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January 21st and 22nd , 2012
The Great Wall Courtyard Hostel.
First, remember that coat? After buying it, the woman managed to squish it into the smallest bag possible. Observe:
That’s my camera-carrying sock on top, for size reference.
And the breakfast.
Green Tea and Peanut Paste Thing.
On the 22nd, we started the day fairly early, since we needed to catch what we thought was a particular train that only was running once or twice that day, in order to get to our next hostel.
Several waiting-in-the-wrong-lines later, turns out we were really wrong. Instead, there was a shuttle train that ran pretty much every hour or so to where we needed to be. That cost 6RMB. Awe~some. So once we were at the station after having bought the tickets, it was really nice to sit back secure that we knew what we were doing.
The train ride was about an hour and some, so we got to the Great Wall area about 3-somethingpm. After being a bit confused about what to do, we walked all of fifty feet to the area the hostel was and checked in.
The hostel was really cool. It was run by a family, and they actually lived in it, so the whole thing was, you know, personally decorated and stuff.
Fish! They also had three dogs, though only one really was out in the open. He was an incredibly smushy, skittish, ugly little pudgy dog.
A Buddha, complete with money and incense offerings for the New Year.
Tables of complementary snacks! Of which we took much advantage. I ate many, many almonds.
We ordered lunch, since by then we were pretty hungry. A fried rice dish, and a mushroom-and-egg dish. No pictures, because it was delicious and we ate all of it. We were also then informed that there would be “family dinner” at 7pm, and fireworks at 11:30pm. Well, okay.
That is a lot of food. Mostly meat dishes, but still. And that lasted…a good while. I want to say two hours? They kept offering us alcohol (beer, wine, liquor, nail polish remover…) and we kept declining, using the standby “it’s against my religion” a lot.
Which, honestly, I find kind of hilarious. Against the Jewish religion to drink. Pfft. Though Brittany did make a good point; it’s against the religion to drink that particular stuff.
After dinner, several of the men set-up to play mahjong.
They played incredibly, incredibly quickly. I want to learn to play mahjong now.
We, however, sat down and played gin rummy. Because.
And then, fireworks time! Also because.
The hostel owner who could speak the most English shoved a lighter into my hands and cheerfully encourage-pushed me over to the lot further down where they were setting things off. And these weren’t just firecrackers. These were fireworks. Tall, and bright, and loud, and a lot of them.
I may have set off several. And by that I mean that I lit something and then ran away.
Overall, it was a really nice place to stay at. Everyone who worked there was very welcoming and hospitable, it was comfortable, a great area right by a popular part of the Great Wall. Fairly expensive (240RMB per person per night; a normal hostel is between 60-80RMB), but worth it, we felt. With all the complimentary fruit, nuts, and tea, we had breakfast free for two days, the family dinners both nights that they invited us too as well, a really good internet connection once we figured it out (yes, I’m mentioning it), and lovely people. The only downside was that everyone smoked. Often. Inside. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except that our room faced right into the main area, and was just behind the dining table, so all the smoke wafted into our room. However, if we’d gotten a side room, there wouldn’t have been a problem, so I’d recommend asking for one. All in all, A+ place. Would definitely stay again.
Especially since it was out-of-the-city enough that we didn’t have nearly the amount of firework noise at night.
Also, we hiked the Great Wall while there. That’s how we spent the 23rd—New Year’s day. It was epic. Post to come.
The Great Wall Courtyard Hostel.
First, remember that coat? After buying it, the woman managed to squish it into the smallest bag possible. Observe:
That’s my camera-carrying sock on top, for size reference.
And the breakfast.
Green Tea and Peanut Paste Thing.
On the 22nd, we started the day fairly early, since we needed to catch what we thought was a particular train that only was running once or twice that day, in order to get to our next hostel.
Several waiting-in-the-wrong-lines later, turns out we were really wrong. Instead, there was a shuttle train that ran pretty much every hour or so to where we needed to be. That cost 6RMB. Awe~some. So once we were at the station after having bought the tickets, it was really nice to sit back secure that we knew what we were doing.
The train ride was about an hour and some, so we got to the Great Wall area about 3-somethingpm. After being a bit confused about what to do, we walked all of fifty feet to the area the hostel was and checked in.
The hostel was really cool. It was run by a family, and they actually lived in it, so the whole thing was, you know, personally decorated and stuff.
Fish! They also had three dogs, though only one really was out in the open. He was an incredibly smushy, skittish, ugly little pudgy dog.
A Buddha, complete with money and incense offerings for the New Year.
Tables of complementary snacks! Of which we took much advantage. I ate many, many almonds.
We ordered lunch, since by then we were pretty hungry. A fried rice dish, and a mushroom-and-egg dish. No pictures, because it was delicious and we ate all of it. We were also then informed that there would be “family dinner” at 7pm, and fireworks at 11:30pm. Well, okay.
That is a lot of food. Mostly meat dishes, but still. And that lasted…a good while. I want to say two hours? They kept offering us alcohol (beer, wine, liquor, nail polish remover…) and we kept declining, using the standby “it’s against my religion” a lot.
Which, honestly, I find kind of hilarious. Against the Jewish religion to drink. Pfft. Though Brittany did make a good point; it’s against the religion to drink that particular stuff.
After dinner, several of the men set-up to play mahjong.
They played incredibly, incredibly quickly. I want to learn to play mahjong now.
We, however, sat down and played gin rummy. Because.
And then, fireworks time! Also because.
The hostel owner who could speak the most English shoved a lighter into my hands and cheerfully encourage-pushed me over to the lot further down where they were setting things off. And these weren’t just firecrackers. These were fireworks. Tall, and bright, and loud, and a lot of them.
I may have set off several. And by that I mean that I lit something and then ran away.
Overall, it was a really nice place to stay at. Everyone who worked there was very welcoming and hospitable, it was comfortable, a great area right by a popular part of the Great Wall. Fairly expensive (240RMB per person per night; a normal hostel is between 60-80RMB), but worth it, we felt. With all the complimentary fruit, nuts, and tea, we had breakfast free for two days, the family dinners both nights that they invited us too as well, a really good internet connection once we figured it out (yes, I’m mentioning it), and lovely people. The only downside was that everyone smoked. Often. Inside. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except that our room faced right into the main area, and was just behind the dining table, so all the smoke wafted into our room. However, if we’d gotten a side room, there wouldn’t have been a problem, so I’d recommend asking for one. All in all, A+ place. Would definitely stay again.
Especially since it was out-of-the-city enough that we didn’t have nearly the amount of firework noise at night.
Also, we hiked the Great Wall while there. That’s how we spent the 23rd—New Year’s day. It was epic. Post to come.