To celebrate my 13th birthday yesterday we rose early to get to the Great Wall before the crowds. September 24th was the first annual National Full Moon Harvest Festival so everyone was out of school and work, spending time with friends and family at cultural heritage sites. What I’m trying to say is that it was very crowded. We were on the seven AM train to the wall, trying to catch a few extra minutes of shut eye to make up for the early hours.
The Great Wall, while busy, was spectacular. It was breezy so the warm, bright light of the sun felt good. The blue skies screamed autumn. We hiked the steep steps that wound throughout the mountains until we could go no further. We got some great pictures of the ginormous creation and just basked in the hugeness of it.
It wasn’t until five that we got back to our neighborhood in Beijing. Mom and I had spotted a nice little bakery with some beautiful cakes so we bought a tiramisu cake that made your mouth water just looking at it.
On the way back to our hotel, carrying the cake carefully to avoid little kids brandishing sticks, we saw a large group of photographers taking pictures of what appeared to be a busy road. There were at least 25 with heavy duty exspensive cameras. I wanted to see what was so photogenic and when I stood on the overpass next to them my breath was taken away. Down the street was the most amazing sunset, and sillueted against it was the Temple of Heaven, one of the extravagant temples of the city. It was so pretty.
We spent birthday dinner at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant with the place to ourselves. We had a great view of the full moon and some skyline and eating meat skewers. We spent hours talking and playing dominoes and eventually eating a delicious birthday cake. It was a birthday to remember forever.
"We got some great pictures of the ginormous creation and just basked in the hugeness of it." - Love that line- Happy belated B-day Anika!
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