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I love steamed buns and was always on the lookout for vendors that looked hygienic. The place I found in Xian looked great and they had four different kinds, each with a different filling.

China 1998 - Part Three: Xian & Beijing

Dougburnett
2003-11-22 16:39:38

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at what he did next but at regular intervals he would blow it again. It didn't take long for the crowded bus and the nose blowing to get on my nerves. Then I started thinking about how long a ride was ahead of me. I sat and looked out the window and decide this wasn't for me - I wasn't in the mood for a crowded bus ride today. So I got off.

On the street I met a guy who offered to take me to Badaling in his car for 350 yuan - there were lots of such offers. I thought about it for a minute and then made the mistake of saying OK. His "car" turned out to be one of these tiny little vehicles the Chinese call "loaf of bread" vans because of their shape. He took off down the crowded street and out of Beijing as fast as the shaking little van could go. He cut in front of everybody and, to my mind, just made a nuisance of himself. I immediately hated him.

It was a little over an hour of this crazy driving out to Badaling. The first half of the trip was through an area built up with the usual ugly concrete development. The latter part was through increasingly rugged hills. As we climbed the air cooled considerably and I wished I had brought a jacket.

In Badaling we pulled into a vast parking lot surrounded by tourist stands and restaurants. When we got to the end, I discovered that I was at the cable car entrance. I had romantic visions of walking up the wall not taking a stupid cable car but I could not make my driver understand this. So I bought a ticket (50 yuan) and rode, somewhat indignantly, up to the wall. There I found a sign that read, "Please note that the cable car ticket does not include admission to the wall." Now they tell me. Anyway, I had come too far not to pay the extra 25 yuan to walk on the Wall.

The day was hazy, limiting my view somewhat, and the wall was crowded with tourists but that didn't diminish my pleasure at walking there. The Wall takes ...