Beijing & The Great Wall

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Beijing. Home to roughly 18 million people, host for the 2008 Olympics and one of the most cultural, yet polluted cities in the world.

We stayed in probably the most popular hostel in Beijing - Leo's - which is right next to Tiananmen Square, which we paid a quick visit to on the first afternoon. Leaving the Forbidden City and other sights nearby for a while, we decided to test our legs on the climbs of the Great Wall. Ignoring advice in the hostel, we opted against the hostel tour to a 'secret' location and braved public transport by making our own way there. The wall itself was excellent and despite heading to a relatively well-known stretch, we saw very few other tourists and had just the unkept, steep slopes to contend with. The views were staggering and as always were more impressive than any pictures we'd seen beforehand.

20 or so towers were spaced along our 10km length of wall, which always gave us something to aim at. This proved particularly useful during some of the more inclined parts, which had our legs and lungs burning, but made the views from each minor summit all the more rewarding.

At the end of the wall, we were charged for the 3rd time to pass a stretch of the trek, this time over a suspension bridge, but we then splashed out on a zipline from the top of the wall all the way down to the river bank below. Despite the screams before us, we braved it and were left with a (very) faint inckling to take on something more stomach-churning. With the Sky-Dives and Bungees not greeting us until Oz and NZ, I hope in the meantime that the urge to tackle these subsides - a much more wallet and heart friendly option...!!

Next on our 'To-Do' list was the Forbidden City, although it transpired that much of this was being refurbished in preparation for the huge number of tourists expected in Beijing for the Olympic Games in August. However, what was left exposed was very detailed and intricate sculpture and decoration, and typified the buildings we had seen throughout China in the previous 3 weeks.

With only a day or two left in Asia, we went to a recommended nearby shopping centre, with 5 floors of small stalls all fighting to offer you the lowest priced clothes/watches/glasses/tat/etc. We took full advantage of this, despite some outrageous attempts by some of the locals to part us from huge sums of our hard-earned (cough!) cash. The rule when haggling seems to be cut their first price by 90% and go from there, usually ending up somewhere around the 20-25% mark. If they start to get a little angry and agitated, you know you're getting them near to a reasonable price. We all picked up a bargain or two, thanks to our now honed bartering skills thanks to months in SE Asia, and managed one final trip out to see some remaining sights before our flight to Australia.

While Liam and Chris headed to the Temple of Heaven, I, Ben, went out by bus again to see the Bird's Nest Stadium - focal point of the imminent Olympic Games this summer. I was amazed to found it so hard to get to as it was, assuming systems for foreign tourists would now be in place. Eventually arriving to a full-scale construction site next to the stadium answered my questions on why this wasn't the case - I guess they should probably finish the stadium itself first! It does, in all honesty, appear to be finished externally, and is certainly very impressive. I look forward to seeing the first events being held there in early August to see the finished product from within!

It turns out that the Temple of Heaven is really a huge park with a pretty impressive circular temple at it's centre. After walking for what seemed miles through lush parkland we eventually arrived at the temple. Considered to be a Taoist temple, it has been visited by Emporers of several different dynasties for annual prayer ceremonies. It is a huge structure, 32m in diameter and constructed entirely of wood (no nails were used!).

And so it is goodbye Beijing, hello Australia and a welcome break from the numerous temples and museums that Asia has to offer.

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Photos

The Great Wall
Our first glimpse of the Wall

The Great Wall
The three of us looking cool on the wall!

The Great Wall
The wall stretching all the way to the horizon...

The Great Wall
One of just a handful of people we saw on the wall that day...

The Great Wall
The photos don't do it justice

Chairman Mao
The famous Mao Portrait at Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square
Man flying kite at the South Gate

Forbidden City
Extravagant Buildings and Sculptures were everywhere within the Forbidden City

Olympic Stadium
The "Bird's Nest" with evidence of the ongoing Construction in the foreground

Olympic Countdown
Not long to go.......

Typical Beijing street scene
I saw this man frying intestines in that wok!!

Comments

[pete dixon]

zip
Fantastic - but where are the zip-line pics? MaD