June, Dad and Joy on the bus to the Great Wall. 
Tired Dad on the Great Wall
Mom, Joy, June and Dad too. (I had no photo's with me on the great wall! Good thing Dad got a some!)
Everyone has days in their lives that are the ones we remember forever, the ones we will tell stories about for years to come and the ones that leave us in awe because of how greatly surreal they were. Today was this kind of day for me. 2 years ago I began hearing my father talk about his dream of seeing the Great Wall. I remember being shocked that he seriously wanted to go to China. My dad? This is the guy who struggled with Canada because of the cultural differences! Ok, maybe I'm kidding but only a little. My 6 foot 8 father in China? Could he possibly be serious? He was. Today was the fulfillment of a dream for him and as a daughter I feel proud that I could be apart of this very special experience.
But today wasn't just about seeing the Great Wall of China. We were not your typical Beijing tourists today. They typical tourist takes the organized tour with all the other foreign tourists. Today a former Korea Nazarene University exchange student from China and her father joined us. They were our travel partners. Without them we surely would have had to take the tour bus. With them we went the way of the locals. The best part of traveling for me is being with the local people in the places where they go. Yet in a country where I don't speak the language that is all too hard. So to have Chinese travel partners eager to welcome us to their home was spectacular.
Joy and June picked us up at our hotel this morning. We took the city bus to the long distance bus station. After a 90minute bus ride to a Beijing subburb we transferred to a mini-bus which took us right to the Mutianyu section of The GW. I love taking public transportation. From the point we met Joy and her father we were the only foreigners. Oh the stares! People were so curious about the relationship between Joy and my family. Joy's English is spectacular and I watched as people on the bus stared in wonder about all of us. The ride out to the wall allowed us to see the city and the beautifully green suburbs. My parents and I can not believe the pollution in Beijing and the surrounding areas. I can already sense the differences between Korean and China. One major one is the amount of land China has. In Korea I never seem to get away from the high rises. Yet here it only took a short bus ride and we were in the country.
When we got to The GW I was surprised by how quiet it was. There were so few people! We were bombarded by the souvenir hawkers. We walked through all of them to board a cable car which took us to the top of The Great Wall.
The GW really is amazing. I had no idea what to expect. It wasn't as tall as I expected. however I didn't realize how mountainous the area was. The Great Wall project really is a world wonder. I just can't imagine how painstaking it must have been to complete this. Seeing the Great Wall was for me like seeing the Grand Canyon. The wall just goes on forever. It's formed after the mountains it was built on.
The GW is something I never thought I would see in my life and to get to walk the wall with my parents and a Chinese family was pure gift. Joy's father walked in front of us and behind us snapping pictures. He doesn't speak a word of English but didn't seem to be bothered. He expressed such joy with just being with us. He took special note of how my father was fairing. He knew my father had some physical limitations and needed to go slow and rest. Occasionally we'd get to talk to him through Joy's interpretation. What a gracious man. Watching my parents interact with Joy and June was fun too. My dad joked around and Joy joked back. She won his heart that way! My parents and I kept saying to each other, "We are walking on The Great Wall!" "We are walking the Great Wall with Joy and June!" This wasn't Disneyland it was real.
We walked a section of the wall that lead us to some toboggans. My dad was exhausted and the rest of us felt tired enough to leave The GW. We purchased tickets for the toboggan ride and we each slid down the side of a mountain. The look on the slide operators face when he saw my father was priceless. From his face I wasn't sure he was going to let my dad ride the slide. But he did. We all slid down the mountain like you would a luge course.
We shopped and ate a Chinese meal together. June was worried that there was no bus for us to take. He also found that the taxi's were charging way too much to take us to the bus station. So he suggested we walk to a main rode to catch a taxi. So off we went, two Chinese and three people from the USA, walking in Chinese neighborhoods. We saw people working on their homes, people gardening and people walking home. We saw old women outside the market talking. We walked for about an hour before June found us a ride to the bus stop. None of us minded the walk. The day couldn't have given us much more because it was already spectacular. yet with the walk it continued to give. We were all grateful.
My dad mentioned that he's never done this kind of trip before--the kind of trip where you get to be with the natives and do/go where the natives go. My dad especially was out of his comfort zones at times yet he did great. He had fun too!
China became more than a "nation" of the world for all of us today. Now more than ever China has some faces and places we've met and seen.
But today wasn't just about seeing the Great Wall of China. We were not your typical Beijing tourists today. They typical tourist takes the organized tour with all the other foreign tourists. Today a former Korea Nazarene University exchange student from China and her father joined us. They were our travel partners. Without them we surely would have had to take the tour bus. With them we went the way of the locals. The best part of traveling for me is being with the local people in the places where they go. Yet in a country where I don't speak the language that is all too hard. So to have Chinese travel partners eager to welcome us to their home was spectacular.
Joy and June picked us up at our hotel this morning. We took the city bus to the long distance bus station. After a 90minute bus ride to a Beijing subburb we transferred to a mini-bus which took us right to the Mutianyu section of The GW. I love taking public transportation. From the point we met Joy and her father we were the only foreigners. Oh the stares! People were so curious about the relationship between Joy and my family. Joy's English is spectacular and I watched as people on the bus stared in wonder about all of us. The ride out to the wall allowed us to see the city and the beautifully green suburbs. My parents and I can not believe the pollution in Beijing and the surrounding areas. I can already sense the differences between Korean and China. One major one is the amount of land China has. In Korea I never seem to get away from the high rises. Yet here it only took a short bus ride and we were in the country.
When we got to The GW I was surprised by how quiet it was. There were so few people! We were bombarded by the souvenir hawkers. We walked through all of them to board a cable car which took us to the top of The Great Wall.
The GW really is amazing. I had no idea what to expect. It wasn't as tall as I expected. however I didn't realize how mountainous the area was. The Great Wall project really is a world wonder. I just can't imagine how painstaking it must have been to complete this. Seeing the Great Wall was for me like seeing the Grand Canyon. The wall just goes on forever. It's formed after the mountains it was built on.
The GW is something I never thought I would see in my life and to get to walk the wall with my parents and a Chinese family was pure gift. Joy's father walked in front of us and behind us snapping pictures. He doesn't speak a word of English but didn't seem to be bothered. He expressed such joy with just being with us. He took special note of how my father was fairing. He knew my father had some physical limitations and needed to go slow and rest. Occasionally we'd get to talk to him through Joy's interpretation. What a gracious man. Watching my parents interact with Joy and June was fun too. My dad joked around and Joy joked back. She won his heart that way! My parents and I kept saying to each other, "We are walking on The Great Wall!" "We are walking the Great Wall with Joy and June!" This wasn't Disneyland it was real.
We walked a section of the wall that lead us to some toboggans. My dad was exhausted and the rest of us felt tired enough to leave The GW. We purchased tickets for the toboggan ride and we each slid down the side of a mountain. The look on the slide operators face when he saw my father was priceless. From his face I wasn't sure he was going to let my dad ride the slide. But he did. We all slid down the mountain like you would a luge course.
We shopped and ate a Chinese meal together. June was worried that there was no bus for us to take. He also found that the taxi's were charging way too much to take us to the bus station. So he suggested we walk to a main rode to catch a taxi. So off we went, two Chinese and three people from the USA, walking in Chinese neighborhoods. We saw people working on their homes, people gardening and people walking home. We saw old women outside the market talking. We walked for about an hour before June found us a ride to the bus stop. None of us minded the walk. The day couldn't have given us much more because it was already spectacular. yet with the walk it continued to give. We were all grateful.
My dad mentioned that he's never done this kind of trip before--the kind of trip where you get to be with the natives and do/go where the natives go. My dad especially was out of his comfort zones at times yet he did great. He had fun too!
China became more than a "nation" of the world for all of us today. Now more than ever China has some faces and places we've met and seen.
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