Previously on one of my other blogs, I talked about a backpack that I sit in. The backpack  is an old hiking pack that my dad converted into a Kasenya pack. I wore it for the first time ever when we went to see the Great Wall of China a couple of days ago. That backpack helps me go to places where my wheelchair cannot go, like up and down the many stairs of the Great Wall. The Great Wall is really old, and really long. We had to take a high cable car to get to the top of the wall. At first I was nervous, and then I was brave as  my Mom packed me around to see the Wall. 

When we were at the Wall it was foggy and the fog made everything look cool. The country side around the Great Wall is hilly and covered with flora (forest). It was hot out which wasn’t a bad thing.  

There is the wall and there are also guard towers for the Wall. The towers are part of the Great Wall and so we could walk along the Great Wall to get to them. I didn’t expect the towers to be part of the wall. Some of the wall is made out of granite blocks. 

Some other people told us that the Badaling part of the Wall was filled with tourists so, of course, we didn’t go there. Instead we went to another section called Mutianyu. 

I thought the wall would be colourful with banners but it was not what I would call colourful..

​September 18: after more than 48 hours without a latte, I am finally able to locate a Starbucks by asking at a tourist information kiosk that is manned by 9 young volunteers crammed into a structure about 2 metres by 2 metres. They eagerly point me to the nearest “Starbarks” which is mercifully only 1/2 a block away in the basement of a shopping centre.

September 19: return to Starbucks only to be told that they do not have any milk products at all. How could an international company like Starbucks not have access to milk? Puzzling and extremely disappointing. Conveniently it is still September 18th in Saskatchewan so the kids Skype Granny to wish her happy birthday.

September 20: Starbucks once again offers latte made with soy milk. We learn that Starbucks was one of the first companies to pull their milk products in response to a revelation that some milk and milk products in China contain melamine (the same substance that was found in pet food earlier this year). Melamine enhances the protein content of milk, making it appear to contain more protein than it actually does. In other words, the milk is diluted.

Unfortunately melamine can cause kidney stones in young children with repeated exposure. The Canadian media reports that there are now 150 babies in critical condition from melamine exposure in China and 6,000 who are ill. The Chinese government claims that this is a short term problem with a few small diaries being responsible. Some tainted milk products have been marketed in Canada!

When we first got to Beijing on September 16th, 2008, we didn’t know what riding the Metro, AKA the subway system, would be like for a wheel chair user such as myself. On our second day in Beijing we decided to give it a try. My mom saw a wheelchair sign at the entrance of the station, but didn’t know how to get down the stairs. So Devin, Lacey, and a very nice random chinese man who jumped off his bike to help, carried me down two long sets of stairs to get to the wheel chair accessible elevator. We were confused. How do they expect wheelchair users to get down two sets of stairs to the elevator? We found out later. Once we got down the stairs, two subway workers met us and helped me get on the train.  They asked us what station we were heading to, and they called ahead so that when we got to the next station I was greeted by more subway workers and paralympic volunteers. Then they used a wheel chair lift that was mounted to the handrail to get me to the top of stairs. I had never seen anything like this before. It was then when we realized that there was probably a lift at the first set of stairs, but we just didn’t know.  Another time I used the Subway, they used a stair climber, which was fun. 

I think these fancy lifts might be new to the Beijing Metro because of the olympics and paralympics. We were surprised at how helpful and prepared they were in helping me get up and down the many sets of stairs to get on and off the subway. I was shocked at how many people instantly surrounded me every time I need to get to or from a subway platform. It was like an entourage of people. At first it was scary having so may people helping me but after a few minutes I got used to it. The Kasenya train is coming, so watch out for other blog entries.