June 15, 2007, 7:15 am

The Great Wall 5, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Okay, well I am rested and ready to rock and roll.

I got up again early this morning to see if anyone else was up for the park, but the only other person up was Jade. We went to a nearby grocer and bought warm soymilk and these sweet doughy buns, though I already forget what you call them.

Surprisingly, I’m not too achey from yesterday’s walk up the Great Wall. I feel so accomplished having walked up it, and one of the striking things about it was the absolute lack of safety features – which in a weird way, kind of makes me like old structures even more. The steps near the railing are all worn down, but in the center they are smoother. Periodically, there are these sort of gates along the wall. By the time we got up to the top, we probably passed through seven or eight. They are nice and cool inside, and you can stick your head out the window to get a good view. Most alsohave a stairway inside, so you can go up to the top lookout. That’s where several of us went to get our picture taken at the top of the highest gate. When we got back to the end, I bought a green mung bean popsicle – kind of tasted like kiwi. It was funny, because some others and I were charged five yuan, but Jay – who is from Taiwan – only was charged four yuan. Heh.

After the Great Wall, we went to a cloissone factory and showroom. I bought a sweet little snail to add to my collection. Then we went to the Ming Tombs, where we saw more examples of Chinese architecture, learned a bit more about Chinese history and took some more “group photos”!

Afterward we went on a rickshaw hutong tour – Kellie and I shared a rickshaw and gasped several times when we would skirt a corner by a few inches. It was quite fun, though it did feel a bit weird to take a tour of people’s neighborhoods – reminded me of when I took the black taxi cab tour of Belfast. One of the fun parts was when we stopped at this one well-off family’s house in one of the hutongs (apparently they do quite well showing their house and courtyard to curious tourists) – the man had this very sweet white mewing kitten we took turns playing with. Awww, the kitten was so precious. The family also served us delicious jasmine tea.

Today we’re going to the Summer Palace and most exciting of all – the Silk Market. I am so stoked to try bargaining even though I’m not feeling too confident about my bargaining abilities. But I know how to say 太贵了 ! So exciting.