That we had to get up before 5am, pay through the nose (though it’s still cheap compared to prices back home!) for a private car and spend 90 minutes driving here was all forgotten the moment we saw stepped foot onto the Great Wall.

It was compounded by the fact that we were the only ones here — in fact, the first ones here for the day — and could not see anyone in either direction. At least for a time.

We decided in Mutianyu as Badaling — the most popular spot — is always busy, no matter what. Simatai, the closest unrestored area, was a bit too far and even though it is “the real deal” it doesn’t have the look of the Great Wall. It’s more like walking on rubble so our choice in the end was probably the best compromise.

The day we visited was also the day I feel extremely ill; luckily though, I started feeling sick while in the car on the way back. I made it back to our hotel, barely, but since we’d assigned little else for the rest of the day nothing was lost. I thank my body for holding out long enough to avoid an extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing incident.

The colours in this series of shots I took are great — the pinky-orange of the sun hitting the bricks makes for beautiful colouring. Shots I took later, as buses of tourists began to arrive, are far duller as the sun began to hide behind clouds.

We really had everything working for us on this day. The ride up on the chairlift was brilliant — our feet skimmed along the treetops — and amazingly silent. We had the Great Wall all to ourselves (which, in China, is no easy task!) with an incredible sunrise. The ride down on the toboggan, which must have been at least two kilometres long, was great fun too. Perfect.

Day Fourteen – 14th Nov 2008
Outside of Beijing
21:56 – Z19 train, car 8 beds 13 & 14

While I’m not totally healed, I did feel a lot better today; I didn’t need to sit at regular intervals.

We left our stuff in our fancy room, and because our card reader/hard disk had failed took a taxi to a nearby computer store. Out hotel kindly wrote the address in Chinese for us to show the taxi driver.

After some pointing, gesturing and writing down specifications (and bartering, even though it’s a shop) we left with what we needed.

Another taxi took us the 25-30km to the Summer Palace. Even though it’s such a long distance it’s still just considered to be “Beijing”.

The taxi driver managed to scam me (or made an honest mistake) by giving me a 1 Li Yuan note (1/100 of a Yuan) instead of a 1 Yuan note. Since it’s such a small sum (something like $0.0025 at present) it’s no big deal.

At this point we’re a bit over the Chinese architecture here in Beijing, as it’s almost froma 300-year period and many palaces, temples, pagodas etc are similar in design. The Summer Palace has some things of note, though, such as a large boat made of stone (called the “Marble Boat”, even though it’s not marble) which will never float, but looks like a Chinese paddle steamer. There’s also a 750+ metre long covered walkway and what I could only describe as a “Chinese Venice”. A street surrounded by buildings but the street is water, though quite shallow.

We spent much of the afternoon at the Summer Palace and—after a few failed attempts where they drove past, one waving—we caught a taxi back. The sun set in the hour-long ride to the hotel.

Collecting our stuff we took yet another taxi to the Beijing West train station—there are large waiting rooms for multiple trains with hundreds of people. Many eat large instant noodle bowls sold in the waiting rooms; some share and others refill with more water.

Our train tonight—the Z19—has a personal TV for each bed, though we have no idea what’s being said.

Tomorrow: Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors! And food! Maybe!

Photos taken today: 257
Photos taken to date: 4021

Day Thirteen – 12th Nov 2008
Beijing
23:10 – Emperor’s Guards Hotel, room A

Still feeling ill, I slept in late and spent most of the morning in bed.

We headed out late and caught the subway to the Lama Temple—as I didn’t feel the best, the smell of Chinese body odour, stale without much ventilation was unpleasant.

Today we could actually see a blue sky! There was not a cloud in sight. Incredible.

The temple is similar in design to many Chinese “official” buildings (temples, palaces) from the past 500 years. People there burn large sticks and bundles of incense (about two fists in diameter) in each of the small temples as offerings to Buddha. The highlight is a 26m tall statue of Buddha (18m above ground, 8m under) carved from a single trunk of a Sandalwood tree. You can barely see it all with your eyes at once when standing as far away as the temple’s meagre width allows.

I felt a lot better but the BO on the return trip was unwelcome. Weak from not eating (2-3 slices of bread, maybe) I spent yet more time in bed. As we were the only guests, we were upgraded to a much larger and nicer room, which would have cost us 2.5x the price (almost $250 a night).

Photos taken today: 52
Photos take to date: 3764

Day Thirteen – 13th Nov 2008
Beijing
18:45 (written for Day Twelve – 12th Nov 2008) – Emperor’s Guards Hotel, room E

This morning we woke early—6:15am—to catch our 7am ride to see the Great Wall. We had a private car waiting for us. The trip to the section we wanted to see—Mutianyu—took 90 minutes and the entire trip we couldn’t even see the sun properly, it was a barely-visible red disc in the sky.

When at last we arrived, we bought tickets for the chairlift; it seems we were the first to use it, as it wasn’t running. It also seems we were totally under dressed, as the staff wore thick, long coats just like many here in China. We would find out later there was an enclosed cable car but I enjoyed the view above the treetops; Justine’s eyes were closed the whole time.

Our willingness to leave early paid off, we were the first on the wall and for the next hour or so it was virtually deserted—in “Golden Hour”, no less. Or it would have been had the sun come out to shine. There were a few moments where we had sunlight but they were few and far between and it hid behind clouds after 9:30am.

I knew parts of the wall were steep but didn’t expect to have to climb for so far for so long. All up we walked for two-and-a-half hours and were exhausted afterward. Luckily there is a toboggan ride down from the wall which is long, running over a number of rickety bridges. I went as fast as I dared but caught up with the girl in front a handful of times.

Back in Beijing, I began to regret eating street food as food poisoning began to set in. I braved the amazingly chilly weather (wearing 2 t-shirts, a hoodie, a scarf and hat) and took my chances in a war against my stomach, which it ultimately won.

We headed to the Temple of Heaven Park, which included a few temples, a large round… thing and nice scenery. We weren’t really impressed. Me less so as I felt terrible.

I spent the rest of the night in bed, feeling sorry for myself, while Justine gloated and over-mothered me. Still, it’s nice to know she cares.

Photos taken today: 402
Photos taken to date: 3712

Day Twelve – 12th Nov 2008
Beijing Expressway
07:21 (written for Day Eleven – 11th Nov 2008) - In a Honda Jazz

Yesterday we woke late—intentionally—to catch up on some sleep. We ventured out to Tiananmen Square and headed straight in the direction of the Forbidden City.

We entered directly through the front entrance, beside the famous portrait of Mao, dodging the massive throngs along the way.

The Forbidden City is every bit as large as it had seemed the previous night, except instead of being devoid of people there were people as far as the eye could see. We were approached quite a number of times for guides who spoke English but each time declined.

Walking through the city itself, it is easy to see how many spent their entire lives inside these walls. From many places, particularly within the inner court, all you can see in any direction is the city.

The number and sheer size of the buildings is astounding; more astounding still is how difficult it can be to get a good view. As many buildings cannot be entered, just admired from viewing barriers, incredibly dense crowds form, all jostling for a look. Initially, I felt bad for shoving for a view but eventually capitulated and shoved, barged and elbowed with the best of them.

The Eastern Wing requires an extra ticket, but is well worth it. The crowds there are no spares it feels like a different place, and was by far the most enjoyable section for me.

As we exited, we ran a gauntlet of touts trying to transport us through Beijing. We decided to take the bus but just missed the one we wanted. When another hadn’t arrived 15 minutes later, we walked. And again the city demonstrated its massive scale.

Deciding it was too late for any more attractions, we headed for Wangfujing Street, a busy shopping street. There, we bought a nice set of ebony chopsticks and headed into a touristy market. The salespeople here grab you if you even blink in their direction but are fun to haggle with. We bought some tacky stuff then sat down in a small noodle joint—which didn’t have an English menu—and tried to order some food. We mostly got what we wanted, it wasn’t very good.

Later, we went to “Silk Street” market, haggling for more stuff we didn’t really need. I managed to get some decent bargains at around 10% of the starting price, while still probably being ripped off. Back to the hotel for an early night.

Photos taken today: 553
Photos taken to date: 3310

Day Ten – Nov 10th 2008
Beijing
21:36 – Emperor’s Guards Hotel, room E

Another long day of travel. We said our goodbyes to our Vietnamese hotel at 5:30am. The young night clerk who had valiantly struggled with Justine’s bags up five flights of stairs the previous night had been sleeping in a sleeping bag across two chairs.

At this time of the morning Ha Noi’s traffic is almost non-existent. It’s so quiet it’s almost eerie. The same rules apply to traffic, however.

In the duty free we bought some souvenirs including a box of “Choco-Pie” which we’d seen throughout Vietnam. It was dry and pretty terrible. Our box of six only had five, we discovered later. No great loss.

We flew from Ha Noi to Guangzhou, and were treated to a beautiful hazy view of mountains from above. At Guangzhou we went through Chinese immigration and customs, which we thought was odd as transferring passengers usually do that at their final destination. The plane departed over 30 minutes late.

We knew we were over Beijing when the haze turned from a white misty colour to a dull brown grey. A pea soup style smog was over the city. Golden Hour gave us an orange ceiling but no shadows.

Our plane landed but we disembarked on the tarmac, along with six or seven other planes in a line. There were plenty of gates in the main terminal. I assume it is because these flights were a combination of International and domestic. We didn’t have to go through immigration after our bus ride along the tarmac.

After one too many “Taxi?” requests while in the airport, we decided to take the brand new Airport Express train. Not too cheap at 25¥ but the view of the eternally long tunnel was fun. Like we were a spaceship leaving a space station in a sci-fi movie. The security guard at the airport was a large Chinese man who put on a strong American accent when talking with us, eliciting giggles from his counterparts—and us, silently.

We switched to the Metro trains and squished in with the locals for a few stops, changing lines once in the process.

The map our hotel had given us was not detailed at all but we managed to follow it easily. Wandering into the right Hutong (series of small alleys) we turned too early and walked past the back of our hotel’s courtyard! A kind old fruit seller on a bike read the address—only in Chinese—and pointed straight ahead; we’d been so close!

Once we’d checked in we went for a walk in the direction of Wangfujing, a popular street. A food night market sells many foods “on a stick”—starfish, scorpion, cicada, silkworm, sea urchin and many more. I wanted something plain and spicy so had a chicken thing. Pretty good.

We walked till we hit the Forbidden City and walked around one section, missing Tiananmen Square entirely. As we passed a Metro station we entered and took the next one back to our hotel.

Photos taken today: 43
Photos taken to date: 2757