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Published: April 17th 2007
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... and yes you have to sing it, the title that is!
Day 22 on the Haywards tour of Asia (for the moment)
Leaving K's Youth Hostel in Tokyo we were hit with a wave of sadness having loved our time in Japan, as well as a twinge of trepidation about tackling another country. There is nothing better then discovering a country for yourself (as we did with Japan) however there is the time when you arrive where you are not really sure what to expect, can't understand the language and are not sure whether you will even be able to read any signs. This was something that only really hit home on the train to the airport! Ahhhhh!
Finding ourselves with 1000Y (about a fiver) that we couldnt change we embarked on a "cheeky Hayward challenge" to spend every last Yen. We ended up spending it on two small bottles of wine and a sausage bun thing - Not bad!
A great curry (as we were flying with Air Pakistan) and a terrible film later we had landed in Beijing and in search of a bus to take us into the centre of the city.
The bus took forever to get through some really busy traffic, but Mark took the time to chat to a Chinese lady who was visiting Beijing on business and who gave us some great tips for whilst we were 'in town'.
Arriving into the centre, just past Tiannenmen Square, we decided we had been sat down for far too long and wanted to stretch our legs with a bit of a walk to the hostel which was only about 2km away. Nearing the hostel we had stretched our legs enough and hopped onto a rickshaw to take us for a quick ride around the area we were staying and drop us off at the hostel - the poor fella must have struggled cycling both of us plus all of our bags!
The area around our hostel could not be more different from some of the places we have stayed in Japan. Small streets packed with ramshackle buildings and street vendors - very bright and bustling and a little smelly in places!Initially as we were a bit travel tired we found it a bit daunting, somethign tha changes when we had a good sleep - we love it!
A quick walk and a chat to the girls we were bunking with and we called it a night!
Day 23
Getting up fairly early we wandered into Tiannenmen Square which, even at that time of day was pretty packed with tourists and the odd person flying a kite, where we took in the atmosphere and history and got approached by what felt like hundreds of people trying to sell us postcards, 'mao book', tickets to the wall etc. etc. - thankfully we had been taught a useful phrase the night before and used it often "Boo Yaw" - "no need". We then continued on to the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City is massive! Slap bang in the centre of Beijing this was where many an Emperor resided with his concubines and castrated guards (as he was the only real man allowed in the city). We decided to have a quick breakfast of icecream (all we could find at that point) before making our way to the City where we were bombarded with offers to guide us around the site, we opted just to get the ticket and not have a guide or even pay the extra
for an audio 'guide' which gives you some more detail. In retrospect this was a bit of a mistake as there was so much to the city that without some of the additional information (over and above the Ching-lish signs) a lot of it seemed very similar. There were a lot of rooms for the Emperor to sit in - obviously a very important part of his job! The architecture and grandeur of the city was amazing and we had a great walk around however - in the future we may be more tempted to splash out a little more!
From the City we headed for a restaurant (not far away) to sample one of Beijings most famed dishes, Pekng duck. It was great - a little peckish having only had an icecream, we arived at the Quanjude restaurant at around the 1:30 ish just before they were taking the final orders for lunchtime and had a whole duck with pancakes and all the trimmings together with some duck spring rolls and washed down with green tea! What fatties, we waddled back out onto the street with that hugely satisfied, post sunday lunch feeling - heaven!
Meandering through
town we made our way to the largest of the temples in Beijing - the Temple of Heaven. We had a great walk thorugh the park and learnt about the rituals for animal sacrificing (sadly they wouldn't take Chrissie!). Beautiful.
With weary legs we returned to the hostel and had a couple of beers with our dorm mates in the hostel bar.
Day 24
Today was Great Wall day! We had decided to book a trip thorugh the hostel as this would mean that we'd be sure to be dropped off in the right place and would be guaranteed a lift home. We left Beijing at 6.30am and arrived at Jinshanling, the start point for the days trek at around 9.30. We met with a couple from the bus, Jeremy and Carly and walked the wall together, starting the Anglo-Aussie expedition team (complete with an Aussie rules football!). The views were absolutely breathtaking, watching the wall snake off into the distance was a view that made our great wall dream come to life. The steps were steep, the downward sections often precarious and the beer at the top superb! All in all, it exceeded our expectations by
a long shot!
After hiking 10km along the wall we reached Simatai where we were faced with possibly the steepest climb of the day - how mean after we'd gone so far! We then had a tough decision, walk in to the town to pick up our minibus or pay 2 quid (and trust Chinese safety standards) to catch a zip wire across the lake and a boat to the town. Nervously and excitedly we opted for the latter. What a buzz! A wicked end to a "great" day.
If you ever find yourself in the area, this section of the wall has only been restored in some places and although you'll find other people following the same route (or doing it in reverse) it is not overly touristy - a good place to experience the wall in its more natural state.
After a very long journey back to Beijing we went out for dinner with Jeremy and Carly and our dorm mates Kamma and Cat. We were lucky to have Kamma with us not only for her lovely company but also for the fact that she speaks Mandarin. She ordered us all a superb meal which
we ate outside in the street and which ended up costing us around 1 pound 30 each, including beers (and an extra bowl of rice for Mark - Fatty) !
Day 25
Enormously grateful that we could still walk after yesterday's exertions we decided to take our lives in our hands by hiring some bikes for the day (at the bargain price of 66p). The traffic here is completely manic but there are large bicylce lanes at the side of most roads which helps. The bike lanes are however also used by bikes going the other way, cars parking, buses stopping and cars overtaking which makes it a little more of an extreme bike riding experience.
We headed north of the Forbidden City to explore some of Beijing's hutong - narrow alleys filled with ramshackle dwellings. It was fascinating to weave our way through these streets. Rattle, bang, crash, oops, Mark's bell fell off his bike! Surprisingly, the day of cycling wasn't quite as bad as Chrissie had feared and despite some near death experiences crossing some 6 lane "dual carriagways" we arrived back to the hostel safely, the only injuries being two slightly sore butts from
the rather archaic bike saddles!
To round off the day we went to the local theatre to watch the Chinese Acrobatics show. It was fab and included lots of bendy and springy people doing spectacular stunts.
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marney
non-member comment
world tour scam
alo harry and mary. must admit after my previous revelations your scam tactics are getting better,how you superimposed those bricks onto a picure of the lake district to form some kind of chinese wall was a real improvement however the piccy of simon in a milatary uniform with a piccy of his grandad on the wall aint fooling anybody!by the way the maria carey pose was obviously done in hmv in the trafford center. by my calculations you are now just outside lancaster living in a single womens refuge. the games up.come home please.