Great Wall
Was up and in the dining room at 7am to bulk up for the culmination of our trip: the Great Wall of China.
I decided to treat myself to the breakfast buffet that had been enthusiastically recommended by Rob. The boys were supposed to have joined me at 7, but they were running late. I grabbed a copy of the China Daily, the English language newspaper and enthusiastically dug into the bacon, eggs, cereals, fruits, juices and pastries that were provided.
Our bus arrived, and we were all ready, just after 8am. Unfortunately, this bus was one of the worst. Although there were no upholstery problems, there were definite foot room issues. As in, there was very little of it. George had promised us that the ride would take 3 hours - I found this difficult to imagine, since the Simatai section of the wall was only supposed to be slightly more than 100km outside of Beijing.
George was right. The bus was cramped. We were all very happy to arrive at the Wall. The ride seemed like it would never end - we spent the last twenty minutes or so peering outside, trying to catch a glimpse.
Just outside the ticket booth ws the standard tourist village - most of us bought water and went to the bathroom before making our way through the gates. We then had a choice: we could take a cable car, or walk all the way up. To get to the first guardhouse was estimated to take about 45 minutes. To get to the 4th post was estimated to take over an hour and a half. This basically wasn’t a good thing - we only had three hours at the wall. George said that the cable car would bring us to the top, but we could only see it going about halfway up, at which point it would sort of stop at something that appeared to be a station. Everyone except Fiona, Emma, Rob and Jason decided to take the cable car. Some bought return tickets, but I bought a one-way ticket along with Gerald and Margaret.
The cable car ride was really nice - the view was fantastic. To get into the cable car we had to sort of run and dash - there was a bit of entertainment as we saw George miss it on the first try and he ran to jump in before the little car went all the way up.
Sure enough, the cable car brought us only halfway. We then had the choice - we could take the train they had, or walk up to the wall. Deciding, based on what we had seen from the cable car, that the walk wouldn’t be too bad, we set out. Ends up that appearances can be deceiving, since we basically made our way up steep little stairs in 40+ degree heat for close to half an hour. At one point we saw the train - and met up with the others who were just disembarking! We were proud of ourselves for beating George and the American boys to that point, and we were on foot.
It was on this part of the path that we caught our shadows - people who would walk along with us, trying to offer useful advice and basically being nuisances. Gerald tried to get them to go away, and we were careful to stay in a group - it would have been too easy for us to be assaulted in a quiet corner where there was no one else around. The Simatai section is known for being quiet and slightly dangerous, unlike the Badaling section which is apparently a bit like a circus. We didn’t get rid of our followers until we started to climb back down - there was this narrow, steep part of the stairs we had to go down and this guy almost had me in tears - he kept shoving his damn souvenirs in my face as I was trying to concentrate, so I was like “I can’t DEAL with you right now. Go away!” Gerald also yelled something at him in Mandarin.
The Wall, however, was fantastic. I went nuts taking photos. This was a Ming dynasty era portion. I couldn’t believe how narrow the stairs were, how uneven it was and how quiet it was. I felt bad for the soldiers who would be stuck guarding this section. Another thing was that I failed to see how it would be very useful in battle - there were narrow ramparts, steep and uneven stairs - all sorts of things that would make fighting, resupplying and defending very difficult.
We spent a few hours up on the Wall before making our way down. I wanted to take the zip line, but decided against it. Talking to Jason later, however, I discovered that there needed to be two people willing to do it or else they wouldn’t let you go - they wanted to make it worth their while since they had to send a boat for you. We arrived at the parking lot and tourist area a few minutes early, time for some souvenir browsing. They were selling really tacky “I climbed the Great Wall” t-shirt that I refrained from purchasing, but both Rob and I wanted these nice panoramic photographs of the Wall. We did some ridiculously hard bargaining, finally purchasing two of the photographs for 32 yuan - 16 yuan each. We were both very happy with our purchases.
Once everyone was ready, we boarded the uncomfortable bus and made our way back into Beijing. There was a great rain and hailstorm on the way back - our bus driver pulled over for a bit before deciding to continue along the road. Once we approached the city, however, mere minutes after the horrible weather, there was no sign of rain or bad weather to come. Very tempermental, those rain and hail storms.
Instead of returning to the hotel to shower, which is what everyone wanted to do, we went to the farewell dinner at this random restaurant. I was very glad that there were no fish dishes on the menu - after checking out the fish in the aquariums I was a little leery. We were having standard Chinese dishes and some Peking Duck - they brought out the pancakes and sauces. We also had the opportunity for our last glimpse of a bird’s head prominently displayed on a dish. The supper was delicious, George said some farewell words, Margaret presented our tip to him and then it was all done.
The bus driver brought us back to the hotel - Margaret, Gerald, Rob and I decided to head up to Wangfujing to do some last minute purchases. Most of the others had to pack - instead of moving to a hostel, I decided that I was too lazy to move and paid to stay at the fancy hotel instead for the last night. Therefore, Margaret didn’t worry about getting ready since she could just leave her stuff in my room and pack later.
We headed up to the pedestrian street in search of DVD’s (failed) - we stopped into a silk shop, and then I stopped in at a tea shop that had been recommended in the Lonely Planet guidebook. I wanted to purchase some green tea for my mom since she’s switched from drinking coffee. I was very glad that Gerald and Margaret were there - I know nothing about tea, while they were busy sniffing and examining colours until finally proclaiming one worthy for purchase. I paid an extra little bit for it to be placed in an attractive gift container. I bought some ridiculously cheap green tea for myself - I know some friends will be interested, and I need something to serve in my fancy Korean tea set that I picked up in Insadong before leaving (who doesn’t need a traditional Korean tea set? Well, I don’t - at least not anymore).
We found an Internet cafe, which was perfect. I had to email my flight information to my family so they could pick me up at the airport. I also had to see if they needed me to pick anything up. Ends up that there was no need to email my flight information - I would be coming home via airport shuttle. Woohoo! Unfortunately, Allison had sent the message a couple of days ago and had yet to receive any word from me… since I couldn’t catch anyone on MSN and skype didn’t work, I bought a phone card to call them from the hotel. Phew!
So, the organized portion of the trip is over - tomorrow I plan to visit the Temple of Heaven and the Lama Temple with Gerald and Margaret (she booked a late flight out of Beijing - smart!) and then do a bit of shopping in the afternoon. I’ll probably head back to the Silk Market. There’s a cashmere sweater calling my name.
