Climbing the Great Wall= Death??

So on our third day in Beijing we finally made it to a section of the Great Wall. Other SAS students had been talking about sliding down it or taking a lift up it. We obviously went to another section because ours was virtually at a 85 degree angle. The first couple of sections were easy enough but then it just went straight up. It was the stairmaster from hell. Little step. Big step. Bigger step. Repeat. Each time you think you see the final platform, but then you get there and realize that there’s still plenty more. When we finally reached the top, breathless and sweating, it was the most unbelievable thing ever. Too bad China has horrible pollution and you could barely see through the smog. The accomplishment was fine enough with me. Going down was like heaven. By now, other tourists started pouring in by the hundreds and were virtually stopping on each and every step. Now that would have been hell. It would have taken hours to get to the top had we not gotten there before the rush. After the Great Wall we went back to the campus to meet the students and see the campus. I hung out with Maggie, Jessica, and Tracy- all freshmen at Tsinghua. They took a group of us girls around campus. It was pretty remarkable being on a campus again, let alone in China. Not to mention their campus is ridiculously huge. I’m talking HUGE. They have everything they need at their fingertips and barely ever leave campus. Need a haircut? Go to the state of the art barber shop, 8 seats, complete with blasting music to add to the experience. Dinner? Try any of the twenty restaurants on campus. I was impressed. After walking around, we headed to their cafeteria to eat dinner. It was a long buffet style and the utensils? Chopsticks of course. A mass amount of bright green chopsticks sit in buckets instead of the usual plastic forks and knives. I could probably write an entire blog on the adventures of Vanessa and chopsticks alone. After dinner they helped us communicate to a non-English speaking (basically everyone in China) cab driver how to get back to the Silk Market. This cabbie must have been in his 80’s and was either falling asleep or on drugs because his eyes were tiny slits as he raced in between lanes on the highway and nearly drove into every passing vehicle. Since there are no seatbelts at all, I whisper something about this not feeling right to my friends. Sure enough, minutes later a car swerves into our lane and we slam on the breaks, nearly missing the car. Only minutes later, another car swerves in front of us nearly missing us as well. All the while our cab driver is half asleep and continuing to drive in other lanes. We would say turn over, but he doesn’t speak an ounce, not one ounce, of English so we were trapped. Very trapped. Finally, the ride from Hell is over and we go shopping. Note: 2 near death experiences= cab ride from Hell. Then we head into Silk Market to master round 2 of the enormous space. Bring it on.