Day 3: Still haven't worked

As promised in my previous post I said I would give you a summary of my potential visiting plans.  Well, the transportation worked out and I went to the Great Wall of China with five other work colleagues.  How's that for being in the country three days!  We began our drive at 9:30 in the morning and it took us about an hour and half to arrive there.  The roads, particularly the highways are as good here as they are in the U.S.  And pre-Olympics there are many banners and painted signs pointing people in Olympic destinations.  However, as we neared the tourist destination of the Great Wall, we began to see places that are purely local establishments, and there is no English to be found.  We arrived to the heavily touristed wonder of the world, and were greeted by aggressive shop keepers hawking what could really only be described as crap.  Lots of crap with a few T-Shirts thrown in.  To see the wall you pay an entrance fee and then you have a choice of companies to purchase a way up to see the wall.  We picked one that has a ski lift style chair up and a very interesting way down, which I'll get to in a minute.  So once up on the wall it was incredible.  We were fortunate to have beautiful weather and so we could see for miles.  The first thing you notice is that the wall goes and goes on top of the mountain in both directions for endless amounts.  Its like the Appalachian Trail, you can just keep going as long as you can take it.  However, the difference here is its up and down steep inclines.  In the area we were in, the wall was all steps.  Either steps up or steps down, and in some cases incredibly steep angles.  So steep and such uneven steps I'm not sure US Parks Services could handle the Risk Management of allowing the same access. It also is not the for the out of shape.  We were sweating bullets.  And for 4 of the guys who are chain smokers, they were dying.  We explored for an hour or so, took pictures, chatted and joked and then decided to head down.  Here is where it gets fun.  So in their creative wisdom, the Chinese have devised one of the more exciting ways to get down from the Great Wall of China...the Winter Olympics every popular Luge event.  That's right you hop on a sled and slide down a winding metal track down the mountain.  It has a little break on it, runs on little rubber wheels and the rest is history.  We each hopped on and away we went.  Once down at the bottom some of the guys bought some souvenirs and then we were off to lunch.  Our driver suggested a spot down the road a bit.  It was a local spot, as were the only non-Chinese in the place.  One English menu handed to us, and we ordered some food.  It was very good.  Sweet and Sour Pork, Roast Beef and Potatoes, Fish, and some things we didn't order but came anyway.  The order for the group and it sits on a lazy susan approach seems to be a common Chinese way, so we shared and spun for the next hour.  Satisfied we piled back into our van and headed back to our apartment.  I came back and crashed, tired from the hiking and also still adjusting to the time zone.  So I've at least checked off one major thing to do here without even having stepped foot into the Broadcast Center.