Friday, November 9, 2012

Beijing Day 2: big things

Yesterday we got up early and met our tour guide for a tour of the Ming tombs and the Great wall - Badaling. Thi particular spot was pretty awesome because it was at the high point of the area. You take a gondola up to about 85% and then climb the rest, which is a crazy steep, but short hike to the top. The view was beautiful And the area was covered in snow, which was pretty awesome because I would not have wanted to be up there when it was hot out! It's crazy to think tht people have been standing on that wall for nearly 3,000 years. It was kind of overwhelming. I highly recommend this experience if you have the chance!

The Ming tombs were also very awesome as they have 13 tombs all from the Ming Dynasty if rulers. Most of the stuff we saw was about 600 years old and it was both beautiful and interesting!

Then we went to see a Chinese acrobat show which was pretty cool but I think would have been more impressive if I hadn't been to see every Cirque du Soliel ever. After that, we headed to a very expensive restaurant where we had a great time ordering all sorts of new things and being laughed at by the staff. They finally assigned us a babysitter to help us through the meal. It was hysterical. I also had a level-up on the sesame ball front. In the US, these are normally warm with some bean paste inside an very tasty. In china they seem to come with a black sesame filling instead, which is even more tasty. Last night, I got one coated in some mystery substance that looked like cinnamon, but was not, and the black sesame paste was liquid and super hot. It was amazing. The Morton's chocolate Godiva lava cake of sesame balls. Yum!

Then for a 2 hour massage that only cost about $40 and off to bed.

Today we are going to go stash our stuff over at the train station, then head back to town to see most sights before we take the train to Xian overnight. Tomorrow we go see the terra cotta soldiers!

Sent from my iPhone

1 comment:

madoka said...

I can't wait to hear the details of that meal. :) I can't say I've ever had sesame balls with black sesame filling. That would help me like them a lot more lol. Now that you know the goodness that is hot liquid black sesame paste, I encourage you to seek out the following 2 items before you leave China (both hot desserts): 芝麻汤圆 sesame tapioca dumplings (cooked and served in hot water) and 芝麻糊 hot liquid black sesame.

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