End of the Line Confessions

I leave for Cape Town late Monday night and after what I thought was a pretty good pace through China, Beijing became more of my wind-down-town. There is tons to see and do in Beijing and millions of eager sightseers to do it all with. Beijing is a big sprawling, clean and beautiful city. And, a little ashamedly, I didn't do much at all.
The few spots I hit: The Bird's Nest, The Cube, Tian'anmen Square and The Forbidden City. It was all good and worth my time. Now, for the near entirety of this trip I had very few 'must-dos'. Those included catching my flights, eating and going to the Great Wall (the intact part). Well, I guess it's good I did the first two things, but I failed to make it to the Wall. When in Beijing, one of the easiest things to do is go to the Great Wall. There are numerous sections to visits via numerous channels. I have done a good job in China making things workout with few resources and failed at the easiest. I put off going to the Wall until my last day, Monday. After sleeping in Monday morning I had to pack and send a large box of crap back home. Long story short, by the time I got to the local bus I found out the routes had changed. I did not have enough time to go to another section of the Wall and get back in time. Looks like I have to come back to Beijing another day.Despite this failing, I quite enjoyed Beijing. I did a fair amount of walking and eating. Met some really great people in the hostel all of whom, like me, were using Beijing as either a starting point or a jumping-off point. We went to a few bars and scoped out some good eats. Five of us split a fantastic family-style dinner before I caught my flight out which made for a nice send off. Sunday, I made it out to the Beijing Flying Tiger hash. Similar to my home hash group, these people did it right. A mere $9 covered the cost of a tour bus to shuttle us out to the suburban 'boonies', an 8 k run, two BB's and a bar-b-que. They were a really friendly group composed mostly of expats and they had loads of good, cheap t-shirts and patches for sale. I even met an 03' Carolina grad with whom I could high-five after the semi-final win just a few hours prior! GO HEELS!

My only regret about this China leg of the trip is that I did not schedule another 6 weeks!

One other thing: I would like to thank all those who have dropped comments or sent emails concerning this blog. Not only is it nice to know it is being read, but more importantly it is nice to know that that some of you have enjoyed reading it. For me, as I am not a big fan of writing in general, updating this blog has been surprisingly rewarding and therapeutic. What goes in my journal does not really concern anything I actually do, so updating the blog has been a good way for me to catalog those events. And finally, knowing even just a few people are reading it serves as a nice connection to 'home'. So, thanks to you all!

My next post will be from Cape Town.