china, it's been real.

So now I'm back in the Philippines. The rest of my stay in China was a whirlwind of craziness and activity, which left me at Peking Airport zombie-like (minus the craving for human brains) and exhausted, very much ready to go back to Manila. I did have a swingin' time in China though, and I know for a fact that I will return there! I did get to see a lot during my two weeks stay, but China is a huge country, and I only got to see a fraction, nay, a fraction of a fraction of it. Feels unfair to the other cities and sights... at least that will be my justification for going back, whenever that will be.

So, I have three days to write about. I will try to be brief so that this post doesn't become a novel. One of my roommates in the hostel was an old Japanese man who was a very early riser and an early sleeper. And as I am a fairly light sleeper, I woke up with him every morning at 530/6am, which I actually didn't mind because I'm an early bird by nature anyway. That and getting up early means less tourists. So double win. But even as I walked to the metro station at 7am, flocks of people were already pouring into my neighborhood, heading to Tian'an men Square and the City of Forbidden-ness, two of the key places of interest on October 1 (the official National Holiday Day while the rest of the week was simply vacation).

So I headed to the Temple of Heaven early and beat the crowds. The Temple, like most old holy places in China, was situated at the heart of a large park. The park area was lovely to walk around and had several pavilions scattered throughout, under which families sat eating, old men played cards, and women made knitting circles. Two individuals stand out in my memory in particular, though. One was a man writing poetry in Chinese calligraphy with a very large brush and a bucket of water. He told me later, through a rough translator, that this poetry was an art of finding the right word combinations in terms of meaning but also in terms of aesthetics. I really loved that he used water. What he wrote were moments of poetry that you had to witness the creation of in order to know it ever existed at all. The other was an old man who was happily knitting hats. He had the most delighted and gleeful smile on his face while he worked, always nodding in greeting to passerbys. He was adorable.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the main building, was magnificent. Instead of the usual square or rectangular buildings I had been seeing, it was circular and triple-gabled with a roof that narrowed and coned upward, all situated on a foundation of carved white marble. (And fun fact: the building was completely wooden with no nails!) The colors were striking- bright reds, greens, blues, purples and golds. And the details were intricate and hypnotizing.

I continued on to the Summer Palace, which immediately became one of my favorite places. It is also another type of park area with the dominating features being Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. I think UNESCO describes this place perfectly: "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value." There were so many trails to explore, gardens to discover... it really was a huge and beautiful place!

The next day, was my most anticipated day in Beijing: THE GREAT WALL! Not wanting to wade through currents and seas of tourists, or to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a tour group, I decided to go on my own to a more remote and farther section of the wall called Mutianyu. Mutianyu, so named after the adjacent town, is the best preserved section of the Great Wall with the largest construction scale. To get there, I had to take a strange bus that only sometimes went to the wall. You had to ask each driver that came to the stop if that was their destination. And the stop itself was ridiculous to find. I was lucky and managed okay, but in retrospect it was pretty ridiculous. It was located outside of the actual bus station, down the street and two long blocks over, hidden away by construction walls and in the back of a huge parking lot... But I made it! And with the help of a kind Chinese woman who spoke a little English, I got onto the right bus, which turned out to be a different line altogether. Le shrug.

Once I got to the Mutianyu stop, I couldn't contain my excitement and it took so much effort to not run to the top of the wall. Well, even if I had given into my excitement, I wouldn't have gotten far running anyway, because I had to walk/climb up thousands and thousands of steps to get to the top. I may do yoga, but I am no athlete, so I settled for a steady walking pace. On the way up, I saw waaay too many bare-chested, pot-bellied old men, which reminded me of those Buddha slogans of "rub my belly for good luck." Don't worry, I did no such thing. Once on the wall, my heart stopped. (And then "Be a Man" started playing in my head accompanied by images of Mulan and Shang doing air kicks.) It was simply amazing- the view, the wall, the weather, the air... all of it. I could see the wall snaking off into the distance for miles and miles in both directions, disappearing occasionally only to zigzag into view again through some trees or valleys. And the scenery was breathtaking! All green and tree-covered hills and mountains layering and melting into each other. The sky was blue, the breeze was cool and playful and I offered a thankful prayer to the universe for letting me be there at that point in time, for creating that moment for me to experience.

Walking the wall took some effort. I worked up a sweat in a matter of minutes, which is saying something because I'm a strange breed of human that rarely sweats. It was like walking on a stone wave. It rose and fell at random with varying degrees of intensity and steepness. The steps ranged from tiny half steps, to steep climbs that required your entire body's involvement, to nonexistent slopes. As I walked, I kept thinking about how many people it took to build the wall and about how ancient guards used to patrol it years and years ago... And then I saw a rainbow! As childish as this may sound, I got super happy and gazed at it on tiptoe over a taller portion of the wall. I saw it as a good omen and thanked the universe again. I ended up walking along the wall for almost 6 hours! It felt like no time at all and I could have stayed there forever. But I had to catch the last bus back to Beijing at 4pm. So, I savored my last few moments with the wall, and then made my decent.

Okie, that's all I got. I'm getting sleepy. TBC.