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Published: April 22nd 2006
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Fancy foods
Anything from crispy fried seastars to a juicy caterpillar-satay - you will find it on Bejings nightmarket. Wild wall walk As usual, we are running late. Trying to pick up some vegetable baozi and looking for a sleeping mattress (still in use today as a beach towel in Thailand) on our way from our hostel to the bus station takes its time. The Beijing morning traffic is not speeding up things either. At least we know already which bus to take to Huanghuacheng, the jumping point to a less visited part of the Great Wall. In fact, this part is even closed officially these days for renovations (until 2007). However, at the time, the Eastern part could still be accessed (villagers will point the way). Clambering uphill you might come along an old woman where you can either pay a couple of yuans 'entry fee' or just ignore her which might be dangerous to your health, however, if you are not a fast runner. After a walk through the bushes, we hit the wall and start to climb it feeling like a Mongolian warrior (even though, we are attacking from the wrong side). However, the adventure starts just here. The wall is steep and sometimes very steep and sometimes crumbling. Wannabe Mongolians in flip-flops will definitely perish.
The wall
A rather well renovated stretch of the Huanghuacheng section. As the sun is strongest we continue our way up. One and a half hours and three watch towers later we find ourselves about 400 metres up on top of one of the highest hills around. We go on until, eventually, the wall becomes completely overgrown and can not be followed further without turning the trip into a full scale jungle expedition. Thus, we turn around and facing the setting sun, we climb down to the second watchtower which seemed fit to serve as an overnight shelter. The views over Inner Mongolia are now spectacular though a bit too hazy for good photographs. We reach the tower and spread our mattress just in time, before a little storm (wind, lightening, slight rain) provides a truly adventurous ambiance. Together with the crackling fire it would make a perfect background for another Hitchcock movie.
It is a hard bivouac, but if you have done it right you will be too tired to notice.
Chinese sunrise Foreign travelers in China are just a tiny twig of the huge branch of tourism. Chinese people love to travel and they do it in their own country as much or even more thorouhgly than
abroad. It doesn't matter if you are in Datong (Buddhist caves) or inside the forbidden city in Beijing or touring the Li river around Guilin and Yangshuo, you will see them - one group with red, one group with yellow caps, buttons stuck to the chest, maybe all with the same T-Shirt or holding the same plastic bag - always carrying an umbrella and a wide smile. The tour leaders loudspeakers are annoying and the yellow caps ruin every picture, but getting involved with Chinese tour groups, you can't help being astonished about their endurance and enthusiasm.
We realised that when we were climbing Huangshan - one of the Chinese holy mountains and (for the Chinese people) one of the most famous sights in whole China. After the first hour of our seven-hours-ascend it started to rain - not a soft drizzle, but heavy drops. While we were having a break hoping for a clearing, the Chinese tourists smiled, bought a rain cover and went their way. After waiting in vain for one hour we took them as an example and staggered on. We were soon wet through, freezing and cursing our bad luck. The Chinese around us were still
cheerful, joking and laughing. At lunch we changed in our still dry shirts out of our bag and held on to our hot tea. The Chinese tourists around us were freezing as well, but they were chatting happily, their minds directed onto the highlight of the trip: sunrise over the sea of clouds. We didn't dare to hope that the weather would clear up for the next day, but we took the Chinese as our example again and stayed overnight anyway. And there they were at five o'clock in the morning under a perfectly clear sky - and there they would have been even with snow or rain or thunderstorm - the Chinese tour groups with their yellow caps and loudspeakers, laughing and joking and waiting until the sun comes through: "Aaaahh!"
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Lovelyplanet-Homepage.
Planet Portrait *
Top 3: Caves in Datong
Huang Shan
Market in Xishuangbanna
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Our route: Hohhot - Datong - Beijing - Shanghai - Suzhou - Tangkou - Huangshan - Yangshuo - Pingan - Kunming - Jinghong - Mengla
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That was bad: The rainy season caught up with us too early.
Acrobatics in Beijng
And that's just the warming up. *
Recommended guest house: Camelia Hotel in Kunming. The breakfast buffet (for an extra 15 yuan) is also highly recommended.
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Visa: Always a bit of a lottery but if you arrange beforehand you should easily get 60 days. If I remember correctly it was about 50 CHF.
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Money saver tip: Compile a list of your favourite dishes and from there on avoid restaurants with an English menu.
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We paid for a meal: 2 to 80 yuan. Mostly around 10 yuan pp.
Planet Pictures
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