As a life-long vegetarian, I've eaten a lot of eggplant. A lot! But tonight, the Holy Grail of eggplants appeared to me: the perfect balance of oil, chili, garlic, lemongrass, and ginger. We trekked out to a Sichuan restaurant after spending most of the day hiking the Great Wall. Yes, that great wall (no, it isn't visible from space). We were driven out to Jinshanling, the starting point of a supposed four-hour hike to Simatai, both fairly remote sections of the wall that see only a few tourists each day. (Badaling, the closest to Beijing, is supposedly a madhouse every single day, but simply crawling with people on summer weekends.) It was an amazing trek. Admittedly, we were both literally dripping sweat within about ten minutes--it was 38 Celsius plus probably 95% humidity or more--and we'll post a picture soon (Blogger doesn't work very well for us here in China--we can post, but not read our blog or post pictures). It was stunning--for much of the hike (determined as we were to outkick everyone we came with) we had the wall pretty much to ourselves. We passed thirty towers on the way, climbed up and down more or less restored sections of the wall, sweated and sweated and sweated, and had a fantastic time. Of course, the hike only took us two hours, so we had to go a bit further than intended, but it was incredible.

After the three-hour drive (130km) back to Beijing, we took a taxi somewhere close to this restaurant and continued our search for spicy food. B ordered the chicken with chili, I mean the chili with chicken, we had the aforementioned eggplant (seriously, it was SO GOOD), we ordered some "village pickles" which turned out to contain chicken feet, and a good time was had by all.

Yesterday, we didn't do much sightseeing of the guidebook variety, as we tried to get some errands done and also went to a FANCY gym for a run. The gym, located on the 18th floor of some luxury apartments, was supposedly airconditioned but due to the presence of a swimming pool, the A/C was pretty much ineffective. We persevered nonetheless, determined to get in a run on a treadmill. Beijing is not the best city for running. We still haven't seen the sky since getting here on Friday, and yesterday's air pollution index (96) is just below the 100-level where doctors recommend not performing strenuous exercise outside. So off to the treadmill it was. Thankfully, the rules warned that urinating in the sauna was not permitted. (Getting the noveau riche vibe yet?) The run was hell, but I got through my 8 miles and B tested himself on a 5k (results not to be reported at this early stage).

After eating lunch at the Dai restaurant at which we had had dinner the day before (they gave us a free drink as they were happy to see us again so soon--their cucumbers with garlic, chili, and vinegar are absolutely amazing), we sorted out the Great Wall trip for today and then went to Tiananmen square. Having driven through it several times, this was our first time stopping. The square is reputedly the largest in the world--800x500m, but it doesn't seem nearly that large because Mao's mausoleum is perched in the middle and totally spoils the effect. The police are a constant presence, vigilantly chasing down children flying kites (no, really--our first glimpse of the "heavy-handed" Chinese police) and other malcontents. The square is an impressive example of blocky Communist architecture, but the delightful suprise at the south end is the two old gates from when the Forbidden City really was forbidden. The gates are elegant and imposing at the same time, and speak highly for the ancient Chinese sense of form.

So does, at least in a sense, the Summer Palace that we visited the day before. The dowager empress Cixi, minx that she was, diverted the money for rebuilding it from the Chinese navy. In a supreme stroke of historical irony, not to be believed unless true, she used it to, among other things, build a STONE SHIP, an enduring testament to the might of imperial China. The might, that is, of the empire that fell in part as a result of NOT HAVING A MODERN NAVY. The Summer Palace nowadays is delightful, despite the number of buildings Cixi built for the celebration of her own birthday. It is filled with mainly locals (at least at the far ends), many of whom spend the whole day in the extensive grounds picnicking, listening to the radio, or, as a number of pensioners we saw, collecting empty bottles and cans from the garbage. (No wonder Beijing is so clean, relatively speaking, minus the air of course.)

After our first Dai meal (we had never heard of the ethnic group either, but boy, can they cook) we got scammed on a pile of delicious-looking mangoes that turned out to have no flavor whatsoever. Took another taxi ride home--Beijing taxis are $1.50 for the first three km and about 20 cents for each km after that, so it's hard to resist, especially given the human overcrowding on the buses. During the morning and evening rush hour, there are uniformed guides for every bus at every central bus stop. Wearing orange T-shirts, khaki pants, a red cap, and waving a red triangular flag, they direct people to stand in separate lines for each bus and flag down the bus when it comes--all while wearing immaculate white gloves, of course. The buses are mostly fresh and new-looking, but they are simply so full of people that the temptation to get on them is not great. There are just under 15,000 buses in the city, which carry 8 million passengers per day--you do the math.

We have lots more to tell about Beijing--by far the most interesting place we've been so far--but they are few internet cafes, we can't access our own blog properly, and we're so tired from the humidity that we'll need to wait until Hong Kong (Friday) or Hanoi (Saturday) to fill things in properly.