now I have been to the Great Wall. well it's a wall, a great wall. I don't know how I could explain it any better. It's just a big, long wall. It actually looks like on the pictures you see in travel guides and stuff. It was still awesome to be there. First time I was able to breathe in not so smoggy are than usual. I was able to see many trees at once. that was a very good feeling. First time China seemed "natural".

the part that I did not like about the wall was this woman. she is a seller, in her blue bag she carried stuff she wanted to sell us to superhigh prices. we started walking up the hill, so we can reach the wall, there already she started to walk with us. we said, no we don't want to buy anything, no no no. she didn't give a damn, she walked aaaall the way with us. about 2 hours. we were pretty much alone on the wall, except for her. annoying b***....

below you can see some images of the great wall, one is with a chinese guy, he was our tour guide. he LOVED taking picture. so typically chinese ... aaaand he had a little music box with him. it was so peaceful on the wall ... all of a sudden he plays Wiener Walzer or some other very irritating songs ...

 

 

after the great wall we went further to Chengde, it's a city about 250 km northern of Beijing. The emperors had their Summer Palace there back then and there are a bunch of temples, that all look the same to me haha we saw a huge statue, I think it was 23 meters high and had like a thousand arms. Chengde kinda looks like Las Vegas, everything was blinking and shining in different colors. omg and we ate so much on that trip ... 3 days, 4 times eating out in a restaurant .. pfff. insane. nearby the city there is a little mountain with a very ackward top, you will see it on the pictures. I have no idea why it is still standing, it looks so fragile. on one of the pictures below you can see a red Mao, this is made out of a very thin paper - it's the traditional chinese silhouette. it is incredibly detailed, take a closer look. in the northern part of the summer palace there is a huge park with a lake. many ppl just stood /set there, playing some traditional instruments. I wished I could have listened to them longer... also the tour guide played the fluite right next to the lake, you can see him on the right side on one pic !

and as usual, I have a few pictures of chinese ppl that I stalked, this time I focused on babies. their pants are very ... butt-free haha ;)

 

 

enough pictures for today.

 

yesterday evening, I was sleeping peacefully, when I was woken up by a mosquito attack. SSSSSSsssssssss..... so I turned on my small light. I looked to the corner of my room and so a black spot... what is that ?! A gecko! How much I love those small, often flying, animals that can just get anywhere they want ... I turned on the main light of my room. then it started running, half on the wall, half on the ceiling, directly to the air conditioner. then I couldn't see it anymore. what the hell is a gecko doing in my room in the 4th floor of this building ?! is it still in my air conditioner? wäääh :( and I thought Beijing is so far in the north that there are no creapy animals ...

my chinese courses still bug me.... Im supposed to talk to chinese ppl, so I get used to the language. how should I when I just cant say anything ?! the courses dont help that much, cuz we sometimes learn vocabulary I don't even know in english. yay... oh did I mention I hate chinese characters? well, I detest them. they make studying so much harder. I wanna continue studying finnish, that's so much easier ....

riding the bike in beijing is not as hard as I thought... the first 2 days I was quite scared but now Im fine. when you just have one almost-collision per ride, you are awesome! I am, because I nearly crushed into two girls today, yay :D haha

bargaining here is quite amusing ... a shirt I wanted to buy cost 150 yuan... so I said I give her 80. the seller was like, oh no, that is too little.. give me 100. no, 80. well then give me 90. NO, 80 yuan. this conversation took about 5 min, then I got the price I wanted haha

I rly wanna buy an electronical dictionary for studying chinese, it would make things so much easier. but I guess I have to pay about 100 euros for one here. so I was thinking... should I get an Iphone? cuz there are apps that can do the exact same thing as those dictionaries ... I'd like to have a new mp3 player too, so that would be included too. hmm but do I rly wanna have a Iphone?... I appreciate your tips, pls help me!

to complete my post for today, I want to show you this poem. I found it in a book that was in my room, it is by Emily Dickinson and called "little stone". I believe it's a wonderful poem, even though I hardly ever like poems. my new aim here in China is to be this stone - as redicolous as it sounds.

 

How happy is the little Stone

That rambles in the Road alone,

And doesn't care about Careers

And Exigencies never fears -

Whose Coat of elemental Brown

A passing Universe put on,

And independent as the Sun

Associates or glows alone,

Fulfilling absolute Decree

In casual simplicity.