The Great Wall of China

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We decided to take a tour out to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs. Bright and early in the morning we awaited the arrival of our tour. The van was late and we thought we had been forgotten or that we had booked a non-existent tour but they finally showed and we were on the road! Binnson was still mad because he ended up missing breakfast.

Our tour consisted of only 5 people, an Indonesian couple from Holland, and a professor from Indiana. First stop was the Ming Tombs... kinda boring but we took a couple pictures and wandered around the museum. Next we went to a jade factory. There we were suckered into buying these personalized stamp things that you will now see on every card/letter you ever receive from us from now on until forever. Binns also bought me some sweet panda slippers.

Next stop, The Great Wall. It was pretty incredible. Just goes on and on and on. We hiked for about 2 hours on it, really beautiful scenery! Along the way, I was asked to get another picture with some Asian guy. While taking the picture, a line up of 4 more people started... I'm thinking of charging next time. Binnson tried to ask the one guy why everyone wants their picture with me but couldn't really get a clear answer.

After stopping at a silk factory, our van took us back to our hotel. Our hotel is pretty ghetto and it is borderline impossible to find, no one can find it ... ever... no taxi... not anyone. Every single time someone goes to take us home, they get lost.

We decided to go out and find this vegetarian restaurant I had read about the day before. We spent like an hour writing down the Chinese symbol address to try and find this restaurant in the SOHO building but it was totally worth it! After the most delicious food and tea service, we got a cab who ended up getting in a fight with a Chinese couple who crossed in front of the cab on the intersection and then smacked the roof of the cab for coming to close... however, in China - pedestrians have NO rights.... it doesn't matter if the "walk light" is on and you are in the middle of the intersection - you still yield to all vehicles turning right, left, whatever - just get out of the way or get run down. And if that's not bad enough, just when you think you are safe, there's a cyclist going a million miles an hour. If you hear a honk, don't look back, just get the eff out of the way. I have almost been hit by almost every single thing possible.

Beijing picture count = 11

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Photos

Looking out the window of our hotel...
Is the bus going to come for us???

Beautiful view from our hotel
Wasting time waiting for the bus... checking out the chicken coup

Yea! We made it!
Ming tombs

Comments

[Josevich]

hi
im going to beijing in october. i was wondering whether to book a tour or just make my own itenerary coz ive done tours in other places before and i know they take you to stores and sometimes force you to buy stuff. but im apprehensive coz it might not be easy to go around beijing where people dont understand english. what do you think? tour and be taken to places you dont want to see or go it alone and possibly waste a lot of time getting lost

[Binns and Cheryl]

We did two tours in beijing - the great wall and the ming tombs tour was okay in that I figure we saved a lot of money doing it - however, we were definitely taken to a lot of shops and by the last one we were so tired from hiking that we just really wanted to go home!! The second tour we did with forbidden city, tianamen, summer palace, and temple of heaven was for the same reason - wanting to go a lot of places for cheap - went to a couple shops but we really didnt' stay for long at them so it was a bit more worth it - i think they had to make the stops at the shops shorter because they wanted to cram so much in quickly. There is little to no English in Beijing - however, if you go to a nicer hotel they usually have a tourist service there that can help you out and write the names of where you want to go in chinese so that you can give it to your taxi driver. Make sure you get your hotel adress written in chinese as well! We paid 25 USD for one tour and 30 USD for the other - I think the more expensive tours stop at less places but again... depends on how much your looking to spend!