During the middle of May, I went to Beijing, China to run in the Great Wall Marathon/Half-Marathon; I ran the half marathon partially on the Great Wall of China. I went to Beijing with my friend Andrea and we had a lot of fun seeing the sights in and around Beijing. We were in China for about a week. We both ran in the half-marathon - it was my 3rd and Andrea's very first half-marathon! Talk about difficult, especially for your first 13.1-mile race. The course we went on was uphill for 3 miles to the start of the Wall (since it's on the ridge of the mountains), then about a 3K on a segment of the Great Wall of China, then back down through another section of the Wall, and the rest was through the local village streets where locals cheered us on in Chinese. It was unlike any race I've ever been in, and let's just say I didn't pay attention to my time much!
Before the race, we were part of a tour group that saw the sights around Beijing. We went to numerous historical sights and in our "free time" Andrea and I did a little exploring on our own. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure, and the captions tell the story :)
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| Just arriving in Beijing with Andrea! |
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| Our hotel, the Dong Fang |
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| The courtyard at our hotel |
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| Walking around near our hotel |
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| At the entrance to the many layers of the Temple of Heaven |
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| Another layer to the Temple of Heaven |
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| Not sure what this little Chinese woman was doing but she was moving very slowly |
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| Old Chinese men playing games :) |
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| Organized exercise? |
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| Yellow is the historic symbol of royalty |
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| View of the Temple of Heaven |
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| The Temple of Heaven - finally |
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| Another view |
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| Yaun Hou Silk Factory - explaining how silk is made |
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| Testing the strength of silk |
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| Beautiful silk curtains, comforters, sheets...you name it! |
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| Tiananmen Square - 2nd largest square in the world |
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| Tiananmen Square - guards were all around probably due to the political-social movements that often occur there |
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| Across Tiananmen Square waits the Forbidden City |
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| Extravagant flower beds |
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| Inside the Forbidden City - the grounds where the emperor lived |
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| A woman dressed in some sort of traditional Chinese attire |
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| The Forbidden City is HUGE! 9,999 rooms in all |
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| Leaving the Forbidden City |
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| Kung Pao chicken - actual Chinese food in China :) Tasted a lot like the Kung Pao chicken I've had in the States |
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| Some friends in our tourist group that we made friends with |
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| Follow the blue fish! Sunny - our tour guide - was quite short so to help us keep track of her she told us to "follow the fish" she carried with her each day. So cute |
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| Yin Yang Square: the location of the start of the race |
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| Checking out the course a few days ahead of the big day |
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| We thought this sign was ironic: it says "Be Careful, Walk Slowly" when in fact we are supposed to run a half marathon on the Wall in just a few days |
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| Officially on the Wall! |
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| Excited to be there! |
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| A bit steep |
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| More Wall |
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| A great day to be visiting the Great Wall of China |
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| Representing the Boilermakers! |
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| Down... |
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| A good view of the Wall winding through the countryside |
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| Bird's eye view of the complex where we start the race |
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| Selling wares...on the Great Wall of China |
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| The map of the course |
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| Subway? In China? |
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| Saw a little strawberry stand on the bus on our way back to the hotel |
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| Wal-Mart (and KFC!) in China, hehe |
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| This cat looked just like Roki, I thought maybe he followed me to Beijing! |
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| Truly a Chinese restaurant |
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| Eating supper with our new friend from Okinawa |
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| Sunny! |
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| Inside the Cloisonne Factory |
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| Beautiful and unbreakable vases! |
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| Cloisonne vases |
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| Jade Factory |
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| Carved from a single piece of jade |
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| Follow the fish! To the Ming Tombs |
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| In the Yin Yang Square in the morning before the race |
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| We found some friends from Osan also at the race! But the guys did the full marathon |
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| Balloons let off at the start |
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| Ready to go! |
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| At the starting line |
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| Self explanatory :) |
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| A bit misty in the day of the race |
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| Cute little Chinese girl in the village along the course; always the double peace signs |
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| Some of the little girls handed us flowers as we ran by |
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| Andrea and I crossing paths (she took the photo) |
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| Andrea stopped to take some photos with some of the children cheering us all on |
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| This French guy ran with me almost the whole race and encouraged me to keep running; we met up for a picture after the race |
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| All done! And not too bad of a time...it definitely could've been worse! |
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| Trying to navigate our way through Beijing without our tour guide ;) |
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| There were traffic rules, but...we weren't sure what they were! |
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| Like sardines packed in the subway |
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| At the Olympic city in Beijing |
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| Bird's Nest! |
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| The rings outside the Bird's Nest |
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| Bird's Nest and some of the city |
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| Inside the Bird's Nest |
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| Everything so cute |
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| Too bad we couldn't see it all lit up like this! |
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| On our way to the "After Party" on our last evening |
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| Our last evening in Beijing, we had a party for all the participants in the Great Wall Marathon |
To sum it all up: I felt like I got to see an amazing part of history, accomplish something I never thought I'd do, and I met some pretty great people, too. So glad for this opportunity, but I probably will never run that half-marathon again! ;)
Farewell for now,
Love,
