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.

As you head further out of bounds you start to notice what Mother Nature is truly capable of when you give it time. There were branches growing out of cracks in stones, part of the wall disappeared from years of weathering caused by snow and rain. I had finally reached a spot where travel along the wall was no longer accessible. The whole tower had collapsed upon itself and for the rest of the wall a pile of bricks lay scattered around something that somewhat resembled an unmaintained road. If you look further into the mountains all you could make out were towers, but no road or walls connecting them all together. This was the location where I gathered the majority of my shots as I was able to see most of the wall spanning up and down the terrain. This was also the first time on my trip where I put away the camera and just enjoyed the view with my own eyes. On the way back I got to experience the Toboggan down the hill. I held myself back a while as I wasn’t holding anybody up so I could let all the slow pokes in front make their way down first. Even though they made it pretty clear speeding wasn’t going to be tolerated, I wasn’t in the mood to make my way down at a leisure pace either. When I knew I made enough space between the other riders I held the leaver forward, picked up some speed and banked every corner liek a bobsledder. Before I met up with John I made my way through the street venders picking up souvenirs for myself, family, and friends.

If you have some time, I encourage you to visit the Great Wall wiki page to get a better understanding of how the Great Wall played a big roll in Chinese History.

The Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: 长城; traditional Chinese: 長城; pinyin: Chángchéng; literally “long city/fortress”) or (simplified Chinese: 万里长城; traditional Chinese: 萬里長城; pinyin: Wànlǐ Chángchéng; literally “The long wall of 10,000 Li (里)”) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it remains; it was much farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total. At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall. — Wiki

I hadn’t read up much about the Summer Palace before I visited but from what I heard it had a nice and peaceful Imperial Garden. I was actually asking John more about it on our way there. The Summer Palace first started out as the garden, but most of the complexes suffered major attacks. The garden survived and was rebuilt 10 years after the attack. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager which diverted a bunch of silver and put it into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. When I paid to go in, I was handed a map which informed me that it was actually bigger than Forbidden City! Seeing as I didn’t have a lot of time left in the day, I spent my remaining time seeing more of the important parts of the palace. I only really spent a couple of hours visiting it before heading back for sundown. There was some history, but nothing too significant. Because of the time crunch I felt rushed, so I didn’t have time to get any great photographs or enjoy the peaceful surroundings of the palace and garden.

As John dropped me off, I said my good bye’s and thanked him for his great services. As for the reset of the night I went out to grab some food and came back to pack for my early flight out the next morning!

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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.

Just after entering through the front there was a huge court yard filled with mobile shops open for service ready to rip you off if and when you didnt think to bargain. You’d be surprised how low you can bargain on some items. Set a realistic wholesale price on the item, add 10% and stick it out till the end. I happened to find some very nice souvenirs here, and I suggest everyone to take some time going through the shops.

The Forbidden City also known as the “Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang” was definitely much bigger in person then the impression I had, given the photos I browsed online. I soon found out I had enough time to only visit the most important places within the city. From wall to wall the city was 72 Hectares, and if an individual was to see the whole place in detail, they would need to spend at least 2 days. Everything about the city was a monolith; made for great pictures, but took a decent amount of time to travel from one place to another. The paintings and colours looked as though it was painted just last week. I know this has been an ongoing restoration project, but it just shows how well everything has been maintained over the last 600 years.

“The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms[1] and covers 720,000 square metres (7,800,000 square feet). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture,[2] and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987,[2] and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
Since 1924, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artefacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum’s former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War.” – Wiki

By the time I hit the end of the complex, the sun was already descending over the horizon and staff started leading people to the nearest exits. I had only walked straight from the south gate to the north, while I missed everything situated around the city. Only another day would be needed, but unfortunately I didn’t have any more time to sacrifice.

On my way back to the entrance, I managed to catch the daily national flag raising/lowering ceremony. Every morning at sunrise troops step out into Tiananmen Square and raise the flag while the national anthem plays. At exactly sunset, troops lower the flag, stop traffic on the 6 Lane Street and march their way to Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace). I pushed my way through the crowd of people and managed to capture the march across the bridge and later across the courtyard as well .

Later that night I pondered about going out and visiting the Beijing Olympic Village. The front desk wasn’t able to answer if by this time the Village was still open or not. I decided to make the trip out anyways because it was either now or trying to drag my butt out of bed early tomorrow morning. If you are ever in Beijing don’t let those hotel maps deceive you, it may look within walking distance, but it’s a one hour bus ride or 30 minute cab ride just to get there! When I arrived the Village was completely shut down, the lights were turned off, gates were positioned all around the nest and water cube. You were able to walk around and see some of the art pieces outside and take pictures from a distance. The cold was inescapable, so I gave myself a certain amount of time before calling it quits. Even after completely trying to seal myself up with warm clothes, the cold always managed to find its way in *SHIVER*

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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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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.

The mainland was especially difficult for a foreigner like me to get around. Not a single person spoke English, and the couple of Mandarin words I did know (hello, good bye, thank you) weren’t enough to get me by. I wouldn’t use the word ‘disrespectful’ when I speak about mainlanders, but a little bit ‘unrefined’. They spat anywhere they felt like it, made loud annoying clearing noises of the throat, budged, shoved, and gave awkward looks to foreigners. The evening was about to hit and I really wanted to get out of there. When I reached the train terminal, I noticed how crammed and busy it was. Lines to each booth were 20-30 minute wait to say the least, and not only that, but people figured budging in front of the foreigner was acceptable. To add to the problem, people stood so damn close to each other. Give me some damn room, I’ve got a camera bag on my back, I’m carrying a tripod and pulling a suite case with a laptop bag strapped on top. I gave everyone a mean look, hoping that I’d scare them into thinking twice about robbing me. I couldn’t wait to get out of there!

This image shows what happens when windows crashes at the train terminal. Good old windows!
I finally got to the booth, politely said hello, and asked for a Guangzhou train ticket. I got the look I was dreading, the look of confusion. I repeated the name of the station again, “Guangzhou,” and raised one finger in the air symbolizing one ticket. Mandarin words were spoken to me this time, which didn’t help me out. Another girl came by to help, but I got the same silent look. I looked above me, and everything on the panel display was written in Chinese letters, which didn’t help either. I decided to whip out my notebook and start drawing. I draw a train, below that I write Nanning and an arrow pointing to Guangzhou. On the side I add a plus sign and draw a bed and somehow illustrate it looking soft, as I read on the Internet you can purchase a sitting car or a sleeper car. As I showed them what I drew, they had a problem deciphering my English characters. I was in real trouble now, it was getting dark and I wasn’t looking to get a hotel here! They called over a 3rd person, who didn’t speak English, but slightly understood the characters.

He finally spoke out to them in Mandarin, they all shook their heads and laughter was spread around. Cheers, I was relived; I smiled and joined in the giggles. Now I only hope they understood I was looking for a soft bed, I don’t want to sleep in a chair for 12 hours!

My boarding time was 6pm, departure time was at 8pm, and I’d arrive in Guangzhou at 7am. So I scored myself the bed, but why was there no door? Great, looked like I’d be sleeping with my camera bag under my wing and the laptop under the pillow. I slid the suitcase under the bed, jumped on my bunk and started eating away at the apple I bought while waiting to board the train. Before hitting the bed, I went to brush my teeth and at that instant my stomach started to react. Nature was calling, but when I went to open the bathroom door, there was a hole in the ground! I’d never used that type of bathroom before, but I had no other option. I couldn’t go to bed with an upset stomach. Not being used to squatting in mid-air doing number two, it’s just as bad as when you do it in the wilderness. I was going to appreciate those warm washlets in Japan after doing this.

Went I came back to my sleeping quarters; I noticed two new neighbors who found their beds for the night. I gave them both a subtle hello nod and jumped onto my bed. As the train started moving and the cabin got quiet, the guy whose bunk was below me decided it should be otherwise. As he was going through his bag, he whipped out his cell phone. The size of it was unreal, the screen must have been at least 4-inches and the thing lit up our quarter as it repeatedly cycled through all the colours of the rainbow. The damn thing gave me an instant seizure; now if only the guy across from us pulled out a compact fog machine we could’ve had ourselves a real disco party. So guess what the guy below me did? The cell started blaring loud Oriental music, the type you hear at the end of a Jackie Chan Hong Kong action movie. The damn thing played as good as a boom box would, clean and accurate treble and base levels without distortion. I just shifted an eyebrow and thought this wasn’t really happening. I knew I should have brought the fog machine; what was I thinking of leaving it at home! Just when I was about to just jump out of my bed and start dancing, the train staff asked him to turn it off. And just like that it was all over; my chances of breaking it down to Oriental music on a Chinese train heading towards Guangzhou had faded away. Darn!

The story of my train trip to Guangzhou doesn’t end here quite yet. Yes, there is more! There is something about sleeping on trains which makes it so relaxing. As I looked out the window, everything in the foreground passed my field of view so swiftly, while the background stood motionless as though it was a painting, and I heard the rhythmic thump as it traveled like a wake across all the carts. With absolute quietness within the cabin, the train put me to sleep. Then, in the middle of the night, my body jumped out of the bed as I hear someone puking. It sounded so clear, as though it came from just beside me; I quickly looked down to see if my baggage was okay. Was it just my imagination? Nothing had happened in or around my area. Moments later, I heard it again! I’d never heard anything so disgusting before. Someone was in the restroom down the hallway clearing their throat in the washroom. The noise echoed within the hall of the cart. As much as it disgusted me, I was happy it wasn’t puke all over my baggage instead!

As everyone was woken by the cabin crew an hour before arrival, we all made our way to getting ready to depart. That morning I felt very well rested. The sleep was one of the best I’d had on the trip so far. I guess my body desired something more than the 6-7 hours I was giving it. The time was 7am, and I now had to find a connecting train to Shenzhen where I could walk across to Hong Kong. To catch the Shenzhen train, you do need to walk out of the station, do a quick u-turn on the left and walk back into the same building just next where you came out. A little confusing at first, but the language barrier was a lot easier than Nanning’s. The rest was just following signs leading to Hong Kong, where you check out of China and check into Hong Kong customs. As I arrived in Hong Kong I quickly found a place to exchange some money, buy an Octopus Card and find my way to the airport first to reunite with my long lost luggage. When I picked up the luggage I soon found out it had flown business class to Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong. I was jealous!

So I was then stuck dragging around two rolling suitcases behind me up and down stairs, in and out of subway cars with the laptop bag strapped to one of them, holding my tripod and carrying the camera backpack to my hotel in Mong Kok. I toughed it out!

The rest of my stay in Hong Kong was going to be a relaxing one. I’d try to visit a couple of key places, but other than that, no rushing anywhere, just sleep in and relax. I found out that a high school friend of mine was also staying in Hong Kong for New Year’s. I ended the night hanging out with him and his friends, stuffing our faces with what Hong Kong is most known for, food!

Sorry for the lack of photos. In some parts of China I didn’t feel conferable taking out the camera.

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