4th August 2005
China was a last minute holiday for my girlfriend (Melinda) & I. We had been told by work that we needed to take some holidays as soon as possibly but the question was where? After a few late evenings trying different holiday options we decide to hit China for two & a half weeks. The plan was to see Beijing, Xi'an & Lijiang before finishing off with Shanghai.
We left home on the evening of the 4th of August (Mel's Birthday) flying with Singapore Airlines. After 17 hours of travelling we touched down in Beijing International not knowing what to expect. We passed by the communist customs officials quite easily & before too long we had bartered a taxi price & were off to our hotel. We decided to go budget for this trip & opted for a few cheap hotels in good locations. Now that I think about it, cheap & China shouldn't be used in the same sentence it sounds really stupid.
Our home for the next five nights was the Wang Fu Jing Da Wan Hotel which is a 2 star hotel located right in the heart of Beijing. It wasn't too bad for the price even though it did have a bath tub covered in mould and we kept getting phone calls from the front desk trying to sell a special massage in the room. Of course anytime they got Mel they would hang up but when I answered they would try to give me the line, "Yu wan massage in ya woom...... massage in ya woom!" Needless to say I never took them up on there more than dodgy offer.
That evening we decided to make our way to Tienanmen Square to check out the action. It was 5:00pm & the sun was still sitting high in the sky & although we were extremely tired we felt as though we shouldn't hit the hay just yet. After wandering for a few hours with no real sense of direction we ended up hitting one of the high walls of the Forbidden City which told us we had arrived. We made our way through a few courtyards & grand gates before being stopped by a few soldiers from the People's Liberation Army. It was sunset & they were performing a flag lowering ceremony which involved the flag bearers marching across the blocked street with a small army unit behind them. They began to march through the Heavenly Gate & straight towards us so I decided to catch the action on film. Not knowing if this was allowed I sat low in the crowd & filmed the army procession. I know a lot of countries in the world don't allow you to capture military events on film & I figured that China was probably one of them. But I wasn't hassled & there were a few Chinese people doing it so what the hey!
After the army procession had passed we made our way through the last gate & finally into Tienanmen Square. It was amazing! It had a very unique feeling that's really hard to explain. It was late dusk, the lights of the square were lit up like Christmas & we had a whole lot of jet lag. This was one of those moments that you just stand there & think.... F**K, I'm in China! After snapping a billion photo's of the giant Chairman Mao photo we decided to call it a night. It was 10:00pm & the Square was shutting down so there was no real place left to go.
The next day we decided to go for an early morning expedition in search of the square again. After some very wrong turns we managed to get pointed in the right direction by a very friendly non-English speaking police officer. It's not hard to see how this is the biggest square in the world. As we wandered around we slowly made our way through the "Heavenly Gate" & towards the Forbidden City again. We entered the city with our included audio tour & the other 4 million Chinese tourist here to see this ancient wonder. The Forbidden City took 14 years to build & covers 720,000 square metres. It contains dragon statues, colourful temples, lakes, gardens & a few sets of stairs with intricate detailed carvings. After strolling in awe for about 3 hours we decided to seek shade from the 36 degree heat & peace from the 36 thousand tourists.
That afternoon we went to check our emails at the Internet cafe & it was then that I found out that the brother of my ex girlfriend had died in a car accident. It definitely hit home & I began to think about cutting the holiday short & heading home. I spoke to mum on the phone that evening & after a few words & some serious thought I decided to stay on & finish the holiday. There was nothing that I could do by going home & that part of my life was finished anyway.
Over the next few days we checked out other famous Beijing attractions such as the Lama Temple, The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace, The Hutongs, Beihai Park & The Bell & Drum Towers. One thing I noticed on our many walks about China is how active the older generation is. Parks, streets & malls are regular gathering places for these elderly hooligans who enjoy activities such as bat & ball dancing, fan dancing, tai chi, meditation, kite flying, hacky sack, badminton, jamming on panpipes & belting out a tune on a 4 string Chinese guitar. A little more active than a few cold one's down at the bowls club. It's a shame the pollution's so bad in China as I'm sure the average life span would be a lot longer if they could breath properly.
The Great Wall Of China
One afternoon after a big day of sight seeing we were walking home when a crazed Chinese man with glasses & a bubbly personality jumped out of the bushes & began to give us a spiel about trips to the Great Wall. He promised a spot where there would be no tourists & he said it was one of the most stunning spots to see the Great Wall. After knocking him back a few time he then went for the final sell by producing a photo album which showed him & other westerners at The Great Wall having a fantastic time. A few shots were in summer but most of the photo's were taken in the winter, when the wall was covered in snow. He even produced a book with written compliments & references by all his western customers. We had been trying to figure out how we were going to get to The Great Wall & it looked as though our ticket had come in the shape of this crazy man call Ting. So after a little thought we agreed to go with him the next morning for a day trip to remember, or so he promised.
We were up at the crack of dawn waiting for our ancient adventure to begin when a van rolled up & out jumped Ting. Once again he had as much energy as a 6 year old on a caffeine & red cordial hit. We then proceeded to pick up a few more people before Ting said "this is the driver & he will take you. Have fun, bye!" Before we could ask him why he wasn't coming, he was gone & we were left with our friendly non-English speaking driver. So off we went. We drove for about 2 hours passing through the constantly changing scenery before making our accent up the mountains towards The Great Wall. We were still about 20 minutes away from our stop when we looked up & saw the Great Wall following the winding mountain tops. It looked so ancient & a little intimidating.
As we arrived we all filed out of the van to followed out trusty Chinese guide. It was exactly as Ting had promised, there was the wall & not another tourist in sight. All we had to do was crawl under the barbed wire fence & pass the "DO NOT ENTER, VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT" sign before we could begin our long climb to the top.
After climbing up the 1 kilometre vertical mountain we had reached the top. In one word AMAZING! in 2 words VERY DANGEROUS! I could now see why they weren't letting anyone in this area. There were parts of the wall that had just fallen away down the steep cliffs. But I must say this was one of the most memorable things I have ever experienced. Here we are in the middle of no where standing on one of the most amazing man made structures our world has ever seen & it amazingly enough wasn't covered with tourists. About 10 of us were there to explore at our own free will for a few hours. After taking our photos & video we decided to explore a little more. We made our way across some very shady areas to one of the higher peaks were we could see the wall running for miles & miles. We sat for a little to just take it all in before exploring, taking photos & filming as much as possible. Next thing we knew it was time to make our way back down to the van for our journey back to Beijing.
The Great Wall should be on the itinerary of every traveller to Beijing & I can't recommend enough to try & find a tour that allows you to get away from the hundreds of tourists in the more popular spots like Badaling. By seeing the wall where it's crumbling and a little overgrown gives you more of a sense of how old it is & therefore makes it more amazing. Badaling is good if that's all you can get to but you will share the experience of the remade wall with about 700 other tourists.