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The Great Walls

Beijing : 26 March 2004

So we're winding up our time in Beijing. They fixed my computer, finally, and we've booked our flight out on April 1st. It's been a long time stuck here. It was a time of rest, work, and a lot of waiting. Never try to get your computer fixed in China. For two weeks, we've been waiting, while they wavered back and forth about whether they have the part or not. And every time I would call, I would have to go through the entire explanation process: Yes, I bought it in the US... Yes, I know I have to pay for the screen... Yes, I have already recevied the quotation... Yes, I have already sent in my credit card... When are you coming to fix it?... Yes, I know I have to pay for the screen... Yes, I've received the quotation... Yes, I've already sent in my credit card... When are you coming to fix it... No, when. When. When.... So when turned into last night. Finally! During our time waiting for an LCD, we have seen some of the sights around these parts. We went to the great wall. Very cool. We went to the Forbidden City. Also pretty neat. Saw Tienanmen Square. Very big. The Beijing Television Tower. Very tall. Summer Palace. Beautiful. Wang Fu Jing Street, Night Market, lots of disgusting food. It's been great. We have plenty of fun stories about these things, especially the trip to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace (with stops at 3 government owned stores trying to sell us stuff... I thought this country was supposed to be Communist?). We'll post some of those another time. But mostly, it's been a time of catching up on some work stuff, and spending a lot of time watching movies. We stayed here way too long, for sure, though that wasn't entirely our fault. And now we're moving on. We fly to Bangkok on Thursday, then are planning to get up to Vietnam. We'll then work our way back down until we find a nice beach resort in Thailand for our next R & R point.