The Great Wall and the National Stadium

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After persuading the people I am working with in Beijing that I didn't want to work the weekend, I got the 2 days off to do a bit more looking around.

On Saturday I took a tour to the Great Wall, it was a tour and it had a guide, but other than telling us to hurry up because we were taking our time, the guide didn't do anymore than buy our tickets, so it was more of a slightly overpriced but convenient bus ride to the wall.

Rather than going to the popular Badaling section which is only about an hour or so away from Beijing, I went to the Jinshanling section, 3 hours north east which is far less frequented by tourists and evidently not frequented at all in Winter as we didn't see any tourists outside our group of 20 until we got to the end of our section of the wall, not bad for China and one of the most famous landmarks on earth!

To top it off it was a beautiful day, not too cold in the sun, no clouds or wind, just about perfect!

The trip dropped us off at the Jinshanling section and picked us up where this section meets the Samatai section 10km away. Each end was restored but the middle was back to its crumbling state, which was good to see as well, still in pretty good nick for a 2000 year old structure.

The group had a mix of Europeans, another Kiwi and a couple of American students, studying in Shanghai. I tagged along with the Americans for a leisurely 10km stroll taking as many photo stops as possible. Yes the guide did constantly tell us to hurry up and yes everybody else was miles ahead but if you are going to give us 5 hours to do the walk then we weren't going to do it in 2 and sit in the bus for the last 3 hours!

So it is pretty easy to guess how impressive the wall was especially given the conditions I got to see it in and I would highly recommend this section to anyone who visits the wall.



On Sunday I was pretty relaxed about getting out and about so rolled out of the hotel late and went in search of the Olympic buildings. I was pretty impressed by the National Stadium/Birds nest, from what I saw on TV, while a little undecided about the Water Cube. After seeing them up close, I am still impressed by the National Stadium and still undecided about the Water Cube.

While I am sure everybody has seen enough pictures of each during the Olympics, I don't remember any of people standing on the frozen lake that is to the side of it, getting their photos taken!

Lastly I had a bit of a look around the modern shopping streets, bought some expensive Chinese tea and fended off persistent salesmen in the markets who seem to have used the widespread learning of English leading up to the Olympics, to hone their sales technique for English speaking westerners.

I have a couple more days here working in Beijing then I am off to have a look around Shanghai.

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