I have been sick with a Chinese cold and in bed for the last 2 days and I needed to get out today.  48 hours of Chinese language television of which I have not understood one word so far.  At least they have a sports channel and with sports you don't need the commentors to understand what is going on.  So I have been watching the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.  Well today I woke up feeling better and it was my last day to explore Beijing before moving on to Xi'an (where the Terracota ...
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Yesterday was the day.  The day I got to see the Great Wall of China.  I had to take a 1 hour train ride to Badaling, which is where the section of the wall is that I was going to see, and this time I got a seat.  It was interesting to hear the locals owww and awww as you passed other sections of the wall on the train.  You could tell that they really cherish the wall and it was an important destination for the locals to go see.  Once we got to Badaling I spent the next 3 hours walking the wa...

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What a long, busy, tiring day I had today.  I went to see 3 places today.  I saw the inner parts of the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, and the Beijing Zoo.  I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the weather is sooooooo much better here than in Shanghai.  Actually I am liking Beijing much more than Shanghai in all areas.  There is just so much more to see and do here in Beijing than Shanghai.  Anyways, I got up early today knowing I had a lot on the schedule today.  On my way to the subwa...
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Today I got up early with the desire to see the Great Wall of China.  I did my research so I knew exactly how to get there.  Should be easy right?  Well it would have been except I didn't expect the train to Badaling (which is where the section of the great wall I wanted to visit is located) was sold out for the day.  So now what?  Well luckily I had already figured out how to get to all the other places I wanted to see so I just chose a different destination and I was off.  One thing I have ...
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Sunday morning I took a train from Shanghai to Beijing.  The ride was about 10 hours and I had no seat reserved because all the seats were sold.  So that meant I was going to have to stand or sit on the floor for the entire 10 hour ride.  I was not looking forward to the trip, but it had to be done if I wanted to get to Beijing.  The first 2 hours were okay.  I sat on the floor between train cars and I actually had plenty of room to spread out.  I was thinking to myself this is not so bad.  I...

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