Great Wall Jiankou (箭扣) at Chinese New Year

During Chinese New Year, we went on a trip to the countryside, to a village near the Great Wall. We slept in a traditional Chinese house, and our bed had fire underneath it (“Kang bed-stove”). So even though it was really cold outside, our bed was so warm.

Theo and I helped find the wood for the fire. First we got little sticks, then the fat ones. That part was not fun. But the fire was warm. But the smoke kept getting in my eyes.

We bought our own fireworks and they launched on the street and some of them even launched into the air. Some of them were really cool and Theo and I were pretending to be scared. The beautifulness and the colors was the best part.

We went on a hiking trip all the way up to the great wall. I always fell down because I had hiking boots that were actually more slippery. We knew other people came up the same way because it was a dirty trail with footprints. I was the one with the water and food in my backpack and Theo was the one with the first aid which I thought I needed really bad with all the slipping. About half the way up, we had to sit down and drink all the apple juice. When we got to the top, we were on one of the most dangerous ruins of the great wall, so our mommies wouldn’t let us climb up very high and Theo was very unhappy and got in trouble. The view really gave me the fright because it was like a kilometer and two miles down there. We were the only children there but on the way down we saw someone with a child. We slid almost the whole way down the mountain.

But the very best part was the motorcycle ride. Sometimes we didn’t go that fast because lots of snow was on the road. It was really cool.

We ate lunch at a restaurant where Theo and I played with two dogs. We named one Wilson and one Jack. Jack was a little frightened at first but Wilson really liked us just at the beginning. I think Jack was maybe a stray but Wilson was the restaurant’s dog. Jack was white and Wilson was a bit brown. We just thought that some dogs that aren’t that lucky need a little good treating.