I say quack, you say what?

After I picked Glen up at the airport at 9PM, we spent a few more hours taking the subway back and having dinner.  He looked like a zombie, eyes bloodshot.  Within a minute of turning the lights off, he was in his deep sleep state, with steady breaths.  I was really envious, as I have been not sleeping particularly well since I traveled to Qingdao, Chengdu, and Xi'an.

The next morning we had a really relaxing breakfast with DD coffee, toasts, and eggs. Glen watched me lather my toast with a thick layer of Nutella that he brought me, and said, "Now I know why you asked specifically for the BIG Nutella jar.  At least the little one I brought over will last you this week."  He followed and lathered his toast with Nutella as well.

We went our separate ways after breakfast, since I still had to go to work.  I sent Glen off at the subway stop, and gave him a few basic instructions and a map.  He looked at me the way a kid would look at his mom on the first day of school riding the school bus.  I worried that he would get so lost and not be able to find his way back, but at around 7 that night, he found his way back to my doorsteps.

He had gone to the Forbidden City, and tried to get to the art district, which was really out of the way so he turned around.  With his previous solo trips to Vietnam and Cambodia, I really didn't need to worry about him at all.  He was totally fine.

What do you think of trying some Peking Duck?  I asked, though I didn't even know where to go.
That sounds like THE thing to do in Beijing, so let's do it!  He looked hungry.
Let's check out where the real foodies say about Peking Duck, he looked online.

I asked a bunch of my buddies here, but everyone had a different answer.  In the end Glen found a spot that looked like where most of the visitors decided to go to sample the tasty duck: Da Dong.  Unlike the traditional Peking Duck restaurant Quanjude, the room decor and food presentations at Da Dong is contemporary.  Still, the chef brings out the roasted duck and carves it carefully like a piece of sculpture.

Glen picks up a small piece of the crispy duck skin with his chopsticks.  

Wow, I didn't think another animal can taste like bacon!  He said.
It was really THAT good.

After the delicious duck meal, we were both really tired and went to bed pretty early.  The following day, Glen traveled for about an hour and a half to the art district 798 at the outskirts of Beijing.  While I was still at work, he sent me an email from some artsy cafe telling me that he is having too much fun checking out the galleries and that he will be back at the apartment late.  He told me the art district is so big that it will make our SOWA in the South End look like a joke.  I was envious that he had an opportunity to check out a place that I wasn't even aware existed.  I will sure want to check this place out when I come back to Beijing in June.

We decided that a visit with Rose Mary is not complete without going climbing.  I took Friday off from work and we went off to Baihe on the bus then connected with the driver that Mantou recommended.  Glen took a nice photo of me and our taxi driver, who is the kindest guy I know.  Since we were checking out a crag that I hadn't gone before, he waited for us and hiked with us for about 10 minutes to make sure that we were at the right place.  On the way back to the bus station, he also wanted to make sure that we didn't miss the bus or not have a seat back to Beijing.  He drove us around to a few bus stops and waited to make sure the bus had seats.  All of this service for a whopping 100 RMB (less than $20).  I will have his phone number of my speed dial from now on!

The Bee Gorge is a really nice crag, in my opinion much better than the crag that I've gone twice with Mantou and Gaga (called Little Monster).  The only disadvantage of the Bee Gorge is that it is not located right next to the farm, one may need to call the taxi guy again to get a ride to the farm.  While we were at the crag, I met two white guys that looked like climbing guides.  I had recognized one of them from the gym.  They introduced themselves as Matt and Simon.  Simon's Chinese was pretty amazing, probably better than mine.  They had two clients with them, an Australian woman and a Chinese man.  Lucky for me, they brought a lot of food for their clients (including two loafs of bread) and what do you know, NUTELLA!  So I bummed a slice of Nutella bread from them.  It's really like crack for me.  I think that I will be their new best friends ;)

Glen started the day off with a warm-up climb, which I thought was harder than the 5.8 rating it claimed to be.  Then I wanted to check out some trad routes and decided to climb a 5.10a route nearby that was 30m long.  It looked relatively straight forward, and well protected, so I decided to give it a try.  Within about 2 minutes up, I realized the route was rarely climbed, and extremely dirty.  As I was cleaning the route to make sure that it was safe to place a piece of pro, I pulled out a soap-sized piece of rock on my right hand.  I was totally freaked out.  There was a little of bit of FA feel along with the climb, I thought.  I eventually made it up to the anchor, although I really struggled at the crux mentally, just thinking about where the rocks might crumble as I put all my weight on them.  So I aided my ass past the crux (I know, I know), it was quite a sight. 

Following the trad climb, we decided to go with the safer option of sport.  Glen went up a beautiful 5.9 crack that should really be a trad line and not a sport line, but this is China and not many people seem to climb trad, so I guess that's why they bolted it.  It was a lot of fun, with laybacks and hand jams.  I still don't think that I am ready for Indian Creek's jams, but we'll see next week. 

After the 5.9 climb, I kind of lost motivation to climb, and told Glen that maybe we should head back.  I forgot what he said, but I was eventually convinced into doing yet another 5.10c climb.  Typical Baihe style, the beginning is often tricky and a lot of nothing, then it got better and better.  It even included an unavoidable tree that was part of the route.

With the great wall as part of the backdrop, we enjoyed the solitude and the climbs that this gorge offered. 

You are so not coming back to Boston, he said.
There are so many climbs here for you to explore, and you may even be able to do some FAs here!

I wouldn't agree on that, though I wouldn't completely disagree either. 

There are definitely a lot of beautiful places to see over here, and interesting people to meet.

Great Wall in the background