Advertisement
Published: January 28th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Heya guys! Haven’t had chances to use the internet much due to long train journeys, shabby connections or outright remoteness. Will try and catch you up on what’s happened before I leave this town.
Decided weekend before last to visit the Simatai section of the Great Wall, which is arguably the best section near Beijing (160km away). It’s in great condition and due to its remoteness very few tourists. The tour offered from the hostel was £26 but I thought I could make it there cheaper. So on Sunday, found a train that got half way there to a town called Miyan. So I set off on the subway for 1 of the 5 train stations in Beijing.
I must say, the subway in Beijing is the cleanest and most modern subway I’ve been on. Bearing in mind the population of Beijing is 28million people, it was less busy than London’s surprisingly. Well I suppose the fact that most of the lines were added 2 years ago for the Beijing Olympics might have something to do it with in hindsight. Trouble is you do get stared at a lot more though, especially when loaded like a donkey with baggage.
The Mandarin Duck Lake
Apparantly never freezes, wonder if the locals walking on it agree. It turned out finding the Eastern train station I needed was like chasing a ghost. According to the train timetables it exists but not according to any locals. Eventually a taxi driver said he would take me there but at a high price. So reluctantly I jumped in not seeing another option. Turns out the station was more of a hut, deep in the slums surrounding the city. Unfortunately the only train of the day had just left so it was back up the dirt road, weaving through crudely built shelters, decrepit buildings and staring locals cooking scraps over barrel fires.
Plan B took us to a bus station back in the heart of the city. A brief and confused 10 minutes ended sat on the back of a crammed bus and some bemused locals unused to foreigners trial-and-erroring to comprend their alien ways. Staring out of the window I watched busy sidewalks fade to empty industrial estates, sparse fields and finally darkness as we departed into the night.
Fortunately as I got off the bus at Miyan, there was a taxi driver desperate to take me to Simatai village, 70km away. I tried not to let
A steep wall ahead
Ended up being the wrong way as well... it show, but there are no hostels in Miyan so I was just as desperate to get to Simatai. So I eventually arrived and pulled up at a local farmers house. He led me to a empty room, where his wife poured me some Chinese tea and we exchanged what basics we knew of each others languages. Every Chinese person is fascinated by rolling tobacco, an obsolete necessity when cigarettes are so cheap. This farmer is no exception. I made him a rollie, much to his delight and said goodnight. I stayed with the farmer for 2 nights and this was my first taste of rural China, sleeping, eating and washing like the locals. A coal fed fire burns through the night, heating the water for a long metal pipe running along the wall of the rooms, and for hot water collected in flasks, used for washing, and making tea. There was some basic electricity but if you turn off the light there’s about a 10% success rate for getting it on again. The nights, at least for the winter are bitterly cold, but there were plenty of blankets to retreat under.
It was these nights that made me
The endless wall
Every time you think you have reached the peak, a taller tower waits in the distance. decide against continuing northeast to Harbin; the ice city. It reaches below -30C and although they hold a beautiful festival full of ice statues and the Ice Palace is full of life, I just don’t have the gear to keep me warm enough to enjoy it properly.
Anyway after the first night I had a full day to explore the Great Wall, without the hassle of fitting to the schedule of a guide. The walk up to the wall was a very scenic and winding slope. The higher you got, the further along the wall into the horizon you could see, snaking across the peaks of the hills. Luckily the weather was sunny and clear, a blessing that others since met, were not so lucky to have, mist cloaking most of their views. It was however, very icy, with snow littering the landscape. Once I joined the main wall and started trekking over all kinds of stairs and walkways, I came at one point to a slope with no steps. I’ve uploaded a video of me trying to slide down it, but perhaps a video of me trying to scramble back up it at the end of the day
The only way over the lake
and you're charged to use it. No trolls at least. would have made better viewing...
The wall itself cannot be done justice with words, and a perfect place to go see it. The area just next to it was recently closed after “too many incidents of tourist deaths”. Now I am curious what the Chinese deem, too many deaths. Anyway after the following night I returned to Beijing, ready to move on.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 61; dbt: 0.1306s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
smurf
non-member comment
good stuff
i pissed myself at the light switch of intense unhappiness. seems like your allready getting used to the chinese way of naming things. well done. did you see any mongols invading?