Our 2nd day begins bright and early at 5AM. It felt great. Afterward, Emery and I walked up and down along the street our hotel was on and examined all food items the vendors had to offer. We even wandered into a mini-supermarket and looked at all the colorful candy and toiletries. At the same restaurant as the night before, we ordered xiaolongbao and spicy beef noodle soup. However, we forgot to ask them not to douse it with MSG so we only had a few bites then left. The whole meal was extremely cheap (not over $2US) so we didn't have any regrets.On the way back, we bought two sesame balls stuffed with rice flour and red bean. We originally wanted just one sesame ball but the vendor gave us a busted one so instead of giving us a replacement, he wanted us to buy a second. I'm still getting used to the fact that good customer service in China is nonexistent a lot of areas.
Back at the hotel, we had a tray of congee, boiled (chicken) egg, mantou, and pickled vegetables. We checked out of the hotel around 9, leaving our big luggage at the hotel storage room. Jenny herded the group to the local tour "bus" (it was a small van). Our group were on the road for 3 hours or so, sharing Chinese snacks and talking about Australian and US politics and sex education in other countries. It's a rare opportunity to be randomly grouped with a bunch of laid-back and well-read people. All of them seemed socially aware of their surroundings and eager to share their many insights on a wide variety of subjects. There were always quirky observations to be made whether we were zipping past the heavily industrialized part of Beijing or out by the terraced hills and low ceiling shacks of the countryside.
We arrived and dropped off our bags at this four-sided courthouse style hotel in Jinshanling. We had a room with a central heating system, twin beds, and stone floors. The bathroom appeared to have a sauna but the door was broken and there was an exposed light bulb so we didn't touch it. Again the shower area was not separated from the toilet. I guess we were expected to sit on the toilet seat while washing hair? Despite the scary bathroom, I was more than pleased with our accommodations since it was way different from what I had anticipated.
For group lunch at the hotel restaurant (it's the only one around in the area), We ordered spicy tofu, water-cooked fish, a standard chicken dish, and duck wrapped in tofu skin. After lunch, we were free to explore the Shalingkou portion of the mountain.
Emery and I stayed in our rooms for a bit to wait out the late afternoon drizzle then we started down the road towards the Wall. It must have taken us at least 20 minutes to reach the first steps because we kept stopping every now and then to snap shots of trees, rocks, and flowers. When we finally made it at on the Wall were pleasantly surprised by how isolated that portion of the wall was that day. It was just us and the wind. From this portion of the wall, we could already see so many mountains. Unfortunately, we had left behind the binoculars in the hotel room. The many openings in the wall made me wish I had brought a toy archery kit along with me.
The two of us walked about 10km that day (just the warm-up!). We visited a storage room and watch tower then back. We also wandered off to some small elevated garden area where we observed some giant black ants headbutting each other and a bunch of other unusual greens.
Dinner was set for 6 but we had taken a nap at 4 and woke up at 9... Fortunately, we were able to order take-out (cumin lamb and fish-fragrant chicken) from the restaurant and bring it back to our room. Bed time was around 11 that night.
Shared expenses:
xiaolongbao & spicy beef noodle breakfast 12Y
sesame balls 8Y
Xihua zhongfan breakfast 30Y
Jinshan lunch 64Y
Jinshan dinner 80Y
total = 194Y approx. $28.50US
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