I am down to 150lbs or 67kilos for those of my metric friends, a loss of 15 lbs since the first of the year. I feel the best i have in years. Glad it was the unwanted lbs that I lost, most right around my middle. YEAH!
I had a great day again...yesterday on The Great Wall. My friend from the Hostel, Sophie and my current roommate Bonnie spent the day touring the Ming tombs and the section of the great wall call Mutianyu. It was a very hilly section that we climbed. The best part was of course not the ski lift (open) two seater lift to the mountain top or really the traversing the wall itself this time (a wind storm had blown in and literally raised a huge cloud of dust so the mountain range was obscured but are you ready for this....the ride down was in a one man, manual brake, single person, open sled like contraption with the brake lever between your legs toboggan (luge for you Olympians, extreme sport fanatics). OMG it was a thrilling ride as when you let the brake out all the way you literally could break the speed sound barrier. this ride lasted 15 minutes from the top of the mountain to the bottom, zigging and zagging, corners that made me scream with excitement. It was the best part of the day. This tour also visited the Ming Tombs, although we were on a tour so it was a little swift for my lazy wandering self. But the tour guide, Helen was very informative and got our group of nine thru the hordes of tour bus throngs efficiently and with a great explanation and positioning to see all that was offered.
We also got to visit the jade and silk markets on this tour. The jade market taught us the difference between real jade and marble and glass alternatives (fakes) that are sold in the street markets (tourist trinkets). First is the sound, which is a very clear ping as opposed to the gong of glass and the thud of marble. The most important difference is between the glass and real jade is that real jade when held to the light has the clouding on the inside that is distinctive only to the real jade. They call it flowering or some such descriptive. There were also actual jade carvers, artisans of drawing the final product and polishers behind a glass hallway that show the process being completed. Quite fascinating to see. All before leading you to the largest display for purchase jade store of jewelry, carved object and jade everything you would want or need including life size warriors, horses, amazing screens and cauliflower or some such vegetable that if properly placed with the blossom facing the door provided for wealth and good luck to enter your home. Being homeless presently I passed on the purchase.
The silk market also had a tour of how the silk worm spins it's own cocoon and demonstrated the opening of the cocoon removal of the worm, setting the silk in to this really incredible machine that extracts the actual strands of silk from the cocoon and then the actual stretching and laying of the silk on the machine to separate the minuscule strands. We actually got the chance to stretch the silk onto a frame for the comforters. It was quite a process and the prices for the comforters were a little steep but for being hand made priced by weight not by size (twin, queen, king) as the stretch for king makes them thinner and the twin thicker but the weight relatively the same.
I spent my last day in Xi'an with a new friend I met in Shanghai. We wandered the streets, visited the History Museum which was fun and took alot of pictures of each other everywhere we went. I t was great to have someone local to hang with for the day. He also took to me to a park that was a bit of a bus ride to visit a temple and then we stayed late (9pm) to see the water fountain and lights show. the park was really large, kind like central park but less trees and alot more statuary and trinket markets, Starbucks the usual for large Chinese gathering areas. the best part is that in China these great open spaces are actually fully used by the locals. It is just awesome to see a throng of families with small children, elderly and young adults all congregating in the same location and enjoying themselves.
The fountains which were about the length of a football field were multi-terraced with viewing steps that ran across about every 20 yards so that if you stood anywhere from the sidelines to mid-field you had this spectacular view of about 5 different pools where the water fountains, and colored lights danced to the music. The music was traditional Chinese and i did not understand a bit of it but then the games began. The boyfriend pushes the girlfriend into the dancing water spray and she in turns drags her girlfriend in as well for laughing at her. The fountains shoot at random intervals so then the game of running across the fountain without getting wet is always humorously acknowledged when the runner gets drenched by a ill timed dash. Pictures are being taken to try to time the water spouts to catch just the right moment and then a mad dash to prevent the airborne spouts from landing on your head. Well I was tempted but leaving for Hong Kong in the morning meant no time for soaking wet clothes to dry so I avoided temptation and merely laughed at those less fortunate or possibly in the spirit of a good time had by one and all.
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