depthq - ccm|mac

I waited for more than 2 years for this trip and there is certainly some excitement around it. I missed the one back in 2006 because I wasn't feeling too well. So last weekend, about 40 of us headed to Hongjiushanzhuang for a weekend of games and fun.

The setting for the trip is just right: great company, bright blue skies, cooling weather and the websites we're maintaining aren't in a busy period .

I realised a very interesting thing: in good weather with good sunlight, almost all the pictures I take are beautiful, its like almost effortless. I need more of this in Beijing so that I can seem as though I am an accomplished photographer .

We were broken up into 10-person teams and each team is assigned a villa, 别墅, to stay for the weekend. First thing I noticed is there are lots of insects around this area. Spiders, bees and butterflies were among us. I have to say this is a rare treat in the concrete forest of Beijing. We were 1 hour and 30 minutes away from the city but still technically Beijing I guess, or I can be wrong. There is also another insect but I am not sure of its name, its black and pretty smelly.

There were lots of fat cats in the area as well. I guess a tourist area fits them as they are lazy and because they look cute, people will go and feed them. What a win-win situation!

After we arrived we had some rest and we played some games (golf, basketball, tennis, badminton) during the day and in the night we played Texas Hold'em.

The next day, we climbed the Great wall at Simatai. There is a story between me and this part of the Great wall. I was here about 2 years ago and I failed to go past the 12th tower because it was closed, due to it being very dangerous. We almost managed to get the guard to let us through the last time but failed in the end.

And here I am 2 years later, and there is another chance. In about 40-50 minutes we managed to reached the 12th tower and it was still closed again. We tried to talk to the guard and he didn't budge at all. He advised us that if we really wanted, we could stay over at the resort at the Great wall and then wake up very early the next morning and there wouldn't be anyone.

2 Years, 2 Simatai Trips, 2 Disappointments!!!

We were back at the resort at lunch time, had lunch, went for a horse ride, shower, massage, sauna, rest, video games and by then its time for dinner. There was a bonfire, barbecued food, beer, red wine, fire water, silly singing and lots of drunk people .

Overall it was a good trip. Many thanks to the admin team for making it happen! And also many thanks to those that came along to make it a real blast! I leave you with a video of the final competition between the Red and Yellow team to win the final prize (Jingkelong cash card!).

UPDATE: I initially embedded a video on this blog post but it seems RSS readers don't pick up on it.