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The next morning, after arriving in Beijing, Everett and I caught the last tour bus from Tinanmen Square to the Great Wall of China. It was a Chinese tour bus, so we didn't understand a thing as the tour operator explained at some length about... well, I have no idea what it was about. It was on the bus that we met David. Born in the US, he moved with his folks to Israel when he was young, and he's been living and working in Israel ever since. He's on a 3 month leave of absence from his job with Intel to backpack around Asia. He told us of his adventures in India, Nepal, Tibet and southern China and that he was heading to inland China and the mountains after Beijing.

Our tour took us to a spot developed for tourists along a rebuilt fragment of the remaining bits of the Great Wall called Badaling, which translates directly into "Eight reach mountain ridge." I was later told that this name was meant to indicate that you could get to eight sections of the wall from there.

At first, to hear that the wall had been restored and was constantly worked on was disappointing. I expected to see how time had treated the abandoned structure. But as it turns out, it was enlightening to see the wall in its full form as it stood many years ago, when Chinese guardsmen patrolled its great length, defending the dynasties that built the first (if not the only) man made structure which can be seen from outer space.

After arriving in China, I had to make a quick adjustment from the friendly passive sales attitude of the Japanese and Americans to defending myself from the aggressive, yet still friendly, style of the Chinese vendors. I already had such a mode preprogrammed in my mind after spending three months in Nepal.

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