Delos in the land of China

Here's me at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. Not quite done yet. But it's huge and looks like a gigantic bird's nest. I asked when it would be done and ready for touring considering the Olympics start in August. They said "maybe by July." Cuttin' it pretty close!

This is the land of China. I'm at the great wall, I can't believe this place. It follows the peaks of the northern mountains for as far as you can see. 5,600KM they say (about as far as I can see with my new eyes!). averages 27 feet high all th way along and about 15 feet wide (designed for 5 horses across or 10 men). It has stations ever 500m where people lived and stuff. It's mind-boggling that this was built. Way up in the mountains. I took a tram up and then rode an LONG Alpine Slide back down! A lot of it is so steep it's stairs. Reminded me of climbing the stairs of Sinai.
Wish it was summer, it was pretty chilly, and all the trees are bare. But I was a little hot after al the climbing and running I did on the wall. I walked/climbed about 2 miles along the wall. It's weird. You think that maybe if you walk a couple of miles on the wall, you'll see like an end or something after that far when you're on something so tall and wide. Nope, just keeps going, and going, and going....
You get a slight feel here for the length and height of the wall here. It goes on forever!
This is the Forbidden City. Loots of Emporers lived here--all the way from about 1000 to 1925. It was "Forbidden" that anyone but a few royals and parliament people go in this city. It's also Gigantic. About a mile square. And has about 10 huge gates to get all the way in to where the Emperor's quarters were. Only the Emporer, his wife, his boys (until age 12), and girls (to age 14) were allowed to live in this gigantic palace. Along with anywhere from 200 to 1000 concubines.

Look at the detail of the carvings on the roof of one of the buidings in the Forbidden City. There are probably 100 buildings in the complex.
Enormous courtyards in various places of the palace for parliament or other groups to meet in. The Emporer wanted to be "heavenly," and so he had these huge gray-looking stair steps to look sort of like the gray sky and try to create the feel that his palace was floating in the air. Anytime large groups came they lit hundreds of incense pots that generated smoke and also helped create the feel of the palace floating in the clouds. The buildings were all made of wood (Cypress), so they have big brass vats (2000 of them) all over that used to all be kept full of water to help put out any fires.


The entrance to the Forbidden City has a big picture of someone.

Downtown Beijing. Very modern. Street lights and lanes. Almost as many bikes as cars. Sooooo polluted. Can't see more than a block or two there is so much smog. Apparently there is NEVER a clear day there because of all the pollution. Things are pretty cheap here. Got an extra value meal with McNuggets at Mickey D's today for $2.