Blogs from The Great Wall, China, Asia - page 4

I have not been the biggest fan of our Saturday Forced Family Fun activities, where we spend a lot of time waiting for people, argue about where to go and dive headfirst into tourist traps. However, this past Saturday's trip to the Great Wall was AWESOME! We went to the Jinshanling 金山铃 section, a few hours away from Beijing. We also visited a nearby Catholic village where they had pictures of Jesus on the walls.... read more

So, it’s been another week since my last blog. I really need to do this more frequent! Last Friday evening, Arsene and I went to Renmin University’s “English Corner.” Our understanding was this was a designated area on campus where students would congregate and speak English every Friday evening. This was only part of the story. Nothing is small in a country with 1.4 billion people, so the square where the event takes place was packed with people. Arsene and I walked around a bit to observe what was going on and then stood in one spot for about 30 seconds. That is when people began to come up to us and ask us if we spoke English. In less than 2 minutes, Arsene and I were standing back-to-back, each talking to half of a 30+ ... read more

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 ... read more

Hello everybody! Today we finally made it to the great wall. We were supposed to go a fortnight ago, but Sue was sick. Then we were supposed to go the following Thursday, but the big poo of a national day got in the way again, so we put it off till today, so it's been a long time coming, and to be honest I half expected we'd never make it. The part of the wall we went to is called Simatai, which, according to the website, is celebrated for its steepness, queerness, and intactness . It is definitely intact, and its steepness was never in question. I was a bit confused about the queerness until Lloyd posed for a photo. Then all was revealed. Metaphorically speaking anyway. So yeah, the day started thusly: We woke up ... read more

24 - 25 August 2009 I've mentioned the Great Wall but the pictures really do deserve a post to themselves. I would recommend to anyone to get out of the touristy parts and to Sumatai. There was only a handful of people besides ourselves walking the wall so you really could throw your mind back to ancient times. Coming off the wall was fun. Instead of walking off the hill to the bottom where the overnight hotel was, we all took the flying fox over the lake. I am minus pictures of this until I grab someone elses camera as I risked life and limb to go first. The beds continue to be uncomfortably hard. However I was the only one who did manage to rise at 3am in the morning to see the sunrise on ... read more