The Wall & Beijing

The Wall was Great. The sections we hiked were in good shape - lightly sprinkled with hagglers & only a handful of other tourists, who all seemed to be Olympic participators. Magnificent views - plenty of things to photograph. We started at Jinshanling and hiked about 4 hours to Simatai, then took a zip-line across a small gorge to a waiting boat at the bottom of the canyon. Weather was perfect - somewhat chilly at first and a brief dose of rain, just enough to create a nice mist for photos.

Beijing was also great - felt surprisingly similar to Japan, only much more room and much less delicious sushi. Olympic venues were incredible - though unclear why so many peoples' traditional homes needed to be demolished for such massive amounts of useless concrete slabs. There was over a kilometer of empty space between the entrance & the new Olympic stadium. Ulterior motives for clearing those prime areas of the city would not be a surprise. As seemed widely reported, tickets were sold out for every event - yet we found whole sections of the stadium virtually empty at the events we attended. The general atmosphere was noticeably positive and people were anxious to help us whenever we gave even a glance. We sped around the city on bikes without the traffic we anticipated. Would be interesting to know how much things changed in the preparations for the Olympics - and where things will go from here for the city.