Wednesday
We had a tour booked to go to a section of the Great Wall for this day. The section was called Mutianyu and apparently isn't as crowded as the section called Badaling. The tour guide did show us pictures of Badaling and it was heaving, due to it's very close proximity to Beijing. Our section was a 2 hour drive away, so we settled down on our chilly, dirty coach and enjoyed the ride. When we pulled up it was drizzly and very cloudy so we weren't holding out hopes for great views. Despite paying for the tour, which was £28 we also had to fork out for our cable car up the wall, which was another £10 for both of us. We hopped on the car and it whisked us off up to the top of the hill. We stepped off above the clouds and clambered up to the top of the section infront of us. WOW!!! Despite the low cloud the views of the wall were spectacular. It was snaking of into the distance in both directions and climbing the steep mountains effortlessly. We started left as it seemed the more scenic way. We hadn't had many genuine WOW!! moments so far but as we walked along the top of the wall our mouths were agape, a genuine pinch ourselves moment. As we crested the top of a mountain, the cloud was forcing its way up to one side of the wall like a high tide but it couldn't quite crest it. Sort of like it was showing us why it was built, to keep the Nomadic groups out. We continued along soaking in the occasion as much as we could, taking far too many photographs along the way. We could see in the distance a part of the wall that was near vertical up a mountain side. "We aren't going up that" we both agreed. We carried on round until we reached the bottom of the vertical stretch but still had 2 hours left to explore the wall. We started on up and then, when stopping for a breather every minute or so immediately regretted the decision upon looking down. The worst part were the stairs up into the watchtower. They were huge steps up to our knees and needed great balance (or to be clambered up like a child) to not fall down the mountainside. At the top it was certainly worth the effort, yet more great views and some more chances for a selfie or two. We could have carried on even further but time was running down quickly. By this time the clouds had breached the wall, which made the descent all the more entertaining. The giant steps were the hardest bit, so the rest of it seemed like a piece of cake. There wasn't much to see as we walked back thanks to the clouds but we were still taking our time, not wanting the experience to end. Eventually, the end was reached and we reluctantly boarded our cable car down. There was an alternative route down via a toboggan but due to the weather and its location we couldn't take that option. Our tour included lunch, so our group converged on the restaurant and had a spread of Chinese food. It wasn't great or extensive but it was still nice to have this included and try some different Chinese food. The highlight of the trip home was when the driver had to go to a garage for a vehicle check and to apologise bout us all a drink and some biscuits, lucky for him there was only 8 of us on the coach. The Great Wall was....well great, it's not given that name for nothing, possibly the peak of the trip so far (I may have said that loads of times but I can't remember).
Since arriving in China, Charlotte had had a hankering for some noodles, so for dinner we went to a fast food noodle place we'd spotted previously. Unsurprisingly, the menu wasn't in English, so we just had to go for pot luck and and point at something. We both went for the same thing, which was probably a mistake. When the bowls arrived, they were generous portions of noodles with meatballs (I'm not sure what meat....) and looked really tasty. I went straight for the meatballs and immediately regretted it as my tongue was almost burned to a crisp. It was the hottest dish we had ever had in our lives, forget curries or chilli, this was like lava. How Charlotte, who struggles with the slightest bit of spice, managed any of it was very impressive (I did end up eating half of her dish though). As Charlotte was facing the counter, the waitress could see she was struggling with the heat, she brought her over a cup of water, the slight problem being that it was boiled water, which doesn't help when your mouth is melting. We did (well I did) really enjoy the dinner despite its heat, and afterwards, picked up a frozen yoghurt and cold Chinese beer to smooth the burns.
Thursday
After the busy exploits of the day before, we had a fairly boring one the next. We had to make our way to Beijing South station in order to pick up tickets for our train ride on the Sunday. This took much longer than expected, as the station was huge, crowded and not very well signposted. After hunting high and low, a quick visit to the bank to change some Russian Roubles to Chinese Yuan, circling half the outside of the station AND queuing on the wrong queue for half an hour we eventually managed to get them. The weather was grey once more, so we just took the metro to Wangfujing Street, which is the busiest shopping street in Beijing. By this time we were desperate for food, so we gave in to Western culture and went to Pizza Hut. Afterwards, we wandered the street looking for our usual pin badge. We'd done so well so far, but weren't expecting much from China onwards. We were distracted by a different souvenir this time though as we entered a shop dedicated to selling chopsticks. The prices weren't so appealing though, as we followed the wall round the shop admiring the goods, while an assistant was hot on our heels with the usual spiel (cheap price, half price etc.), on the last wall though, we found what we were looking for, reasonably priced chopsticks with the Chinese signs of the zodiac on them. I got myself the Horse for 1990 and Charlotte got the Rosster for 1993 (I'd like to say we weren't disappointed we weren't Tigers or Dragons but we were). Off Wangfujing street there is a road known as snack street, which sells all kinds of standard and exotic foods, generally deep fried in batter, as well as plain old dumplings, spring rolls and corn on the cob. Having not long eaten a large pizza, somehow we resisted starfish or seahorse on a skewer. We also noticed as we walked along, scorpion, cricket, beetles, a larger black scorpion and even what looked like a tarantula. Oh, and what looked like whole roasted quail but could easily have been whole roasted baby chicks. We headed down the side streets which were made of touristy markets and probably more pickpockets than you can shake a deep fried scorpion at and couldn't believe our luck when we stumbled across a Beijing pinbadge. After some serious bartering ( I knocked him down from 10 yuan each to 2 for 15), we picked them up, tucked them away safely and made a break for it before they could be robbed back off us. We headed back to our hostel, had some chicken and squid for dinner and enjoyed another beer.
Friday
We had been planning on doing the Forbidden City earlier in the week but kept putting it off when we saw how smoggy it was outside. But, on this day, the sun was shining and we were raring to go. We caught the metro down as it would have been nearly an hours walk. As ever there were crowds filing through the security gates into Tiananmen Square as well as hordes crossing the bridges into the forbidden city. As it was still fairly early in the morning though, most of the tour groups hadn't turned up yet so we flew through the ticket gates and were in the main courtyard fairly quickly. The Forbidden City was the imperial palace of Chinese emperors for nearly 500 years, until the early twentieth century. According to Unesco it is also the largest preserved collection of ancient wooden structures in the world. The crowds seemed to be taking the more central route through the complex, so the second we passed the ticket inspection we headed left to skirt round the outside and avoid the masses. The Forbidden City is what Charlotte and I had sort of been expecting the whole of China to look like, traditional Chinese architecture, with curved rooftops and pointy, upturned corners. There was very few of these around Beijing, if none but here, gave us our fix of Chinesiness. The main rooms all had very elegant names such as "Hall of Supreme Harmony" and "Palace of Tranquil Longevity" and had now been turned into museums, with different artefacts dotted around them. I can't recall which ones we entered but they were all very well maintained and interesting. The jostling Chinese schoolchildren did spoil the experiences somewhat, though they are nowhere near as bad as the jostling and fascinated by westerners as the elderly Chinese people. The Forbidden City wasn't as WOW! as the Great Wall but still a good half day visit and interesting. Before we left, we just had time to get shoved out the way out the way by one of those lovely elderly Chinese people while we were taking a photo. Upon standing our ground though, we were given the death stare and were treated to 3 encores of it as she walked down the hill.
With nothing else planned for the day, after a quick consultation of the subway map, we decided to get the metro to the Olympic Park, which is in the northern part of Beijing. It was quite a trek but took us less time than we'd hoped. When we walked out of the subway and headed up the escalator (the escalator manufacturers must do pretty well in China, God forbid anyone physically walks up stairs) and were greeted by a fine view of the birds nest stadium. The centrepiece when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games in 2008. We did attempt to get right up close to it but were blocked by a racing circuit for Formula e (the environmentally friendly formula 1). Despite our best efforts we couldn't find a way around and were stuck with a far off view. While we were trying to hunt down an entrance, I was collared by a very friendly Chinese man, who took a great interest in my beard and asked (in Chinese, so he could have said anything) for a photograph with me. I duly abliged, having read that this may happen (not due to there fascination of beards necessarily but more there fascination with westerners) and let his wife take the photo, while Charlotte took a photo of her taking a photo of us. We had been stared at a lot so far, which we don't mind particularly but we did find it slightly rude, though I'm sure they meant no offence. We had also had not-so-covert photos taken of us by Chinese people, so it was nice for someone to ask our permission to take one this time. I do like to think he thought I was someone famous, no idea who though. We decided we'd have one more meal out while in Beijing. Fortunately, the one we chose, a Hong Kong style one, had chills next to the dishes to denote how hot they are, so Charlotte was able to picks a couple that wouldn't blow her head off!
Saturday
This was our final day in Beijing and we had covered pretty much everything we wanted to do. After a much deserved lie in, we decided to go to a place that was highly recommended by a few people during our stay. It is a series of religious buildings where the Chinese emporers, of the Forbidden City fame, used to go to pray to heaven for good harvest. The building were very impressive and in keeping with the traditional Chinese theme. There was also a lovely park around them, where we sat and ate a pot of instant noodles with the locals (and got some more stares in the process). I don't know how the Chinese do it but even these were rather spicy! As I mentioned, the buildings were impressive but as a whole, bearing in mind there was a fairly steep entrance fee, we both found it slightly disappointing, so after making the most of our ticket, we decided to go for some food, as that's always good.
We headed back to Wangfujing street, where we had been earlier in the week, the one with all the exotic foods. We started off with a plain old corn on the cob, tasty but quite dry without any butter to put on it. Next, some Chinese dumplings or Jiaozi, filled with beef, quite bland like the Mongolian Büüz but still tasty. Next up, a plain old spring roll, which was rather chewy and a bit of a let down. Finally, I plucked up the courage to go for some Scorpions on a stick. They were expensive for 3 small scorpions, not that I know how much a scorpion should cost but £2.50 seems steep. They also don't contain much, if any meat, so are more of a gimmick than a snack to fill you up. I can always tell my grandchildren that I've eaten scorpion though. They were quite chewy and crunchy, like an overlooked prawn and didn't have a huge amount of taste. Good for a one off but I wouldn't go for them again. For a moment, I debated the starfish too but quickly ousted that thought.
With that, Beijing was done and dusted. Despite the hygiene of the people, the city in general and the stares, we had a great time and it would be the first place so far that I would be sad to leave. But with the ancient city of Xi'an and the Terracotta warriors on the horizon, it wouldn't be too much of a problem.
P.s sorry it has taken soooo long, we have been non-stop since arriving in Japan and I'm ill for the umpteenth time so that has slowed things down. The lack of Google in China didn't help either. We'll be back up and running over the next few days hopefully.
After receiving some sad news about my uncle Bill, our thoughts are with him and my family.
Lots of Love
James and Charlotte
So nice, The Great wall has been the one of the very important early Asian wonders in the world. I think you enjoyed that tour with so many pleasures. The Great Wall of China is the longest wall in the world made of materials like wood, tamped earth, stone, and brick. People of China are true to their culture and country. Some tourists go with the goal to cover as much distance trekking and hiking the great wall.
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