Blogs from Great Wall of China, Beijing, China, Asia - page 2

I climbed the Great Wall today, as I lifted my feet to climb each step, I thought about the countless number of people that perished trying to build the wall. Great amount of toiling and labor went into this GREAT wall. I neglected to mention that I am a celebrity here in China, today the camera's were extra busy, people stop and ask to take pictures with me, most of them have never actually seen a "black person" in real life. Women, men, teenagers, elderly, familes with small children all asking for pictures. It is sight that you cannot believe, they line up, some times in groups, smile and utter something in a unknown language, which I know means "can I take a picture with you", sometimes that just try to sneak a picture without you ... read more

A great day at the Great Wall Todays plan: go for a hike, starting at the old part of the wall in a village called Jiankou and ending at the touristic area of Mutianyu. The hike itself seems to be not that big problem for us but the logistics. Why? Jiankou is an area north of the wall with several villages Xizhazi 1 to Xizhazi 6, about 100km away from Beijing. Mutianyu is a village south of the wall. The tour starts at Xizhazi 2 without any signs. Access to this part of the wall is restricted. Before we could start the tour we had to research GPS waypoints, village names in chinese characters, bus lines, time tables and so on. Absolutely time consuming! ... don't try to ask a taxi driver for Xizhazi 2. Always ... read more

Wir starten bereits um 6.30 Uhr um die chinesische Mauer bei Badaling zu bestaunen. Trotz zeitigen Starts, stehen wir mal wieder im Stau. Badaling ist der wohl touristischste Abschnitt der Mauer und so starten wir in glühender Hitze zu unserem Minimarathon mit gefühlten 10.000 anderen Chinesen und europäischen Reisebussen. Beindruckt von dem steilen Anstieg genießen wir den Blick auf dieses monumentale Bauwerk. Liu bemerkt mit einem breiten Grinsen, dass die Chinesen beim Mauerbau ein wenig mehr Erfahrung vorweisen können als wir Deutschen. Nachdem wir den ganzen Tag die Mauer erklommen habe, fasziniert mich am Ausgang ein Chinese der mit einem riesigen Hammer Reisbrei verarbeitet. Nach kurzem nicken tauschen wir die Seiten und ich versuche mein Glück. Das Ergebnis sind weiche Reisröllchen in verschiedenen Geschmacksrichtungen, ähnlich dem sogenannten Sticky Reis. Ich versuche den chi... read more

As our car travelled higher and higher up the narrow mountainside road, mist rose from the deep valleys. High overhead ravens circle, the only sound being their caws echoing from one mountain peak to the next. We have been traveling for three hours since leaving the capital of Beijing. We sensed our destination was near. As we turned a sharp bend in the road, our driver pulls over and says in Chinese, “out of gas”. Erin and I look at each other. How does someone who makes a living driving people around run out of gas? As I strain to look at the dashboard; sure enough, the needle is below the red. He says he has enough gas to get back down the mountain and into the town of Huairou to refill. Erin and I shrugged ... read more

Beijing 11 to 15 May 2015 The train trip to Beijing took about 2 ½ hours. It’s such an efficient way to travel. We arrived in this city of 22 million people and our bus was waiting for us. We took about 45 minutes to drive to our hotel (the Hilton), but the approach to the hotel was interesting. We seemed to drive around in circles because of the one way streets. We ended up driving across a canal 3 times to get to the other side of the road which was where our hotel was. We were welcomed with a warm chocolate cookie and a presentation by the hotel manager who was from England but could speak fluent Chinese. It was a big hotel where we had a buffet breakfast each day, featuring a large ... read more