More sightseeing

I guess I'll start with Friday's events before we hit sightseeing. We tried to eat in the PKU cafeteria but apparently we can't do so since we haven't passed the national entrance exams (so therefore we aren't students officially). But we haven't failed the exam either, so I think we should be allowed to eat there, esp. if we can sleep in their residences and study in their labs. Otherwise Friday was uneventful.

Saturday: We went all over Beijing today. We visited the Yonghe (Lama) temple, an important Buddhist monastery and also visited the Temple of Confucius. That afternoon, we went to the Houhai area just to the north of the Forbidden City. This area has a beautiful lake and many bars. We took a guided bicycle tour around the area and climbed a drum tower and saw a performance there. We went to the Laoshe Tea House that evening for dinner. The food is excellent. There was a musical performance and a short skit about the history of tea house during dinner. We saw another performance at tea house afterward where they featured a bunch of various acts, including two men that can replicate different sounds (cars, trains, etc) quite well using only their voices. The performance was quite amazing!

Sunday: We assembled at 08:00 to make the journey out to the Great Wall. It's about a 3 hr trip out to see the wall at Jinshanling. We took a cable car up to the top and walked around the wall. Parts of the wall are hard to climb and there are old ladies there to help the foreigners walk around (but primarily sell souvenirs). I tried to get a t-shirt for 80 RMB but the lady jacked up the price to 100 RMB after Zhaleh (from Cornell) paid that price for the t-shirt (and she already had my cash). But I got a picture book for another 50 RMB, a good deal considering that most folks would have to pay 200 RMB for both.
We went to lunch at some hole in the wall in a nearby town and then continued on to the wall at Simatai. The cable car here only takes you up about halfway and the rest of the ascent is essentially straight up. It's a hell of a long way up to the top. My knees were killing me but the views are absolutely worth it.

Note to tourists: Don't use the public toilets at the Great Wall. They are the most dirty toilets I have ever seen anywhere in the world.