ChangCheng

I think the most commonly used typical Chinese sounding word/sound is ChangCheng. Surprisingly enough, it is just about as true as you think it is. It turns out that ChangCheng is the Chinese word for the Great Wall of China. This past saturday I departed on a 9am fieldtrip to the great wall. Now I've been before, and the evening before was my first Friday night in Beijing, so I was just going to see where the night took me. Being only one of the vets on campus, many of the beijing n3wbs wanted me to show them around. I figured why not I'm going out anyways, lets take them to Sanlitun which is the neighborhood where all the bars are.

So we sit down andd star to have some beers at some random bar. Everyone is meeting everyone - Italians, Colombians, Russians, a Frenchie (who unsuprisingly is boring as all hell). Next thing we know some guy on a moped runs his vehicle into a parked car right behind us. It was ridiculous everyone on the st stopped and watched, the guy got up, and a minute later everyone was talking again. No one stopped to help or anything. That's sorta how it goes in BJ. Time for a change of scenery. I take the group to the different club called Red Bull. Everyone is dancing partying, the house music is flowing, and all of the sudden I see this dance circle forming..Next thing I know I'm watching an black guys breakdancing and, best of all, chinese dudes working a pole. It was hilarious. I guess thats what Chinese guys do in their spare time..practice pole dancing. We leave the club eventually and run into some argentinian guys from our university. We've all heard about this club "chocolate" apparently some Russian style bar. Not really sure what that means, so we go check it out. We get their and go down the escalator into this flourescent lighted bar, and the first thing I see is this midget asian. He has the sides of his head shaved and is sporting a pony tail. The concierge, apparently. I chatted with him for a little my goal is to get of pic with this dude. But anyways, this place chocolate ends up being a hell of a swanky bar. Girls in bikini tops dancing on the bar, on stage, on the dance floor. The perfect gentlemens club. Cheap prices, beautiful women. Needless to stay I was out all night.

So the next morning came time to go to the Great Wall. I fought with myself since I had been there before, whether or not to summon the energy to go. Thank god I did. Honestly I believe it is the coolest place I've been to in the world. Let me know show you some awesomeness:

First of all, it was the only day since I've been here that I saw the sunlight. The sky is always this pale shade of grey like someones holding an off color sheet over the sky. But also, check out the mountain range. This wall doesn't go on for 3,900 miles across the Michigan, Illinois, and the Great Plains, but over jagged mountain tops. Tower to tower is not a walk but a hike. They say 1 million people died during construction of the wall. If you think about it, I bet 500,000 americans would help to build a wall between the 1,900 mile US-Mexico border to stop illegals even if it might cost them their lives. 

The Great Wall is also a sweet place because of the random people you meet. Let me introduce you to the typical 'old' Chinese couple:

Man, thats exactly what you would expect, isn't it? One of the more peculiar things about the Great Wall was that the first restaurant you see when you arrive at this particular spot is Subway. Next to Arabic Roasters organic coffee. Didn't see that one coming...but hey, the Chinese did invent the sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub, didn't they?

Classes started today, but this post is getting too long at this point. I'll leave you with two last photos of my Blue Bullet roommate, Sho.

By the way, he's passed out with his head on his desk right now. In the background an anime moving is playing on his computer.

Sayanora!