Shanghai (9-11 MAY)

The HuXin Ting Tea House, the oldest Tea House in Shanghai, is set in the middle of the Nine Curve Bridges, which is said to give luck to anyone who crosses it, so I did.



One of many pavilions and ponds inside the Yuyuan Garden, built in 1559 as a private garden for a local government admistrator.


Shanghai's famous skyline. The electric bill is huge and they actually kill the lights at midnight to save money and as a green measure.

The skyline at sunset, just before the lights come on, taken from a hostel above The Bund, the banking district on the banks of the Huangpu River.

Nanjing Road, a popular shopping district in the heart of Shanghai. Shanghai was the first Special Economic Zone of China and it shows.

One of the themes of the trip across China was the long train journeys. It is a huge country and the trip was similar to traveling the east coast of America by train, from Boston to Miami, with detours inland for stops in Philadelphia and Atlanta. With all that ground to cover between destinations, the overnight train rides usually stretched late into the next day. We arrived in Shanghai after 16 hours on the train and despite being tired, we were still anxious to get out and explore the new city.

Shanghai was the first Special Economic Zone in China, and the western capitalist influence is immediately noticeable. With the western architecture, influence and wealth the international business has brought to the city, it feels almost as if you are in a financial/commerce hub like San Francisco or New York, except you always seem to be on the fringe of Chinatown. You will find all the stores you would expect on Fifth Avenue, but most of the signs are still in Chinese and a wonton soup shop is always just around the corner. Nanjing road is the Fifth Avenue of Shanghai and feels like the Disneyland for shoppers. The even have a small amusement park style train to shuttle shoppers between stores. While wondering Nanjing Road, with all the western shops and fast food joints I travel to get away from, we were approached multiple times by what seemed to be helpful locals telling us, ‘Watch your bags,’ which would make one assume that pick-pockets are a problem. However, they were actually trying to sell us knock-off watches or bags.

Our hotel was just outside the city center and was nice, but it was also located on the corner of a ‘massage’ street. However, there were restaurants between every parlor as well, and since the restaurants were good, cheap and right around the corner, we tended to dine on that street often. Despite the probing eyes and catcalls from the parlors. In the evening, long after even the parlors had closed their doors; the street would be filled with local meals on wheels shops. We became regulars at one of these rolling kitchens with a wok-wheeling woman that cooked up a mean wonton soup. The mobile kitchens were much more popular with the local crowds than with tourists, so by our second and final evening, the woman knew us, and our orders, and had it cooking before we even reached her wok on wheels.

On our second day in Shanghai, we fit in a couple other sites, before returning to wok row. In the morning, we wondered the river front on both the east and west side of the river, which is interesting because the east side had all the tallest and most modern skyscrapers, while the west side is lined by the old stone banking buildings of the early twentieth century, which are dwarfed by another set of skyscrapers trying to measure up tot the east bank. After soaking in everything western, we wondered into the touristy part of town for a taste of China, the Yuyuan Gardens. The Gardens were originally built for Pan Yunduan, an government commissioner under Ming Emperor Jiajing in 1559. Now the gardens are open to the public and are an excellent example of Chinese gardens. The walls separating the various sections of the gardens are crowned with serpent-like dragon with a rolling back that stretches the length of the walls. Each section has its own theme, and the garden even includes an opera stage tucked behind walls and buildings, only accessible through a narrow passage, which opens into the grand open-air hall in front of the stage. Despite the noisy, busy streets and markets outside the walls, the garden remains a quiet escape. So quiet in fact, that a few of the girls from my group fell asleep on one of the pavilions and were only awaken by the sound of their own snoring.

Outside the gardens is HuXin Ting Teahouse, the oldest Teahouse in Shanghai. It is set in an artificial pond of fountains, marble statues and incredibly green water, on a nine-curve bridge. Beyond the teahouse, lies a tourist market filled with all things tourist might think is Chinese, but at price no local would pay. I considered trying stopping in at the teahouse for some traditional tea, but it was pretty crowded. However, it was no where near as crowded as the Starbucks around the corner. I just don’t get it. Why travel all the way to China to get coffee at Starbucks, especially when it is around the corner from the oldest teahouse in town?

Humor is often found in the translations of directions or sayings from Chinese to English. While I was in Shanghai, the saying, ‘sell the shirt off your back’ appeared to get a little mixed up. I was wondering back to the hotel from the Yuyuan Garden, one of the many shop owners approached me to push her products. At first, she was trying to sale me a shirt, but when that failed, she tried to get me to pay her to take the shirt off my back. Offering me a ‘massage’ and she had a firm grip on my arm either to show me her strength for the massage, or to pull me in the shop. She almost had this fish in the boat, but I managed to squirm out of her grasp and convince her I had no interest in gaining a new shirt, or losing mine.

That evening, we met up at the Captain’s Hostel, which has a spectacular view of the Shanghai skyline from above the Bund. We watched the skyline transition from a golden sunset shimmer to the post-dusk neon glimmer. The electric bills must be nearly as amazing as the display, and I was told they actually shut the lights off after midnight to cut back on the electric bill. The entire riverfront side of some of the buildings turned into huge movies screens that appeared to display the screensaver of the main office computer transitioning from an aquarium scene to commercials. Meanwhile in the river below them, barges were floating by with more jumbo-tron screens blasting their own bright ads to compete with the buildings behind them. Plus the iconic Oriental Pearl radio tower, with its light covered sphere flashing like a bursting fireworks, was yet another light show competing for our attention.

Meanwhile behind us on the patio bar was the classic ‘Ugly Americans’ and would you know, they were from New Jersey. When we arrived at Captains, the group was already getting a little rowdy, and one of the guys was already beer battered, having spilt his brew down the front of his button down dress shirt. They looked like they might have money and acted as if they were friends of Tony Soprano. As the evening wore on, they continued to go down hill. Despite the music’s low volume and the quiet groups around them, they insisted on carrying on their conversation as if they were in a club, sitting in front of the main speakers. In the end, I think the loudest members of the group even became embarrassments to the group itself and, much to the appreciation of us and the restaurants staff, they finally left, allowing the rest of us to enjoy the superb view and light show across the river. Of course, since I was the only American in the group, I was left to defend Americans in general, and to explain that New Yorkers and the obnoxious people of New Jersey are a bit of an anomaly and embarrassment to all of us.

On our last day in Shanghai, I wanted to go to an internet café, and our guide had told us there was one just around the corner. It sounded like it would be simple to find but I wondered up and down the street three times until another local warning me to ‘watch my bags’ finally helped me find the place. It was in a non-descript multi-story office building, with a few storefronts on the first level. The watch and bag man took me down a service hall to an elevator that looked like it might not even be in service. He directed me to the fourth floor and when the doors opened, I was in a video game arcade. However, tucked in the back of the arcade was the speakeasy cyber-café. It was as if I had found myself in the cyber prohibition and to get a drink in the e-world you had to know a guy that knew a guy, plus the secret knock and the password to get in the door. Amazing. Yangshuo was our next stop, so it was back to the train station and I could only hope the cyber cafes would be easier to find.

Xian (6-8 MAY)

Terracotta Warriors under reconstruction in the largest of three satellite tombs that have been uncovered. All the tombs were ransacked, with the warriors destroyed and there weapons stolen, during an uprising after the emperors death.


Ollie and I riding early versions of the mechanical bull... they weren't mechanical... weren't even on rockers... and actually weren't suppose to be rode.

The formations of reconstructed warriors as they were initially laid out. Each hall was covered with wooden beams and buried. They were buried with the Emperor in 210 BC and were not rediscovered until 1974 by a local farmer, who now has a career signing autographs at the exhibit.

The bell tower in the center of Xians walled city.

North face of the old city wall, which was first built in 194 BC and rebuilt in the 14th century. Each of the four sides of the wall has a different animal on the lantern posts. Here you can see the west (Dragon) and north (Jaguar). Xian was the first capital of unified China and has one of the only preserved city walls.

Despite a long and prestigious history as a capital and eastern hub of the Silk Road, modern Xian’s history is a little more like that of Detroit. It became an industrial capital with an ugly skyline and demographically misbalanced with a large male population filling these blue-collar positions. Crime was high, work was limited and undesirable, and women fled the city for education and hopes of marrying out. However, it has had somewhat of a renaissance since China has opened its borders for tourism, the Terracotta Warriors were discovered just outside the city in 1974, and universities have been established in the city. The population is still predominantly young men, and our local guide, Jimmy, uses his podium to encourage the young women in the group to stay and marry a local (preferably him). Our primary guide, Tracy, warned us petty crime is still a problem, and Xi’an is where tourists are most likely to be robbed on their trip across China. As if to highlight the fact, one of the girls in our group nearly had her camera stolen from her bag as she boarded a bus. Once we got beyond the bad press, the city was actually quite charming. We started our visit with a tour around the 12 km wall around the center of the city. The wall has entrances in the four cardinal directions and at the southern entrance, you can rent bikes to ride around the circumference. We rented several tandem bikes and took a leisurely ride around stopping at each of the four corners as well as the four gates to take pictures. The city, both within the wall and outside it, was a mix of eastern and western styles of architecture. A lot of the eastern style buildings were actually the newer buildings and part of the city’s attempt to re-establish some of it’s roots, while the western architecture is mostly industrial/functional structures that serve as more of an eyesore on the skyline. I had expected the city within the walls to be well-preserved example ancient Chinese cities, but it was very modern, except for a few preserved pagodas, drum and bell towers, and most of the efforts to re-build in eastern styles. I was also surprised to find that one of the preserved districts within the cities walls was a Islamic district, which was established by the traders that traveled the Silk Road from the Middle East to Xian. After biking the wall, I wondered through an art district at the south gate and then hopped on a bus, which should have brought me back to the hotel. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the road, and therefore caught the bus going in the opposite direction. I assumed it traveled a loop and I’d just ride it around to see the city and eventually make it back to the hotel. Eventually, I did make it back to the hotel. However, first, the bus drove to the southern end of town and terminated at a bus depot, where I had to transfer and pay a second fare to get back to the city center. If I had not spent the afternoon joy riding the local transit, I would have liked to explore the parks/gardens along the remnants of the moat that once surrounded the city wall, which I had noticed earlier when we were on the wall. On our second day in Xian, we took a tour out to the Terracotta Warriors. This is when we met Jimmy, our local guide and he did a great job talking up the town, all its tourist attractions, and downplaying any negative press. The warriors were impressive, but rather than going there directly, we had to stop at one of the many terracotta gift emporiums along the way. This was common on tours and I am sure the guides get some kickbacks for our stop and purchases. At any rate, the emporium did have some cool mini-cotta warriors and headless warriors to stand behind for picture ops.
The exhibit is broken up into several buildings. The largest is around 200 meters long and 100 meters wide, and has the restored formations at the front and many of the terrocotta warriors that are being restored toward the back. A smaller building has a headquarters element where a Terracotta General and several chariots and horses were found. Then there is another large building which has the formations partially uncovered but most have the remains of the old wooden beams, which are now bowed, still covering the halls, and the few that are uncovered show the ruined remains littering the halls, as they were found. And lastly there is a museum with a giant terracotta marionette, standing about 2o feet tall that was used in show to promote the exhibit.
Though the vast formations of uncovered and restored warriors are impressive, they represent only a fraction of the entire army of statues, which is estimated to include over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots and 670 horses, and it is only a fraction of the larger tomb or the first Emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huang. The entire tomb, which has actually never been fully excavated is truly and kingdom taken to the grave. Around 205 BC, only a few years after the Emperor died, most of his terracotta army was destroyed in a revolt. The tombs were set on fire and reportedly burned for five months! Ironically, the Emperor's son, who had ascended the throne, was killed with weapons taken from the terracotta soldiers when the tombs were raided.

After the revolt, the tombs location was lost to history until 1974, when a farmer digging a well rediscovered them. In the exhibit hall with the restored formations of soldiers, you can see how close others were to discovering the tombs. Some graves, established long after the Emperor’s, were uncovered along with the warriors and are visible in the wall between the formations. The farmer that did uncover the tomb was rewarded by the state for the find and probably to buy the land, and now he spends his days signing autographs rather than tending fields.

In the evening, our group celebrated one of the member’s birthday at a local restaurant and a few pubs. The dinner was accompanied multiple rounds of rice wine and by the end of the evening we were planning the birthday girl’s marriage to a local boy at the neighboring table and riding stilt horses along the wall. We later learned that the Chinese writing on the front of the horses said, ‘Do not ride.’ The birthday girl also had a huge bowl of long noodles, which is a birthday tradition in China in which the long noodles represent a wish for long life. This of course came after a huge meal and she did not last long against the long noodles. After dinner, we moved the party to a local nightclub, where the girls undressed the bartenders, and we danced on the bar and spent half the evening behind the bar until the place closed.

For our last day in Xian, we spent a few hours at the museum and a city park with both the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, and China’s largest fountain. Unfortunately, we missed seeing the cities Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, as well as the fountain’s daily show set to lights and music. The Pagodas are thousands of years old and one of them is famous because an earthquake cracked it in half, and years later, another earthquake repaired the crack! Sadly, I learned this after my visit, so I did not get to see the crack that is no longer there… if that is even possible…

Last Day In Beijing (5MAY)

CCTV headquarters, said to have as much office space as the Pentagon. Notice the building next door which has noticeable fire damage... there's a funny story behind that...


Beijings World Trade Center Tower, China's tallest building. Just a few blocks from the CCTV Building


The Olympic Swim cube and a crazy Olympic torch inspired skyscraper, which has a huge TV/jumbotron screen on it.

More of the Olympic Park Grounds, grand walkway, lighting and the Control tower.

The birdsnest main Olympic stadium.

Our last day in Beijing was a bit of an architectural tour for me. I had read a national Geographic special on China and Beijing, which had highlighted a lot of the new construction that was rapidly dominating the skylines of Beijing with greater western influence than some locals, and worldwide culture conservationists, care to see. I would agree that a lot of historical structures and even neighborhoods are being lost, but I am not going to pretend I have a pulpit to preach from on this front.

I can say I was amazed as I traveled across the country and saw the expansive the constructions efforts in almost every city and village. At times, it even seemed like entire cities and suburbs were being built from the ground up and were only populated by the constructions workers raising the skyline from the earth. A horizon dotted with cranes, the skeletons of buildings slowly being filled in with the circulations systems of plumbing, and electrical circuitry, meat of insulation still flapping in the wind before the skin of siding could be applied to conceal it all. In some areas, even the new construction was already in decay, leaning and crumbling victims of recent earthquakes, in a sad state of ruin before even the first tenant had moved in.

Back in Beijing, we stopped in the Chaoyang district in the eastern section of the city for our last few hours before catching the train to Xian. Most of the new buildings I saw there was complete and quickly being filled by the consumers of the new capitalist state. However, there were also a few new construction sites were still springing up in the spaces between. Some of the buildings I had read about in National Geographic were in this district, like the China World Trade Center, which is the tallest building in China. I had also read about the new CCTV tower, which was under construction when the article was published but had recently been completed. I was struggling to find it, which was surprising since it is such a large building, I expected to see it on the horizon, but could not see beyond the canopy of the urban jungle on any street I wondering along.

While searching for the CCTV building, I ran into ‘Ricky,’ a local ‘artist’ that chatted with me for a few minutes, before inviting me up to see his art exhibition. This is a common scam on the streets of Beijing where ‘local artists’ will invite you to their exhibition and charge exorbitant amounts for the artwork, which is often not really even their work. I knew this going in and did not have any intention to buy anything, but the kid seemed friendly enough, so I took him up on the offer to look. He showed me a few of the works he claimed as his own as well as many of the nicer pieces that were said to be done by his instructor. He did a good job explaining the meaning behind the various pieces. He had painted a collection of paintings representing the four seasons. He explained that the seasons also represent a persons life (Spring: Birth, Summer: Youth, Autumn: Adulthood/Productive Years and Winter: Retirement/Old Age). He nearly insulted me by saying I was in the autumn of my life, but quickly recovered by explaining that those are often your best years.

I enjoyed chatting with him and as expected, we ended up getting down to the business of discussing a purchase. To sweeten the deal he also introduced me to his instructor who painted my name in Chinese characters as a thank you for visiting. Of course, we had to wait for it to dry and what better way to wait, than looking for a piece to buy. I entertained him and we discussed his artwork on the seasons, and in the end I walked away with Spring and Autumn for 30 dollars, which was a little high for China but not bad. I would like to hope Ricky was really the artist, and I wish him a rich harvest in the autumn of his career.

On my way out, they gave me direction to the CCTV building and also informed me that the locals affectionately refer to the building as men’s underwear because of it’s unique design of two towers joined by a bridge along the upper floors. I also later learned that the building next to it was damaged by fire when the workers set off fireworks to celebrate the completion of the CCTV tower. The ensuing damage is reportedly valued at 13 billion Yuan (approx. six billion US Dollars), and the construction workers are still at large.

Another common scam in Beijing is cute ‘college girls’ who approach western men and ask them if they would come with them to a tea house, so the ‘students’ can practice their English. The westerner then gets stuck with the bill for tea that costs about six dollars for each thimble sized glass. I also met a few attractive young students and, though the never said they wanted to practice their English, they did ask if I would like to join them for tea. We chatted for a bit, and they were fun to talk with, but I excused myself to buy sunglasses at the flea market across the street. I do not know if they were legitimate students or not, but they did help me by telling me not to pay more than 30 Yuan for sunglasses. Armed with this advice, I entered and found a sunglass shop, the girl working at the shop helped me pick out a pair and then we began to barter a price on a hand held calculator.
She began with, “I like you. Normally I sell these glasses for 500 but for you…” she typed 300.
I laughed and said, “I like your enthusiasm, but I’m thinking…” I typed 30.
“No, you need to type serious price so we can barter. Here…” Again she typed 300.
“This is a serious offer…” again I type 30.
“No, you must go higher before I go lower. These are high quality sunglasses…” so this time I type 20.
Now, I was breaking all the rules and she did not like it at all. I think she then typed 320 and I told her to have a good day, and I would shop elsewhere, since this was a five story mall of street side style stalls selling tons of the same fake copies of brand name merchandise. As I tried to walk away she grabbed at my arm and tried to reinvigorate the bartering banter but, realizing it was going nowhere, finally surrendered to the 30 Yuan price with a huff. Whether or not the girls on the street were trying to con me with tea, I do thank them for the advice on the glasses.

In addition to the Chaoyang district, we also made a quick stop at the Olympic complex, which was still busy with a few tourists but felt very empty compared to the crowds in the rest of the city. I had seen the buildings highlighted on the news coverage of the games, but I was surprised at how large the entire Olympic complex area was. In such a crowded and tightly packed city, it seemed like the grand walk/parade areas, that were at least 100 yards wide and several blocks long, were out of place and a waste of space. The area also had a similar feeling as some of the other areas of rapid expansion construction across the country. Though the games had just passed, the area felt like it was both just being completed and simultaneously beginning to decay. The grounds seemed like they had just been planted, but in need of grooming and the buildings had temporary barriers erected to direct the crowds to operating entrances and the swimming cube already had sections of its bubbled exterior deflated and torn.

The Great Wall

View of a section of the Wall we hiked, from the peak where we watched sunrise


Sun rising over the jagged terrain that the Wall straddles



The zip line we took down from the wall after hiking 11 km of wall. (Our hotel was at the south end of the lake in the upper left of the photo.)

A portion of the Wall we hiked, which extends to the peak of the hill in upper left of the photo, and looked the same behind me, four times over, to get back to our start point.

Some of the 67 towers along the portion of the wall we hiked. Each one guarded by a farmer selling overpriced refreshments to the ill prepared tourists.

The stonewall, ditches and natural barriers that make up 'The Great Wall' stretch some 5500 miles across the country from east to west, and were created in order to keep out the Mongolian hoards that once threatened China from the north. We covered a mere seven miles of the Wall just northeast of Beijing, and every bit of the hike was either up or down hills and stairs, which also makes the Great Wall great exercise. Along the route, we saw more local farmers turned refreshment salesmen, than other tourists, which meant the salesmen were pretty keen on getting you to buy from them. Occasionally one would actually offer a decent price, but most just tried to convince you that it might be your last chance to get a drink this cold on the Wall. Fortunately, since they had to haul the large coolers up the hill and across the wall, they made little effort to stand up or follow you while trying to talk you into refreshments, so the hustling only lasted as long as you stuck around.

In addition to the hawkers, there was also a point along the wall where you cross into another province, and they post a toll keeper to get their cut of tourism revenue, despite the fact that everyone pays to get on the wall in the other province. Since we were with a guided group, we knew this was coming, and our guide paid the toll. However, some of the other tourists were taken a back and thought it was just another scam, or farmer trying to make a buck and refused to pay. One even went as far as to double back up the wall to a point he could climb down to a path that bypassed the toll. And, just like the refreshment salesmen, the toll keeper seemed unconcerned and wasn’t about the abandon his post to intercept the guy and make him pay.

Our tour also hired a local guide to take us across the wall. He began the trip showing some promise by getting on the buses microphone and telling us a little about Beijing. He noted the obvious, that the city had a lot of cars and bikes and that the city wall had been torn down to make room for more roads. And, he closed by saying he would tell us more about the Great Wall when we got closer… he did not. As a matter a fact, not only did he not tell us any more about the wall, while we were hiking the wall, he offered no information about the route, tolls, or history and trailed along within the group like he was just another tourist. When the members of the group did ask him questions about the wall, he had little to no information of use to them. For instance:
Question: "Hey Mr Knowledgeable Guide, when was the wall built?"
Answer, from said 'knowledgeable guide': "From time to time."

From time to time!?! What kind of answer is that?! Although it is kind of accurate, since the wall was built, re-built and fortified from the 5th century BC until the 16th century AD. But still, ‘from time to time?!’ is a little vague. Maybe he could have told us that the Qin Dynasty unified China’s states around 220 BC and significant work on the wall occurred then. Or, that in the 15th century, the Ming Dynasty fortified the wall defenses with the much more elaborate and extensive stone fortifications we see today.

Or maybe, he was just an idiot and really hadn’t even paid attention during his history class. Or even, might have been a high school drop out, and the only job he could pull was this English speaking gig, which applied all language skills he cultivated by watching U-tube and MTV! In the end, I don’t know if I should be mad at him, or the travel industry that hired him to be a guide without any qualifying knowledge or skills.

Aahhh, well, maybe I should just let it go and get back to my experience on the wall. Our group finished the hike in four hours, which our more knowledgeable long term guide for the trip across China, informed us was the fastest any of her groups had ever hiked the wall. (She also later acknowledged the fact that our guide for the Wall, was indeed incompitent.) We were proud of our speed hiking skills of course, although we really had taken our time. Stopping for lunch and pictures along the way... chatting with our expert guide about the walls construction. Really, it was not that impressive a feat, but to reward ourselves, we stopped for an ice cream at the end of our hike. China has some interesting ice cream flavors, like corn, bean and even green peas. However, we settled on the less extravagant flavors like Vanilla with chocolate shell. After our ice cream, we capped off the experience with a zip line ride, which took us from the edge of the wall, over a lake, to a boat that delivered us to our hotel's doorstep. Now that's what I call traveling in style.

Our hotel was simple, but was set on a lake with a beautiful view of the wall towering above along the jagged hillside. My one complaint about the place was the fact that they built the rooms all facing into a courtyard with no windows facing out across the lake to capitalize on the impressive view. The terrain was so harsh you almost wondered why they even bothered building a wall atop the jagged hills, and in fact, portions of the wall were little more than a leveled brick path along the top of hill to accommodate troop movements. However, in the morning we learned just how arduous and slow such troop movements must have been.

We awoke before dawn to climb the wall for sunrise and at first found ourselves trapped within the confines of the hotel walls. After wondering through the kitchen and back alleys of the staff, we finally found a way out and headed for the wall. Our hike was entirely up hill, and what started out as a leisurely stroll, soon became a stair-master championship as we raced against the imminent sunrise. For some the early morning climb proved too much, and they enjoyed the sunrise from points along the way.  However, a few of us made it to the peak and were rewarded with breath-taking views of the of the jagged terrain of sharp peaks separated and accented by the early morning mist that filled the valleys between.

Looking out over the terrain, I again had to wonder how the Mongolian forces ever made successful advances on China. But as Sun Tzu said:
“Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.”

So too was the weakness of the wall, for in the valleys below, concealed by fog, were the rivers that divide the wall. Since the wall was discontinuous the Mongolians only had to find the weak points, which is true of any static fortifications. The French made the same mistakes when they built elaborate and extensive static defenses along the Maginot Line after WWI, only to watch the Germans slip through the cracks at the onset of WWII. But I digress, really you have to, whenever there is an opportunity to rag on the French. The sunrise was beautiful, the Mongolians were peaceful and hundreds of miles away, and I had to get back down the mountain to catch a bus back to Beijing.