Beijing and the Great Wall

(Written on 10 August about the events of 8, 9 and 10 August. I was unable to post this in China because blogspot and facebook are blocked and our hotel in Ulaan Baatar has limited ethernet access.)

I am so behind on my writing. Since I've been in China, blogspot and facebook don't work, so I haven't been as disciplined with my journaling. I wrote a little on the plane on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Tiajing, but not much after. So... let's start with Sunday.
(From hand written journal on 8-8-10)
Bought this at the KL airport. Think it will be a good place to journal as I don't know what the electricity situation is on my trip Can't believe the tour starts tonight. I'm excited but a bit nervous. Great Wall tomorrow. Here goes nothing...
Made it to China. On the train from Tiajing to Beijing. Flight seemed long - slept a little, read some. I met a man boarding the plane who was going to Northern China with some of his buddies. When I ordered some food on the plane, a beer magically appeared with it, a gift from the man, so a bit later I went to chat with him. When we landed I found that the woman behind me was also getting a taxi to the train station to catch a train to Beijing and asked if we could share. Clearing passport control was a breeze, but my bags took a while to come off the plane making me a bit nervous. The woman I shared the taxi with is Malaysian and speaks Mandarin. An excellent choice as there was no problem telling the taxi driver where we wanted to go. When we got to the train station is was incredibly crowded. There were people everywhere and it turned out that the next three trains were sold out; we couldn't get one for 50 minutes. Walking into the train station you basically push your way past people since lines don't work so well to go through security. I just couldn't believe how many Chinese people there were. And almost no one speaks English. This is going to be a challenge. (End of handwritten section)

We chose business class because its only a couple dollars more and we got to sit in the VIP area before boarding the train. I went into a shop to get a bite to eat but left frustrated because I couldn't tell what anything was and the woman didn't speak a word of English. Pringles, Sprite and a Dove bar ended up being my goodies of choice. The train took only 30 minutes, reaching a high speed of 330 km/hr. We mostly went through green countryside until approaching Beijing. I said goodbye to my friend and got in a taxi to Harmony Hotel with just 30 minutes until the important group meeting at 6pm.

The taxi pulled up to the hotel at 5:55pm and I just had time to drop my bags before meeting everyone in the lobby. There were two other tour groups, and mine was sitting in the corner of the lobby. The Intrepid leader that ran our meeting wasn't actually going to be our guide. Our tour leader was stuck in Moscow due to the fires and couldn't get a flight out. So energetic Max introduced us to the program.

Everyone else on my tour is Australian (well, one girl is from the Netherlands but has been living in Australia), which is a bit odd since there is usually more diversity. We range from late teens to mid fifties; four men, eight women. Denise and Rod have been on numerous Intrepid trips (their daughter used to be a guide) and will be continuing through the Batlics and on to France after the tour. Fiona and Wayne got to Beijing a few days early and are extending in St Petersburg before going to Europe. Liesbeth and Susie and friends from Australia who have been planning to do this trip for five years. Stuart, Shellie, their daughter Kristy and their daughters friend Stephanie are travelling together to Berlin, Krakow, Warsaw, Prague and Vienna before the girls continue an adventure in Europe. The girls start university in the fall. Last but not least, the other solo traveller, Bruce. He's been traveling through SE Asia and China for the past three months and goes home via Japan at the end of the tour. My first impressions of everyone were quite positive. I had a feeling it would be a good group.

After a short walk in the area, Max took us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner where he ordered a mix of traditional and exotic food. I skipped on the stomach and liver dish and a few other odd items but generally enjoyed the meal. I think he was going for the shock factor. Most of us went back to the hotel, but some continued the evening at a bar with Max. I was so exhausted from the entire day of travelling that I was happy to come back to my hotel room to relax. I've got a room all to myself because there are no other single female travelers and for this part of the trip they don't mix accommodation. It is nice to have a bathroom and room to myself after a week of sharing.
Yesterday we went to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China. On the drive, our local guide Vivianne shared some information about China. There are a total of 662 cities, 34 provinces and 1.325 billion people over the 9.6 million square kilometers. Beijing is 3000 years old as a city, and 800 as a capital. Five million people a day take the subway, and a million move into/out of Beijing. Near Beijing, there are five sections of the Great Wall which are open to tourists; the Mutianyu section was a 1.5 hours drive. On arrival our two options for getting on the wall (to explore from tower one to 20) were 1000 stairs or a chair lift. I took the easy route and opted for the chair lift since I figured there would be plenty of climbing on the wall (I was correct) and we only had three hours. The relaxing chairlift, with views over the entire area, breezed us to tower six in a couple minutes. Next thing I knew, I was on the Great Wall of China. Amazing!
Seeing the wall in person was incredible. It stretches into the distance as far as the eye can see, curving with the landscape. Walking on it involves climbing up and down and up and down numerous stairs of varying heights. Even with the sporadic breeze, we were sweating continuously. The haze made it difficult to fully see the mountains in the distance but you could sense how though the terrain would have been for the workers. About one million workers died and are buried in the foundation. From tower 6 we walked to tower 1 then to tower 14 and back to tower 6 to take the toboggan to the bottom.

When we got back to Beijing at 2pm we had lunch at the famous Yashow mall. On the fifth floor is a food court serving various Chinese items. I ate a large plate with a mixture of sweet and sour chicken, beef, broccoli and eggplant. Since we had 30 minutes to spare, I had a look around the stalls and ended up bargaining for a dress. The guy started at 350 Yuan, I paid 100 (about $15). After a couple hours rest at the hotel (I enjoyed a short nap), it was off to the Flying Acrobat show. The stunts were amazing, it was like a mini Cirque de soleil. A couple of girls did tricks with umbrellas on their feet, men jumped through hoops while doing backflips, and about ten girls balanced on a bike. There was a man who balanced a plank on a tube and flipped bowls onto his head. After doing this on his own, a man on the ground balanced a table with two woman on either side with the guy on the top with the bowls. Craziness. A fabulous show.
After the entertainment, Max (who joined us even though our tour leader Anna had made an appearance) offered to take us to the night market, a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Kristy, Steph, Fi, Wayne, Bruce and I decided to go for the excursion. Even though I wasn't in the mood for dinner (the late lunch and ice cream at the theatre were enough) I didn't want to miss out on something local. Well, unfortunately, the walk was more like 40 minutes and it was still pretty humid out. All of us were a bit annoyed as it was already 9:30pm and most of us wanted a quick look. The market itself was interesting, lots of different types of food, prepared on sticks waiting to cook, from lamb and beef to snake, squid, pigeons (whole), and more. I wasn't hungry otherwise I would have sampled something, and Max ended up buying us some fruit because we weren't eating anything. But as I said, I was just a bit hot and bothered and not looking forward to the walk back (I would have happily gotten in a taxi, but no one went for that idea). (Hopefully I'll go back with my dad and properly enjoy it.)
Today we started at 8:30am with our local guide, Louis, with a ride on the subway to Tiananmen Square. Before you enter the subway station, you must put your bag through a scanner, highest security I've seen on any underground yet. Another security check when we got to the entrance of Tiananmen Square. The square, 880 by 500 meters, feels enormous and was filled with tourists. For occasions it can hold up to one million people and today there was a huge queue for the memorial. All the main entrances to the City and the Square run along the same line from north to south. We spent about an hour walking around the square hearing about the surrounding buildings before we reached the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was overcrowded so it was hard to see everything properly, and given the heat, it was hard to focus on Louis for two hours. Most of the buildings, while spectacular, look the same. We would walk through one tunnel to another square the looked similar to the one before and it continued like that, square after square for one kilometer. The final bit is a garden, but we barely had time to look at it before emerging onto the crowded street. It was 12:15pm, and as much as I wanted to take in a view of the city from the "mountain" across from the Forbidden City, my stomach called for food.
Stuart, Shellie, Kristy and Steph invited me to join them for duck lunch at a restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet. It was supposed to be close by, so we figured we could walk. We walked for about 45 minutes before finally finding the street, which happened to be just around the corner from the market we'd gone to with Max last night. Before we started eating, Stuart and Shellie requested that I allow them to treat me to lunch since they were treating the other girls too. It was fantastic. We had peking duck pancakes, sweet and sour duck, fried duck and prawn dumplings. All well worth the walk.

From there we tried to find the store selling Western food. Since we didn't know the name or exact location, I walked into the Grand Hyatt to find out. Turns out it is in the mall and we ran into Wayne, Fi, Bruce, Susie and Liz, so we all took the subway back to the hotel together when we had finally finished our food shopping. I picked up a Dairy Queen because it was so hot out and I needed something to cool down. Coffee brownie flavor, yum.
When we arrived at the hotel, we had three hours to relax until the group was meeting up for dinner at 7pm (by choice as nothing was organized for tonight) and we went to a noodle bar on our street that Denise and Rod had discovered. It's like a make your own noodle soup bar. You picked your ingredients (hard to tell what most of them were so it was a bit of a guessing game) and they cook it up for you in a broth with some peanut and chili sauce. It was incredible but had such a kick that my lips were burning. I ate everything in my bowl, so I guess I made some lucky choices.
Time for bed now. We meet at 6:30am tomorrow to take the train to Mongolia. Have to finish packing too.

(Just a reminder that this was written on 10 August.  Pictures from China are on my shutterfly site: http://ejltravels.shutterfly.com/.  I will post more on the blog when I have a chance, but I still need to type the sections from my handwritten journal.  Things are going well and Mongolia has been amazing.  On the train tomorrow night, 15 August, for two nights and then I'll be in Russia.)