Beijing and the Great Wall at Mutianyu

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Day 1

Our flight from Seoul to Beijing was delayed by 90 minutes, landing us close to rush hour. We found the shuttle buses into the city and without exactly knowing where our hotel was I told them Tiananmen Square as our destination. Just outside the airport the road was completely shut down. 45 minutes later we finally started rolling and ours was the last stop putting us out at the height of rush hour where every taxi was occupied. We waved off several offers of a private car for 50 yuan waiting for a metered cab. The second taxi we flagged down knew where the hotel was, the entire trip including taxi and bus was 50 yuan (around $7). What a deal! I was already liking China except for the traffic.

It was late after we checked in and grabbed a bite to eat. Finding a restaurant with pictures and English translation was essential for us. If we had stayed longer I would have been more adventuresome ordering dishes based on what others were eating around us but 8 nights in China isn't long enough.

Our hotel was just a few minutes walk from the entrance to the Forbidden Palace and Tiananmen Square so that's all we did the first night was wonder around there watching the crowds of Chinese tourists around the area.

Day 2

We picked up a tour heading to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It's a little further than the more popular Badaling but the lack of crowds was the motivator for picking that destination. After waiting an hour for our last fellow tour member who had just taken a train from Shanghai and was late due to traffic we went to our first stop: A jade factory! I hate, hate, hate, hate the tourist shopping and somebody decided to actually shop keeping us there for 45 minutes. I don't care what it costs, get a private tour that offers no shopping, what a waste of time.

Our first real stop was the Ming Tombs were we visited the 13th, and last for the Emperor Wanli at Dingling, the only tomb currently to have been excavated. The area around the tomb was quite interesting as well as the history and explanation of why two empresses were also buried there (they died before him and relocated after his death). The tomb itself was a little bland with the harsh florescent lights and lack of any real adornment though more so than I saw in the Pyramids the year before.

The drive to Mutianyu took another 90 - 120 minutes and we had lunch. We were separated into two round tables where the center spun freely and food was ordered for us (I think vegetarians would be in trouble). We were brought out about a dozen different bowls of food + rice + tea, it was the best sit down meal we had the entire time in China due to the amount of variety and the company was nice as well.

We spent an entire of two hours at the great wall. That included the lift up the mountain and the ride down. There are two lifts going up, if we had gone on the one to the "left", it's about a 2km walk on the wall down to the area where we actually came up. That is the way they should have done the trip. Instead, without any real choice they purchased our tickets to go up the "right" lift and rode down a toboggan slide. The actual time, though minimal was everything I had imaged it would be. The wall goes on what seems forever, it was the highlight of our trip. When we got to the top we generally went to the right, or east. The climb was pretty brutal but the views were fantastic. We went to the end where they allow visitors to go and backtracked.

Kelly and a family we met from the UK went on down the slide when we reached the section we came up. I chose to stay on top of the wall and continued on and found the walk to be much easier the other direction - virtually no real climbing. At one point I popped up on the roof of one of the buildings and three Chinese teens (I guess) was excited to see me. They all got a picture of me with them on the wall. I was a little taken aback at first and in hindsight wished I had gotten a picture on my camera but I was alone on the wall with them and wasn't sure why they wanted a picture with me at first (pickpockets anyone?)

On the ride back to Beijing Kelly made me sit on the isle (we were on the front row of the shuttle), the driving in China scared her and she couldn't watch anymore. I found it quite interesting if not a little nerve racking. No worse than in Egypt. We made a final stop before being dropped off...at a silk factory! Another waste of time but the entire day trip including lunch was $30pp, a private tour would have been closer to $85pp but even they will push the shopping (as we found out in Xian).

Day 3

Using the subway we went to the Summer Palace north west of the city. Any single ride on the subway is 2 yuan, 4 for both of us, just over $.60. The crowds aren't too bad but we often had to stand as seats were already occupied. We did get a few stares but they do seem to be used to westerners. Most westerners that we came across were not American, most had other accents, especially Australian.

Our original itinerary for the day was the Summer Palace, the Old Summer Palace, some other places and eventually the Lama temple. We spent so much time at the Summer Palace we barely had time to visit the Lama Temple before it closed. The grounds of the Summer Palace were enormous, we did quite a bit of walking and had a fast-food lunch by the lake. We ended up spending most of the afternoon, time I don't feel was wasted. At the entrance is the area known as Suzhou Market Street with it's quaint (touristy) shops. We climbed Longevity Hill to get the great views of Lake Kunming. Along the water front is the Long Corridor (not misnamed either), we walked most of it before taking a boat ride on the lake.

That afternoon we made it to the Lama temple - we knew we were close we could smell incense - and found it was closing in 30 minutes. Luckily we ended up being able to spend an hour. After that we wandered the local neighborhoods and sort of got lost. I had a vague idea of where we were but we grabbed a cab not knowing how far the subway station was. Traffic is horrible in Beijing, it should have only taken us a few minutes to get to our hotel but took over 30 min. I think the cost was still only $5. After dinner Kelly went to get a massage ($20 for 1 hr!) and I wandered around the area. I was shocked to see how drastically the area was different in such a short distance from our hotel. The place was lit with so many lights and large modern building with neon lights. There were a couple of small alleys with crowded vendors selling meats on sticks and other trinkets, the smells were at times nearly overpowering. The most interesting were the scorpions impaled on skewers, up to 5 for small ones still twitching. I met back up with Kelly to take her back to see all this, I couldn't talk Kelly into trying the scorpions so I declined as well. I wish I was with somebody more adventurous than I am to try these things with.

Day 4

We checked out of our hotel and headed for The Heavenly Temple to the south. Many of these places are just outside a subway station making it very easy (and cheap) to get to. We enjoyed the retirees in group exercising, dancing and singing. A few groups were playing a type of hacky sack with some kind of fins on the them for stabilization. We made our way back to Tiananmen Square and walked around the Qianman area and had another excellent - and cheap - lunch.

We continued north through Tiananmen Square to the Forbidden City. I was a bit surprised to find how large it actually is. Building after building it seemed to continue forever. Most of the middle set of buildings have all been restored and the paint didn't appear to be that old. We backtracked along the outer edge and found the building there, while not as nicely restored, much less crowded and still very interesting. Some of these buildings had items within to get an idea of what they were used for compared to so many other building we had seen before that were empty.

After dinner and getting our luggage we headed to the train station. The outside was crazy with the crowds; large groups of people waiting, eating and sleeping on the sidewalk, I wished I had taken pictures of that. I bought a few food items for the train ride and we waited for an hour for our overnight train to depart. Here in the train station we did get a few stares, maybe they enjoy people watching as much as we do. The sleeper, a bit pricey - was a two bed with a private bathroom and was worth the cost. I slept well on the top bunk.

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Links

Link to Kodak Gallery Photos.

Video Tiananmen Square (YouTube). Resolution can be changed to 720 (HD).

Video Tiananmen Square 2 .

Video Temple of Heaven Park .

Video Summer Palace .

Video Summer Palace 2 .

Video Summer Palace 3 .

Video Great Wall .

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