At different times, I have been to different parts of the Great Wall with my landlord, a national rowing team, my friends, and my parents.  The Jiankou 箭扣 (jian1kou4 – arrow nook) section of the great wall is unrestored, and the only hint that it is still accessible lies in the careful placement of 梯子 (ti1zi3 – ladders) at different stopping points along the wall.

The spring and the fall are the best times to see Beijing, albeit the last time I was up there I arrived in a cloud so thick with 雾 (wu4 – fog) that there was no telling if we were 10 or 1000 feet from the ground.  On the day I went with my friends to the wall, nobody else was there.  Even vendors were absent from this particular section.

When a bag containing some of our clothing and cellphones 不见了 (bu2jian4le – went missing), we had to 跑来跑去 (pao3lai2pao3qu4 – run back and forth) to find it.  If one of your friends goes missing, then your only recourse is to 大声喊 (da4sheng1 han2 – yell loudly), as your cellphone 没有信号 (mei2you3 xin4hao4 – does not have a signal).

Here’s a note about the __来___去 phrasing- you can generally use any verb to fill in the blanks to indicate an ongoing action which has no definite result or where the speaker has not achieved the desired result.

Ex: 我走来走去都没找到.  wo2(3) zou3lai2zou3qu4dou1 mei2 zhao3dao4 – I walked all around and still didn’t find it。