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Pressley Visits Great Wall of China
Madison, Wis.

Badger football fullback Chris Pressley continues his periodic blogs from China, where he is traveling with other students through the UW Business School.

PRESSLEY BLOG

Things are going really well, besides the fact that my communication is infrequent because we are usually busy, but it’s all good because I am having so much fun. The group that I am with is really fun and a pleasure to have on the trip. Today is Friday and I think my last blog was from Tuesday so I will try to fill you in on what’s been going on here in China.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23

On Wednesday, as planned, we woke up early, had yet another delicious breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to the Great Wall; and let me tell you, this wall truly is GREAT! It sits at 680m above sea level and has about 950 really steep steps. It was a workout getting all the way to the top and I got really sweaty. It kind of reminded me of the mountain that we climbed when we went and played Hawaii in 2005. It was about an hour trip to the top, and about 45 minutes on the way back down. Coming down was much easier than going up. They say that when you climb the Great Wall you become a hero, so let’s just say that I am truly a hero now. I got a certificate that says I climbed it on the 23rd day of May. It was really exciting. I just couldn’t stop thinking of all the many years of hard work that it took to build the Wall. After the Wall we went to the Dayi Friendship Store and Resturant for lunch. I enjoyed it but it seems like we keep getting the same dishes every time we eat. My best dish is the beef and onions along with the steamed broccoli. They prepare the food really well, but at times it is just a little too greasy for my taste. After that we traveled to the Temple of Heaven. Keep in mind that it is about an hour ride between each place we go, and we spend anywhere from 2-4 hours at each place, so when your day begins at 6 a.m. you can imagine how long the day feels. The Temple of Heaven was very peaceful and serene. Senior citizens come there and they play cards and sing and entertain the tourists. The temple is really sacred and we could not enter the inside but we could take tons of pictures from the outside. There were a lot of people and again, random people would come up and take pictures with me. The attention was a little overwhelming but was still a lot of fun. I just enjoyed the elaborate colors of the temple and the unique design. After the temple we went shopping at a local market. It was really cheap and we could bargain the prices. It had really nice pearls for cheap and five more floors of random items for sale. My professor traveling on the trip with us told me that I was a very good bargainer. Since this was our last night in Beijing, after the market we went to a famous resturant to have China’s famous Peking Duck. It tasted really good and the sauce that it came with was better than the duck itself. Dinner lasted for a while and the restaurant was really nice. That was the end of Beijing for us, and overall it was a really nice city but was really crowded. This was a great place to start our study tour because it got us accustomed to the Chinese culture, or so I thought.

(Pressley is pictured above at the Great Wall of China)


THURSDAY, MAY 24

Thursday morning we got up really early for a five hour flight to a minority culture in Liajang. This place is more of what I thought of when I pictured Chinese culture. The native people here are called the Naxi, as opposed to the Han people in Beijing. The Han people make up 95 percent of China’s population but they have many minority groups, and the Naxi is one. Liajang is a small town with beautiful landscape. When we arrived in Liajang we had lunch at a local restaurant and then checked into the hotel. The hotel had a real ancient feel and had a few courtyards that were paved in stone. It seems like they are trying to modernize some parts of the city but you can see that it is still well preserved in many parts. We learned about the Naxi culture and the economic development that is occuring in the area. They have an old town and a new town and are trying to attract tourists to the city. For the rest of the day we just visited Old Town and had dinner followed by free time. The city was really nice and most of the crew went out but I just stayed back to jump some rope and do a little workout before bed. Today I was able to communicate more because I am able to use some basic words and they understand me better.

FRIDAY, MAY 25

Today, we woke up and had a different kind of breakfast at this hotel. It was toast and jam along with some eggs and coffee. It was good, but again the eggs were really greasy. We then took a long ride up the mountain side to take a hike. I saw a yak for the first time and they are some really huge animals. We were really high up, about 3400m, and the air was really thin. It took my body some time to adjust to the thin air but after a while it was all good. The view from up there was really amazing, and I spent some time to myself to pray and thank God for making this world such a beautiful place. It seems like we get caught up with so much of the negative things of this world sometimes forget to just take time to focus on the beauty that is here for our enjoyment. It was truly a blessed experience up on the mountain. The only thing that got me down was the fact that the 1GB memory card that I bargained for at the market was faulty, and I lost about 300 some odd pictures that I had taken on the previous days. I was a little disappointed but I know everything happens for a reason. We finally went back for lunch, again some of the same greasy foods, but I enjoyed my portion (I even got to taste a little of the yak meat). The last thing for the day was a Naxi Ancient Music Concert and then free time. The concert was very impressive and I enjoyed the show. Now we are having free time and I am here at the internet cafe before we head out for our last night in Liajang. I promised myself to take as many pictures as I can to replace the old ones, so that’s my plan. I’ll be back in a couple of days and let you know how everything is going.

Wisconsin Athletic Communications
5/26/2007 9:05:20 PM