On Wednesday, March 26, we took the train from Beijing to Tai'an.Beijing warmed us up for traveling in Asia and we are excited for this next stage of our journey.Taylor and his great roommates eased our transition here in China and helped us navigate Beijing.Taylor lent us his extra cell phone and we took advantage of him and his roommates many times to help communicate via cell phone with waiters, taxi drivers, and other people we met during our time in Beijing.The language barrier for a non-Chinese speaker is high and feels insurmountable.Our current Chinese vocabulary consists of Ni Hao (hello), Xie Xie (thank you - our most-used word), Dui bu qi (I'm sorry, excuse me), Fu yuan (waiter/waitress - bellowed across the room at the top of your voice), and Mai dan (the bill) and we feel this needs to be expanded now that we are travelling south to Shanghai without Taylor!

Since our last posting, we have visited some of the main tourist spots in and around Beijing - the Summer Palace and the Great Wall.Both were incredible.The summer palace was used as a summer get-away for the Imperial Court during the Qing Dynasty and is composed of palace temples, gardens, pavilions, and lakes.Located on the shores of Kunming Lake (which was greatly expanded in the 18th century with the assistance of 100,000 slave laborers), the Summer Palace offered a retreat for the Imperial Court from the summer heat of the Forbidden City in central Beijing.We both felt that the Hall of Longevity, the beautiful lake, and the Buddhist temple were the most impressive structures and complex that we have seen thus far in China.We had a wonderful day walking along the lake, climbing the stairs to the Buddhist Temple which sits perched on a hill above the lake, and enjoying the vast views of modern-day Beijing.

The Great Wall, outside of Beijing, also managed to surpass our already large expectations.We visited the wall at Mutianyu (there are many different "visiting points but we heard that Mutianyu was less tourist-y and crowded than many of the others) which is 90 km northeast of Beijing.Built upon a pre-existing Qi Dynasty wall, the Ming Dynasty completed this section of the wall in 1569.The length of the entire wall is some 30,000 miles long.During the first significant wall construction, historians estimate that some 300,000 forced laborers helped to construct the wall, many adding their own bones to the wall's mortar if they died during their labor.Today, the Great Wall has come to symbolize China's rich history and is a national icon of which everyone here is very proud.Perhaps the wall's current regard among the Chinese people is partially attributable to Chairman Mao's famous quote: "If you haven't been to the Great Wall, you're not a real Chinese."After our day of wandering along the wall we can better understand the sentiment behind these words.We were both awed and amazed at the grandeur of the wall and the sense of history that it evokes.

As we leave Beijing we are excited for the next steps in our journey but sad to say good-bye to Taylor and the city, which we so enjoyed exploring.Taylor was an incredible host, from roasted duck meals to biking through Tiananmen Square at 11 pm to see the guards still at their posts and Mao's painting lit up in all its glory to a final evening of karaoke with Taylor and some of his friends.What a wonderful stay.Thank you, again, Taylor!We are now on a train heading down to the city of Tai'an, where we plan to hike one of China's most famous mountains, Tai Shan, and will write more in a few days…

-Todd