http://gallery.me.com/danielballard/100194

Yesterday we visited the Great Wall of China. It was was about an hour drive or so from our hotel to the wall. We took a little ski lift gondola up to the top of a mountain. We found it funny how little the gondola’s were maintained and really no help getting on or off. It was pretty much a free for all and safety was not much of a concern. The weather was amazing and could not have been better. 

We’ve had a lot more free time here in Beijing than we have the past week and a half. Last night we had meetings and a party with Starwood Hotels. We had a great time and I won 4 nights at the A Loft hotel in Abu Dabi which is in the United Arab Emirates.

Going to the Great Wall of China today. Will update more later.

Here is the picture. “Rock baby rock, they will rock you!” is my favorite part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train

After we dropped the music equipment off we got back on the bullet train and then took a taxi to the Shanghai train station. We took the 10+ hour train ride to Beijing and the cabins were great and really comfortable I slept probably 8 hours and when we woke up we were here. Overall the trip was a great success. Today we had the day off and were able to see a lot of Beijing but not really by choice. We got lost twice and the cab driver dropped us off about 30 minutes from our hotel. After getting settled in to our hotel we took the cab to Tiananmen Square and walked around for a while We also had plenty of time to check out the Forbidden City which was amazing. (See pictures)

Tomorrow we have meetings with Starwood hotel here in Beijing which should be fun. We’re also go to visit Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

Leaving hotel here in about 30 minutes. We’re going to be on our own for a few days here in China. It’s the weekend so we haven’t heard about the business plans for the week in Beijing. We decided to forgo the 2 hour airplane ride and take a 12 hour train across the country side of China. We’re going to take a sleeper train with beds and we’ll have our own rooms. Should be interesting, we’ll see how it goes. Here is what we need to accomplish in the next few hours.

Go to train station buy tickets to Beijing

Take Bullet train to Airport store music equipment in locker

Take bullet train back then take taxi to train station

Take train at 9 PM to Beijing.

12 hours later arrive in Beijing.

Today after an oversized breakfast in my hotel room Josh Daniel and I left the hotel and went looking around the city. We walked in to a fish market that smelled amazing. We saw a lot of delicious looking live snakes for sale as well as other sea creatures for human consumption. See video: Snakes

I’m back at the hotel now for a few hours before we leave for our show. We did a bunch of press interviews and had no shortage of awkward moments. Sometimes I can’t tell if some of the interviewers like us or just flat out think we’re weird. Either way it’s a lot of fun and provides endless entertainment for us.

Looks like we’re heading to Beijing on Sunday morning to do some commercials for a hotel chain there.  If we do we’re definitely going to check out  Tiananmen Square and see Mao Zedong Mausoleum as well. Should be fascinating.

Tomorrow we head in to China after we get our Visas from the government. It hasn’t been easy this time and we’re not sure why, last year we had no problems. Right not we’re staying at the Regal Airport Hotel near the Hong Kong airport. Today we took the train on the Hong Kong island and went sight seeing around the main island. We took the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak and walked around and did a little shopping. The views from the peak were amazing despite the hazy day. We also did a little shopping at some of the street markets and found an amazing shirt for friend Chris Foley.

The Shirt read:
“QUALITY NEVER LEAVE STYLE”

“STAR-THE ORIGINAL OX AT THE HEART OF EVERY”