Simatai

We scaled the section of the Great Wall at Simatai a few days ago. This part of the wall is mostly undeveloped, in stark contrast to the overly touristy Badaling Great Wall.

Not sure if you can see it, but there's a brick at the left side of this picture with an engraving. It reflects the time period, emperor, and the brick making company for quality control purposes. The brick in this picture is engraved with a date that falls a bit before the Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1912)

There is a story of a woman who lost her husband who died while working on the wall. She returned to the wall to find him, and could not locate him. She was told he might have been buried within the wall. She spent the next few years pulling apart bricks from the wall with her bare hands. Perhaps i've got the story wrong in a few places. In any case, Simatai is located about 2 hours south of Mongolia. As i write this, construction workers are hard at work building a tourist shopping arcade (certainly with a KFC and Starbucks) at the base of this wall entry point. Mark my words, in less than 2 years, Simatai will be as touristy as Badaling.

It was the first day since the beginning of the trip that we could see blue skies. The air felt breezy and tropical. i had a hard time looking down, my knees were in a constant state of jello shakiness. The views were spectacular, just as it said in Lonely Planet's Beijing. Standing at the top tower, i thought of humanity's capacity to accomplish immense tasks. My thoughts turned to the devastation in New Orleans and the immense task of restoration and repair.

So I've left Beijing, the city of giddiness and hope. We descended into dark clouds at SFO yesterday morning. First thing out of the airport an onto North 101, we saw a man driving a convertible black Ford in the shape of a Corvette, license plate "AKA VENM," mullet streaming behind, cutting us off and slamming on his accelerator. Eeeewwwww. Welcome back to the United States.

While I was gone Katrina slammed New Orleans. The last time I left the states to go to Paris--the tsunami hit Thailand. After our days of touring the city, we would spend a few hours resting in our hotel room watching the tsunami coverage on the local news. We would then step out onto the streets of Montmartre every night around 9 p.m. (setting out on our daily dinner adventures....) wiping tears away from seeing the devastation and hearing testimony from people who were seeking their friends and relatives.

This time, when Katrina hit, I was sitting alone in my hotel room in horror and fear at the news of the impending storm and the potential damage it would cause. i woke up to heartbreaking photos on the front page of the China Daily each morning. i have not seen much media coverage on this just yet. i was able to catch only one English speaking news station.

Reading about the U.S. government's slow reaction and ten people dying a day (or more) from lack of basic nourishment and care is beyond appalling. i would like to read more about this situation. Here's an account from the Astrodome thanks to escapevelocity, via lunamania.

http://www.escapevelocity.org/

It's always odd to hear news when you're out of the country. I remember being in Japan when I heard about the death of Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix. It seemed unreal. There's a buffer of being faraway. Everything seems like a dream, including my own reality.