This morning we were ready to go pretty early for two company visits. The first one we went to was a distillery of very popular Chinese liquor called Nulanshan. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we were hit with a wave of alcohol smell. The tour guide we had told us that this brewery had been around for hundreds of years making the same product. At first, she took us around the historical wells and distilling equipment to show us how they used to make their liquor. Before we left the historical area, they gave us a sample of one of their weaker liquors. It didn’t taste that great, but Vivien said it was supposed to go with meals instead of by itself, sort of like wine. Then we went to a room where workers were shoveling the grain into a machine. It was interesting to see how the Chinese workers actually processed the grain to make this liquor. The tour guide took us to an area where workers were packaging the bottles. She said these workers make about 3000 Yuan per month. That’s only about $500. These workers are not paid very much at all, and some of them looked absolutely miserable doing the same thing over and over again. Before we left the distillery, they gave us each a sample of one of their stronger liquors which tasted even worse than the first. Our leader, Vanessa, told us it isn’t supposed to taste good because it was for getting drunk more than going with meals. We then left the distillery and went to another company called Jangho that was all about making insulating wall material to save energy for buildings. We got to see the assembly area for these walls and the workers making them. When we walked in, a lot of them stopped what they were doing momentarily to look at us. It was a little strange. I guess they don’t usually have a lot of people touring that area. That tour didn’t take us very long. After that, we went to eat lunch at a restaurant owned by the local government. It was pretty good. There was a fish that they brought out at one point in the meal that looked fresh. Vanessa assured us that it was probably alive only a few hours before. Even so, I thought it tasted really good. Maybe that’s why it was really good. After we got back to the hotel, we changed into regular clothes and left for the Fragrant Hills. “Hills” is definitely an understatement. It should be Fragrant Mountains. Hiking up was not easy, but it was so worth it. Every ten minutes or so, we would turn around to get a view of Beijing. As we went up, the view got better and better. At one point, I climbed a little ways up a tree to get a better view. When we finally got to the top of the mountain where there was a pagoda, we looked down on the city and it stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction: from left to right and back. Beijing is a huge city and it was really cool to try and take it all in. What was interesting was that we looked down the other side of the mountain from the city side and there was only forest covering the mountainside with the occasional pagoda built in old Chinese architectural style. There was a little gazebo looking thing not too far from where we were on the mountaintop, so I went there just to see it. Even though it wasn’t far away from the pagoda, it was really peaceful and quiet there. It overlooked the side of the mountain with the forests. After we got back down the mountain, we went back to the hotel and a group of us decided to sample Chinese Papa Johns. It surprised me to find that Papa Johns in China is a sit down restaurant and has a lot of good food rather than the fast food takeout Papa Johns that we have in America. We had breadsticks, cheesesticks, and pizzas. I wish we had Papa Johns like that in the States. We ended up getting ice cream from KFC and just going back to the hotel after that.