I Still Have One Trip Left in Me

^Zhang Ning and me at the Great Wall at Badaling.  I finally made it!

I made two final trips while in Beijing, which have brought my time in China to a nice closing.  I finally made it the Great Wall, which I was really beginning to worry about with so little time left.  Fortunately, my Chinese teacher, Zhang Ning, gladly accepted my invitation to go because she had never been either!  So I thought of my classmates from last semester, Ally, David, and Rebecca as I went to go buy the tickets. While we were in Tibet we always joked about the stereotypical Chinese tour groups with the screaming tour guide trailed by a pack of bumbling Chinese people.  Well, I finally joined one of those groups to see what the hype was all about and we went to the Great Wall at Badaling.  The tour guide was actually pretty funny and I had a nice day, even with all the tourists.

^Jessi and me making her first sandcastle on the beach at Beidaihe.

^The result!

The second trip was just as much spontaneous as it was appreciated.  Friday afternoon, Jessi, my English student, told me that at 7am the next day we were going to Beidaihe for the weekend.  Not only is Beidaihe the place where people claim the Chinese government hosts corrupt meetings, but it also happens to be essentially the only beach on China's northern coast.  Interesting, eh? I told a colleague where I was going and how excited I was to go to the beach and she gave me a heads up that it probably wasn't the kind of beach I had in mind from America.  She was right; it was almost like the Beijing metro, but with beach chairs and less clothing.  I still had a good time swimming and helping Jessi make her first sand castle (this always makes me think, what do these kids do when they're growing up).

^In Chinese, I jokingly said to my host father, "are those the private beaches?" meaning only government officials can use them, because that is how we would say it in English and the irony of his response was that they are not private, but rather public beaches because they are controlled by the government.  #ItsForThePeople

Back to Beijing for the last time, on this trip at least, for one final week of wrapping things up.