Day 3 in Bejing started at 5:30am. I believe that we will finally adjust to jetlag the day we fly home. Today’s plan is a group visit to the Great Wall. While this sounds like a simple proposition, the logistics are much more involved. Our “group” consists of over 100 skaters, bmxers, photographers, filmers, company owners, friends, and family. This means 3 buses transporting tourists across Beijing, and our destination is estimated at 3 hours away with traffic. But nobody complained (at least nobody near me, anyway). As we neared a tourist entrance to the Great Wall, we stopped to eat. 3 busloads of [mostly] Americans pulled up to a traditional restaurant and family-style plates of food were served immediately. It was as if they knew we were coming (this is sarcasm, they were clearly ready for our giant group). Curren Caples (age 14) continued his tradition of ordering a beer just to see if they would serve him, making it his 3rd success of the trip (somebody else drank it… again).
We ate and then pulled up to our Great Wall entry, where local vendors crammed along the walkway and did everything they could to physically block our path in hopes of selling us t-shirts, chess pieces, stamps, books, noodles, dried fruit and cliche hats. Everything was so inexpensive that it felt wrong bartering between $4 and $3 for handcarved goods. In other words, I paid full price so I was marked on the way back and the vendors assumed I wanted to buy everything they had to offer. The best sales tactic any of them had was to put a small Chinese flag in the hand of my daughter, who then refused to let it go and I had no choice but to pay for it.
We took a chairlift from the lower area up to the actual Great Wall and it was only then that we got a sense of how massive the Great Wall really is. We covered less than 1/4 mile of it on our walk and it was exhausting. Some “stairs” are sheer vertical drops with tiny ledges, enough to make you question carrying your child over such peril. But there were plenty of photo opportunities even in the light drizzle. There was an alpine slide that we were supposed to ride down (instead of the chairlift), but they deemed it too wet. It would have been a dangerous proposition with our crew even when completely dry, so it was probably for the better that nobody was allowed to enter a slick high-speed crash-up derby before our skate day tomorrow. I then made it back through the retail gauntlet fairly unscathed, with the exception of a couple t-shirts for my boys and a scroll painting of the Wall that i really don’t have room for.
One of our buses (the one I was one, to be exact) wouldn’t start, so we had to squeeze in to the other two. Again, no complaints, even when we dropped off half the crew in the city for a swanky dinner. Beijing traffic is a new level of chaos and our bus driver’s approach is that of someone driving a compact car. Sitting up front near the windshield, it’s like you are watching a monitor with extremely dangerous scenes being shown for your enjoyment. It’s hard to believe you are any part of what is taking place because it is so absurd and lawless. I actually enjoy it, kinda like a rollercoaster with no restraints and a constantly evolving track. We made it back to Woodward Beijing just in time for dinner and comatose sleep. Tomorrow morning is the official Woodward Beijing opening which means ribbon cutting, demo time for bigtime government officials, and best trick events.Trying to save my depleted energy for nonstop skating tomorrow while many skated past midnight. If I could only get Riley to wake up with his little sister, I might feel normal again. Yeah, right.
The kids' table... sorta. Notice Curren and his conquest.
The adult / vert table. Zach Miller walks a fine line.
Woodwardians on the loose
This guy was a little too happy. What's in that giant pipe, anyway?
Her thoughts: "isn't this Great?"
What happens when a bunch of skaters scale the Great Wall: they keep watch for the good of the people.
These guys charged us $1 each to be in this photo. It seems the guy on the right needed more incentive to get into character.
Did Genghis Khan eat a footlong before approaching the Great Wall?
Me and Sheckler have hit the Wall, so to speak.
Tags: Featured Posts, Skate, Skate news, Tony Hawk
haha him with the giant pipe was a little bit drugged
Hi Tony, we met at Bondi Skate park last year. looks like you are having fun. Say hi to my coach Hagan who is there by invitiation of Woodward!! cheers, Poppy