The Great Wall

So we climbed the great wall on friday and since then I haven't had much time to ruminate on it: Beijing is an active city, and since I'm only here for two months, I feel a sense of urgency that I've never felt before: I want to go everywhere, see everything, and meet everybody. Formal Chinese study has started to become auxiliary: the real practice comes from using language to get around. Sure I can xue some yufa with everyone else until late in the night(and very frequently do) but I find myself wanting to finish early and go meet some friends to speak to. I don't know why (I'm usually a little bit of a shy person), but im enjoying the feeling and having a great time.
Anyway back to the great wall...
Its largely about as old as the forbidden city, is equally if not more impressive to look at. Approaching from the point of view of a marauding mongolian, I see myself letting out a quick laugh and turning my yak around. It was hard enough to get to the top of the wall (I may have never climbed that many stairs in my life), but from the other side, would have been almost insurmountable. Not only is it tall, but its longer than anyone can see from any point where we were. Granted the "scenic mountain mist" (aka smog) does alot to obscure distant vision, but it's impressive nonetheless. The whole area of approach was extremely commercial: little independent stores lined the road up to the ticket area: there was even an option of some of the lazier tourists to take a gondola to the top(and a slide down). The juxtaposition of rampant commercial and ancient heritage really knocked me out: here you have the most massive surviving landmark of the old world and all around it are people using that fact to whatever advantage they can get. Our textbook is called "A New China" and I can't help but compare the old with the new. So many people have a picture of China as a land of tradition and often of repression, but strangely enough the places that should most confirm that impression turn it on its head. People may not be able to have political individualism but they definitely have a much more similar mindset to Americans than many people are willing to acknowledge.

alright i'm getting tired and i should start my essay(ugh): more soon.