Barricades can't block our way

Friday was kind of a super-day, although I didn't realize it at the time. I woke up at 5:45 and got on the bus to the Great Wall at Jinshanling. It was a 3-hour ride. Once at the wall, they just told us to hike to Simatai and to meet the bus there in 4 hours. No one really knew how to get to the wall, which was convenient because in trying to figure it out, I found 5 guys from London, Toronto, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and France who were also traveling alone. (I guess women don't travel alone in China very often...who knew?)

The wall was everything I ever imagined, but so much cooler in person. When they showed us a video advertising School Year Abroad in Chinese class in high school, the part that really made me want to go was the part where they were all hanging out on the wall...so it was very cool to finally go it for myself (and not have to miss a year of high school for it). Anyway, I took lots of pictures (that probably all look the same) so you can see the bright blue sky and the gorgeous mountains and the magnificent wall. A 4-hour hike in the sun was a lot, and we were definitely counting towers for most of it to keep aware of our progress (we started at 1 and went to 32), but there was shade in the towers and plenty of opportunities to buy water (or coke or beer, if you're stupid) from elderly Mongolian ladies. The company was good too; English-speaking, but all but the Londoner had some Mandarin so that was fun.

Got to the end of our part of the wall and had the choice between a 30-minute walk downhill or a $5 zipline ride over the river...looked relatively legit, and it was actually not scary at all, just really cool to be flying over the water looking up at the wall. Hung out in the cafe and bused back to the hostel.

Once back, I ate dinner at the cafe associated with the hostel, ate some fruit freshly picked from their courtyard, and of course cleaned up a bit. Then I went to meet Lizzie, a friend of mine from Swat who had just earlier that afternoon graduated from her summer language program. Hung out in her room and met her friends, then went out dancing with them and their teachers. They had all been released from their language pledge about 5 hours before I arrived, which meant they spoke Chinglish like I'd never heard it before and were constantly re-introducing themselves to each-other by their English names.

Had a good time, but tired out (Lizzie had just gotten through exams, so she was the same) and just spent some time catching up on Swat news and gossip. She was on the wait-list for a room for next year, and got one in my dorm on the floor below, so that's great. Eventually turned in for the night in la casa de Lizzie.