Roller coaster ride up the mountain to the Great Wall.
At the Great Wall with former PhD students (now doctors) Clinton Whiteley, Ben Montag, and Nate Edwards.
Blending in with the locals at Tiananmen Square.
Ancient fire control in the Forbidden City. These giant pots are located all over the place and full of water.
While in China, we managed to locate Chinatown.
A pebble beach in Dalian, China. The place is packed with Russians and is a common vacation spot for them. Yet, the Chinese and Russians immediately recognized us as Americans everywhere we went. Our shoes? The way we walk? Who knows how?
This is a portion of the East Crest Mountain, where the Japanese had dug a bunker into the cliff during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. The Japanese hid in the bunkers - the attacking Russians jumped down over the cliffs and were ambushed from behind by the Japanese.
Inside the Japanese bunker.
Russian cannon leftover from the Russo-Japanese war of 1905.
Dalian at night.
Enjoying the Chinese Beer Fest (yes, really).
Dancing cat girls in the Budweiser pavilion at the beer fest. I walked right in with no problem, but everyone else was stopped at the door and could not enter. Anyway, this is how they run a beer fest in China.
They shut the beer fest down at around 10 pm. So a bunch of Swedish girls joined us and we headed for a Chinese Disco.
The city of Dalian.
The signs basically indicates not to climb on the horse. So, what do we care?
Artist painting the countryside near Dalian.
Jade sculptures.
In the US, we generally use rolling pins for this exercise. Apparently in China they use large wooden mauls.
The Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was built between 1406 and 1420, overseen by Ming Cheng Zu Zhu Di, and spans over 155,000 square meters.
Why is there no grass in the Forbidden City? What you are looking at, besides the buildings, is a floor covering the entire city composed of 15 brick layers (about 6 feet thick), placed down to prevent assassins and thieves from tunneling under the wall and into the city. These bricks were specially crafted and fired, and have withstood over 600 years of aging.