Or so it said on the back of our ticket to the Beijing opera. It's pretty entertaining to read all the statements that have been translated into English and are just a little bit off. There was one in front of the forbidden city that said something along the lines of being a well-mannered tourist so you can mold your imagination. It is entertaining and we are glad that there is English around!
On that topic, the people who work at the front desk of our hostel speak English which is extremely helpful. So far they have found us someone to take us to the Great Wall and booked our train ticket to Xi'an. Yesterday's Great Wall excursion was very cool. We went in a private car as opposed to a tour bus simply because our plan to show up at the bus terminal in the morning and get on a tour fell through. It cost a little bit more but we had more flexibility this way. The wall was an incredible sight even with the immense amount of fog. On the way there the driver kept saying rain (he spoke very little english though we were able to communicate some basic things). To us it could have been the same hazy gray that the sky always is, but he seemed to be able to distinguish. Luckily it didn't rain while we were at the wall and even cleared up a tiny bit by the end. In any case, we couldn't see long stretches of the wall but it was great anyways. We went to the less tourist-trampled area which was a very good move. They let you walk quite a ways until the restored section ends. We met someone from Singapore who spoke to us for a while and gave us some other recommendations for China.
The Ming Tombs were next, and could have been skipped. It was a much smaller version of the Forbidden City, and you couldn't get near the actual tombs. Anyone who's planning a trip to the Great Wall, it's okay to skip the Ming Tombs. Another tip, don't eat lunch at the Great Wall. We bought 2 egg crepes and 1 cup of tea for a total of 108 yuan (approximately $16). This is quite a rip, seeing as the day before we ate a large dinner of tea, rice, and 2 main dishes for about 30 yuan (about $5) at a little restaurant near our hostel.
Back in Beijing, our driver let us out at Olympic Park. The Birds Nest and the Water Cube are right across from each other. They are awesome to see! Very imposing, impressive, and funky. From there we were on our own to get home. Since there was a subway close by and we had been wanting to see what that was like, we took it home. The subway has lots of different lines, so we had to transfer twice. It was rush hour too! It seemed like we were quite out of place but it was really cool to see their transportation system. The line coming from Olympic Park was super nice with tv screens inside and light-up system maps. After transfering, the next line wasn't quite as nice, mostly because it was very hot and didn't have the nice maps. We made it to our destination (back to Tianamen Square) with no problems. On our way out we were acosted by a college student studying to be an English teacher. She tried really hard to get us to go to a teahouse to have tea with her and chat, but we declined. We did talk to her for a while as we walked down the street, but were too scared that it would turn into some sort of scam if we went anywhere with her. We have been warned about that sort of thing, and many times in public places we have had "art students" come up to us, strike up a conversation, and want to take us to see their art studio.
Yet again at Olympic Park we were the focus of other peoples' cameras. One group of young people walked by us as we were sitting on a bench, and literally everyone in the group took our picture (from a distance, without asking). We are good sports, but it is getting a little old.
Not sure how we're gonna spend today, but tonight we are taking an overnight train (soft sleeper, bottom bunks - we're told this is the best) to Xi'An. Will update from there!
