Beijing

Ni Hao! I've already talked about my China trip a few times, so this is just so I can put some photos up. I'll start with the Great Wall since that was my favourite part of the trip. First I took a 10km hike from Jinshangling to Simitai. Some pictures:went with a tour group comprised of a bunch of hardcore Swedish hikers who were filming everything. It was really rainy and foggy, so apart from Mongolian souvenir sellers, we were the only ones there.This part of the wall was about three hours away from Beijing and therefore much less popular and falling into ruin, which was a lot of fun. All of the stairs were crumbly and broken, making the steep climbs that much more interesting!It was the ultimate stairmaster! A few days later I went to the Badaling section which is much closer to Beijing and infinitely more touristy. But this time it was a gorgeous day.
The Badaling great wall was so very crowded, and had obviously been renovated and kept up several times, but still quite entertaining. Everyone scrambling for the perfect "On The Great Wall" shot (myself included). Lot's of dodging cameras and stopping so that people could take pictures.So here's my requisite shot, looking like a jerk as usual. The Badaling Great Wall was also the site of my worst bathroom experience in my entire life. without going into too much detail; I was feeling a little vomitus, so I rushed to the bathroom (which the tour guide had warned us was terrible). First I had to pay to get in, which seemed pretty wrong, but I shrugged off. Then I realized there was no toilet paper and there was a little old man, conveniently selling tissues. Brutal! TP in hand I went into the bathroom. On a hot, sunny and incredibly humid day I was immediately punched in the face by a horrible smell, which didn't help to make my fluish feelings dissipate! Then I realized that every single stall was a squatter and most of the stalls didn't even have doors. So there were all these old Chinese ladies squatting all over the place without a care in the world in a bathroom that most likely hadn't been cleaned in a month; have I gone too far into detail?