China | Photographer By Night | Behind the scenes with Tomasz Wagner

China

January4th

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Asia 2008 | Day 15 | Great Wall and Summer Palace

Posted in: Beijing, China, Travel

Before I start, I would like to say that the Great Wall has been a place I have wanted to visit for many years! Ever since I found out about its existence in elementary school, I just had to go see it for myself. The Great Wall was the foremost reason why I even booked by Beijing ticket. You read about it in a book, drool over the photos from national geographic, and you shake your head and wonder how such a collosol structure even exists. You read about how many years it took to build it, the distance it covers, and all the people who lost their lives slaving to build it, will leave you appreciating it even more!

I read the best way to travel in Beijing was by having your own private driver. It costs more, but you get to places much faster and thus are able to accomplish a lot more in a day. Someone on Revscene.net (a board I visit periodically) left me a contact of a Beijing driver named John. I emailed John and was able book a whole day to visit the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. The morning started at 8am, and the drive out was 2hours, which of course I slept the whole way there. The Great Wall has a couple entrances; two are located very close to each other, only a couple towers away from one another. The other is hours out from the main entrances and is better suited for hikers who want trek the 4 hour journey and experience more than just a beautiful view. I did not notice until I took the trip out, but in the winter Beijing gets very dry. In the summer the Great Wall is surrounded by lushious green trees and an abundance of life, but in the winter the place looks like a desert. Trees weren’t getting any water, flowers or plant life looked non-existent and the mountains resembled piles of sand. It would have been nice to at least have some snow, but nontheless the Great Wall was everything I had ever hoped and imagined plus so much more. John had dropped me at Mutianyu entrance (one of the 3 entrances) where you can apparently buy a tobogganing ride back down (YAY!). John told me to head right because from there you can get a better view of the whole wall, but 30 minutes in you come to a stone which tells you to turn around because the rest of the way is out of bounds. I disregarded the warning and just walked around it.

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January3rd

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Asia 2008 | Day 14 | Tiananmen and Forbidden City

Posted in: Beijing, China, Travel

I only reserved two days in Beijing, but I found that it was an adequate amount of time to see all the main attractions like Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and the Birds Nest. It was much too cold to stay longer anyways! The morning called for a stroll over to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City as the hotel was only a 5 minutes’ walk. The day couldn’t have gotten any better; the sun layered itself behind the misty clouds to create a nice even light. I decide to fit them both into the day as I knew photo ops were going to present themselves throughout the day.

When I arrived, for a while I just slowly paced around the guards at Tiananmen Square hoping to catch one of them yawning. I will give them this: I definetly don’t have the discipline to stand in the cold in the same spot for hours! After managing to snap a couple of shots, the guards started noticing the real reason why I was hanging around the area for so long, and concentrated even harder to stay composed and not yawn.

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January2nd

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Asia 2008 | Day 13 | HK to Beijing

Posted in: Beijing, China, Hong Kong, Travel

Yesterday was my final day in Hong Kong, and today’s itinerary was scheduled for arriving in Beijing. I found that the cheapest flights from Hong Kong to mainland China were to depart from Shenzhen (just outside of the HK border). The hotel was situated 20 minutes away from the nearest MTR, and with all the luggage I was dragging around I decided to flag down a taxi for today. I read up the quickest way to get to the Shenzhen was by bus which takes you across the border and right to the airport.
There was nothing really to photograph or talk about that morning until the incident on the bus. I was in a bit of a hurry and didn’t get time to stop for a bathroom break. It was a 30 minute bus ride that didn’t seem too long at first, but it wasn’t until I was actually sat I knew I was in deep trouble. The soft suspension felt like I was sitting on a water bed, and the last 15 minutes of the ride seemed like an eternity! I was in so much pain; I was seriously looking into going into a bottle! Scared to even stand up because I thought my muscles would simply let go. Upon arrival I was the first to push and shove my way to the front of the bus, waiting for that door to open so I book it to the bathroom! I broke down a stall, dropped my carry-on’s, leaned up against the wall and give out that huge sigh of relief.
The rest of my day wasn’t all that interesting; I was constantly transferring between buses, planes, and taxis before I finally arrived at the hotel in Beijing (situated only 15 minutes from Tiananmen Square by foot). Beijing was the coldest city I visited thus far, much colder than Vancouver the day I left. During the day, it was roughly -2C and at night the temperatures plummeted to an unbelievable -12 degrees Celsius. Most annoying part of Beijing was the running nose, and at night if you forgot to wipe, you’d be faced with a face filled with frozen snot! That first night in Beijing I dressed accordingly and proceeded to explore the sights and sounds of the city!

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December29th

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Asia 2008 | Day 9-10 | Mainland China

Posted in: China, Nanning, Travel

Early 6 o’clock wake up once again. I had no choice as I had to board the 5pm overnight train from Nanning to Guangzhou. I was out the door before the usual time the free breakfast was to be served, but the hotel was generous enough to offer me granola cereal with a banana on the side! The morning was dark and blue; it wasn’t until 10 that the sun finally rose over the dense fog, which gave the land warmth and a sense of depth. I took in a bit of the country side, and just sat back and continued working on my blog. On our way to the border, we made a short visit to a rest stop which consisted of a souvenir shop, a money exchange and a small patio restaurant. I exchanged the rest of my dong into Chinese yen and headed straight to the restaurant for my last enjoyable Vietnamese meal. Delicious, nothing better than warm pho to heat the body and mind!

The border crossing wasn’t too difficult; they all gave us tags so it was a smooth and easy transition from the Vietnam bus to the China bus. Crossing borders was by foot, nothing much to say except China’s checkpoint was a lot nicer than Vietnam’s. Sorry no pictures, I wasn’t in the mood to pull out my camera in front of six Chinese officials inside their checkpoint. In no time at all, I was on the new bus heading towards Nanning where I would try to board an overnight train to Guangzhou, transfer to Shenzhen by local train and walk through a border crossing into Hong Kong. The scenery was amazing, mountain haystacks dispersed across a landscape densely populated with trees. The weather also changed from a sunny morning to a misty overcast afternoon. The ride was comfortable and relaxing; I plugged in the iPod and continued writing from where I left off on the last bus.

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