why: I am teaching the same class (different students) that I taught last year. This means no new lesson plans. I also have every Friday off. This’ll let me do a whole lot of short trips out of Beijing. Also, I start on the 20th of September. (That’s a week later than everyone else.) I’m doing everything I can not to gloat in front of the other teachers, but it’s really hard.

I just returned from a short trip to Shanhaiguan – the place where the Great Wall meets the Pacific Ocean. It’s a beautiful small town (150,000 people) with a really laid back, friendly attitude. It was pretty much everything Beijing isn’t. Let me give you a quick breakdown of what happened. First, Mike and I took an early train from Beijing to Shanhaiguan. We rode “hard seat” class – the least expensive and most uncomfortable way to travel. Thankfully the ride only took 4 hours. Upon arriving in Shanhaiguan, we walked around in an attempt to find one of the three hotels which are listed in the LP. Since the map included was lacking in detail – and the fact that I only saw one street sign as we wandered – we managed to get more than a little lost. Thankfully we did stumble across a pedi-cab with a driver who knew of a great hotel and took us there without too much trouble. The hotel was a remodeled courtyard house and it was in great shape (for China.)

After getting situated Mike and I went for a wander to get a feel for the city. The Great Wall runs along the east side of the city and the part of the city that had our hotel was inside of a gate in the wall. (A gate in the Great Wall was a walled compound that housed a whole lotta soldiers to protect the gate from invaders.) The ocean is South of the city and the Great Wall meets the ocean at laolongtou (old dragon head.) Eventually Mike and I found a museum, which we toured with a guide who spoke English fairly well. An interesting tidbit about this museum – it had no point or purpose. It was a little bit of everything from everywhere in China. Most museums in China have just a little bit of this problem but this one was completely random. After that, we went to dinner at a crazy restaurant recommended in LP. We were the only people in the restaurant and when we finished eating the guy took a picture of us to hang on his wall (the wall was covered with pictures of foreigners.) Also, I ordered a can of coke and watched the waitress run down the block to a convenience store to purchase my coke.
After dinner we wandered around for a while and eventually found a row of shops that were selling tourist junk at remarkably reduced prices – most stuff sold for a tenth of the Beijing price. The next day we went down to laolongtou and saw the ocean. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and a steady breeze. We headed back to Beijing in the afternoon – another long and painful train ride – and dealt with the impenetrable crowds around the Beijing train station.

Mike took a lot of pictures and he has website where he'll be posting them soon. I've added a link to his website - feel free to check out his pics.