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Published: June 17th 2009
Heading out of Beijing my group went to a less touristy section of the Great Wall to explore the ancient Chinese creation. Arriving at this section of the Great Wall to find that it is situated on the ridge of a mountain pass. There was two options to get to the wall was either a hour long hike to the wall up a mountain or take a nice cable car right to the wall for about five U.S. dollars. After much though I easily chose the cable car to save my energy for the Great Wall. Once standing on the Great Wall it was an amazing sight. High on the mountain ridge was this massive wall structure stretching as far as your eyes could see. It is unbelievable that man could build this imposing structure so many years ago. It is also obvious that anybody trying to attack the wall would be easily defeated. Walking along the wall you notice that there is no flat walking area because the wall rises and falls with the mountain ridge. The wall contains towers built strategically along the wall and varying distances. Walking along the wall you slop gently in some areas and some
areas you must climb hundreds of steps to reach. Reaching the highest point on tower 20 we couldn’t walk any further as the rest of the wall is too dangerous to walk on and has fallen into ruins and has not been restored yet or may never be restored. It was a spectacular day and the Great Wall was amazing.
The next day we headed out to the Forbidden City the home and office of former Chinese Emperors. Entering the Forbidden City you realize how immense and humungous the whole structure is and that it really is a city. The buildings are ornately decorated and with many marble and nicely designed structures. The place was beautiful but this day happened to be the one day that it has rained in Beijing since I got here. The rained poured down, the sky turned to night, and there was thunder and lightning. Although this happened I donned my rain jacket and trudged through the weather and saw the Forbidden City which really does look Forbidden when its thundering and lightning. Even though the rain came the Forbidden City is a wonderful and magically place that is truly a sight to see.
I ended my last night in Beijing with a night stop to have the Roast Peking Duck for dinner. The duck was brought out nicely cooked and carved by our table for us to enjoy. You eat the Roast Duck by taking a thin pancake, putting some duck on top, adding cucumber and onion, and rolling it up and eating it like a taco. The Roast Duck was amazing and is not to be missed. Then finally we ended the night by going back to Wangfujing Street and ordered a stick of Fried Scorpions. I had been putting it off since I got here but with some peer pressure and some pumping my self up I ate a Fried Scorpion. It tasted like the oil it was fried in and the spices the guy had rubbed on it. Biting into it was crunchy like pork rinds but I was able to chew it and swallow it without regurgitating it back up. This ends my time in Beijing and the next time you hear from me I will be in Shanghai.
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Leila
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Beijing with Oasis
I went to Beijing with Oasis Overland last year - it is truly amazing there! We are both lucky to have been :)