Beijing Part III - The Great Wall

Getting to the Great Wall was a little difficult because our handy guidebook to Beijing (written in Korean) had guided us to a particular bus stop. At that bus stop were some hawkish vendors who were offering to take us to the wall at bargain prices in their own vans. Most of the regular bus drivers were too preoccupied to help us out.

So we decided to forget that place and ask back at the hotel. We ended up choosing a Great Wall tour company called Destination Travel that were recommended by the hotel. It was only $40 per person for transport to and from the wall with commentary. Some of the vendors back at the bus stop were offering us the same trip for around $15, but if you ever visit the wall I think the wiser choice is to go with a more reputable company. Cheaper vendors have been known to ramp up the price once the journey is underway.
On the way to the wall, we stopped off at this ceramics factory, where we were shown techniques on making coloured vases and other such things. I had a very vague interest in ceramics, which was confirmed again after the tour of the factory.

At the end of the factory tour, we were taken to this ceramics shop where we could buy produce. The factory itself was in the countryside and I think their main source of revenue comes from passing tourists. There were six of us on the tour, but the ceramics shop had 8 staff on duty who tried to coax us into buying ceramic pens, chopsticks and keyrings. I half-heartedly tried to bargain a $5 pair of chopsticks down to $1, but it didn't work. One of the other ladies on the tour bought a whole bunch of stuff though.

The Great Wall has a couple of focal points for tourists which are about 2 hours out of Beijing. We went to a place called Mutianyu, which has a cable car service. Luckily it was 'the best'.
I never settle for anything less.

As we walked up toward the cable car, a dog that belonged to a souvenir vendor looked on.

Good doggy.

The cable car trip was quite nice. Although cable cars seem quite scary to me because I'm afraid of heights, I took comfort in the fact that they are the safest form of transport with a 1 in 1.6 million chance of being involved in an accident. Just remember that the next time you're on one.

And then we were there. The Great Wall is a very long defensive wall running across the north of China for 6,500 kilometres. I'm unable to comprehend that kind of distance in my head. At the height of the Ming dynasty, more than 1 million men were employed to guard it. I couldn't help but thinking of an old Far Side cartoon where, at the completion of the wall, one guard says to another "Now this should keep that pesky dog out."

Heather makes the wall look a lot prettier than I do. On that particular day it was very cold and the winter sun was bright, making the photos pale.

At regular intervals along the wall are defensive forts that were guarded a long time ago. Lines of communication were kept open by smoke signals from these.

We walked for about 1 hour before reaching this super steep section. It rose up vertically for about 150 metres and took around 10 minutes to climb. By the end of it I was huffing and puffing. Apparently they built the wall with irregularly spaced steps to impede any advancing armies that managed to breach it. I guess the considerations of the tourist hordes of the future were low on their agenda.

But after the long hike we were rewarded with some spectacular scenery. The mountainous terrain surrounding the wall is stunning, but completely inhospitable. It makes you wonder how anyone could comprehend attacking such a position.


Here's a video I filmed while climbing the last section.

The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall was restored back to its original glory with the help of a German company. This is where the restoration stops, about 2 kilometres from the cable car station.

On the way back down I tested the strength of the wall. It didn't budge one bit.

While we were walking back to our tour van we were confronted by a new wall - The Great Wall of Merchandise. A lot of these shops were selling exactly the same things, beach towels, curtains and snowglobes somehow related to the wall. One friendly female vendor with two teeth greeted us with "Hello, buy hat".

Also along the journey was this Bactrian camel. Bactrian camels are endangered in the wild now and are restricted to the plateaus of Mongolia, where they survive by eating snow. Contrary to popular belief, camel humps do not contain water, but fat which is then metabolised into energy and water. After I took this photo an old lady screamed at me that a photo of it costs 1 yuan. I was under the impression that it was within the public domain, being on the pathway and all. I would have paid if she asked nicely.

Back in the hotel we had a short rest before venturing out into the nearby shopping areas. The prices in these outlets were noticeably higher than in Korea so we refrained from buying anything. On this floor we were the only two customers in the area, with about 50 retail staff who were watching us and pretending to rearrange items on the counter.

In one of the DVD shops we went to later that day, I spotted some imitation movies. Pirated movies are copied without license, but some of these movies like 'Ratatoing' (a copy of Ratatooie by Pixar), had been completely redrawn and given a similar script to capitalise on popularity but avoid legal issues. It reminds me of a similarly written Chinese Harry Potter book entitled 'Harry Potter and the Filler of Big'.

I'd never actually been to a massage parlour before. I always found the concept of someone massaging me to be a little too over-indulgent. But I gave it a go anyway. In China, a one-hour massage will cost you $20 at the more upmarket places. A policeman who seemed to be guarding the business guided us in.

A range of different styles were on offer including foot, face and 'lymph node' massages. These buckets in the doorways were filled with scented water for the feet. We chose a general body massage which was quite enjoyable. I found it funny when the lady massaged my eyeballs. My old hairdresser in Korea used to do that too. I need to learn how to say 'Leave my eyeballs alone' in Korean.

Here's Heather getting ready in her outfit. We were massaged in the same room and Heather told me what to say in Chinese if they started massaging too close to any naughty parts. But they massaged quite appropriately and the time went by surprisingly quickly. I found out that I have a ticklish spot on my back that can only be triggered with an elbow.

For our last night in Beijing we went to a famous hotpot restaurant that our tour guide recommended to us. It was quite busy and only 2 blocks from our hotel.

The customer service was excellent. When we asked what was in one of the dishes, the waiter behind Heather took pains to describe every aspect of the dish in minute detail. Heather is smiling in this photo because she then proceeded to practice her Chinese and inquire about each dish on the menu. The waiter diligently described every dish she pointed to and approximately 30 minutes later we had chosen our meals.

The hotpot had a divider in the middle separating regular soup from spicy stock. We went all out and ordered a whole lot of different dishes. The meats and vegetables are dipped in the stock until cooked, similar to shabu-shabu in Korea or sukiyaki in Japan. It was pretty good.

These herbs came with the meat. Korea is devoid of many different herbs, making exotic cooking very difficult. I've only seen coriander in Korea once and I've never seen Thai basil.

We left the hotel in the early hours of the morning to catch our flight. Beijing was an interesting city and distinctly different from Korea and Japan.

On August the 8th, 2008 at 8pm, the Olympic games will begin. Beijing has chosen this particular time because the number 8 is considered lucky in China. All across the city preparations are underway for this massive event. I'm sure it will be incredible for those who can make it over.

Well that wraps it all up for Beijing! It's definitely a destination worth visiting and a country with a promising future. I'd go back if I had the chance, but I also have Shanghai and Taipei high on the list.

For the next post we'll be back in good ol' Korea. See ya!

Beijing Part I - A City of Skyscrapers

Beijing Part I - A City of Skyscrapers

I had been wanting to visit China for a long time and the chance finally arrived when we had a long weekend last week. We toured at our own pace and enjoyed it a lot. Although we were only there for 3 nights, we fit a lot of things in and came back feeling very good about it.

Gimhae Airport, Busan's international airport, recently constructed a brand new international terminal which we hadn't seen. It's a lot bigger and nicer looking than the last one. We took off from the airport in the afternoon and Heather was nice as always and let me sit next to the window. I like looking at clouds.

Although it's become fashionable to complain about aeroplane food these days, I always look forward to receiving my tray. This is the lunch provided by Asiana Airlines, bulgogi and rice with sides. I like how everything always comes in a packet and take pleasure in finishing every piece of food and then folding up the wrappers neatly. The air hostess seemed particularly delighted that I had left my tray so clean. Heather was noticeably less amazed.

Touching down at Beijing Airport I squinted out of the windows to get my first look at the capital. A Samsung billboard greeted us on the tarmac, which was an interesting reminder that we weren't too far from home. It was about a 2 hour journey.

We caught the airport limousine bus to our hotel after a short while. Some of the expressways in the city are very wide and the first things I noticed were the size and differing architecture in the buildings. That and the number of large birdnests I could see in the trees. I counted more than twenty on the way in.

The apartment blocks are similar to the ones in Korea, just a lot taller. When I see buildings like this I think back to the tallest building in Adelaide, the Santos building, which has only 27 floors. Many of the apartment blocks in China are more than double that.

This mysterious building near our hotel was still under construction. I'm no engineering expert but it looks like they need another column or something. I guess someone knows what they're doing.

This is the China World Trade Center Tower 3, which is also still under construction. It's due to be completed before the Olympics and will be the tallest building in Beijing at 330 metres. Inside there are going to be 30 elevators and a hotel lobby on the 71st floor. Right now it looks like a giant dalek.

This is the view from our hotel window, which was within the surrounds of the WTC complex. There were quite a few hotels in the area and most seemed to have been built within the past decade.

Our hotel was the Traders Hotel in Guomao which was very nice. We took a package to Beijing that included airfares and accommodation for three nights for $700 each. Originally the price was $500 but then the travel agent mysteriously inflated the price. It was still a good deal though. I'd recommend this hotel to anyone who can get a decent price because it was very comfortable and centrally located.

Our room, which was cosy enough. Flicking through the channels of Beijing TV, I found it surprisingly similar to that in Korea. What I like most about staying in hotels is how you leave the room messy and come back later in the day with everything neat and tidy. If I lived that way for a while I'd turn into a brat.

I also like taking little bottles of shampoo and soap home with me. When I was young I used to collect 'packeted things', which were defined as anything small that was packaged and unopened. I had a couple of hundred items from various places.

After we freshened up a little, we headed for the Beijing subway to have a look around the city. All around Beijing now, signs of the upcoming Olympics are very obvious. The city feels like it's undergoing change and it would really be exciting to come back when the games start.

A view of Guomao subway station. Although Beijing is so large, it has about the same number of subway stations as Busan, which made things simpler. Seoul's subway line map is grotesquely complex and looks like a colourful flying spaghetti monster.

The subway cars themselves weren't too bad either, just a little creakier and the brakes whistle when the train stops.

The first area we went out to was WangFuJing. It's best described as a very western influenced part of the city with a lot of recent constructions. The street layout has been carefully planned and it felt more like a European city than a Chinese one. Heather said it reminded her of Paris.

Throughout WangFuJing are plenty of shops selling exorbitantly priced imported products, like Rolex watches and Calvin Klein. The area is quite nice to walk around in and I ended up buying a hat. In comparison with Seoul, WangFuJing would be the Beijing equivalent of Gangnam.

If you ever make it to WangFuJing someday, which you definitely should if you go to Beijing, take the alley right in front of the huge Nikon billboard. It's surprising how drastic the scenery changes. Within 100 metres the bulildings change from large pristine monoliths to the kinds of shops you'd see in Chinatown back home. Actually it really did feel just like Chinatown. Funny that.

These two actors were performing a traditional Chinese play with high-pitched dialogue. Below were pedestrians busily finding a good place to eat.

Slightly famished, we sought a regular restaurant to grab a bite to eat. When travelling overseas I always enjoy eating at cheap local places. The waiters in the red coats at this restaurant were busy seating customers who were flowing in and out like baitfish. We were seated on the same table as a Chinese family which was interesting.

This is what we ordered. On the left is a regular noodle soup, which wasn't too bad and closer to the photo is a coriander and dumpling soup. Coriander is completely absent from Korea and Heather hates the taste of it. I originally disliked the taste, but after getting used to it I can now eat it with just about anything. We also had two skewers of barbecued lamb which were really good. The entire meal cost us $4.

After that we headed out to the Sanlitun district, which we had heard was famous for its bars. We asked some friendly German tourists for their recommendation of a good watering-hole and they suggested this place, Bar Blu. It was a nice enough place and we enjoyed a Caipirinha, the same cocktail we enjoyed in Osaka. Here's Heather, posing for one of my experimental camera shots on 'twilight mode'.

Within the Sanlitun area are some bars with employees who stand on the street. It seems that their sole job is to 'coax' people into entering their particular bar. In Beijing, coaxing means dragging you by the arm despite your efforts to continue walking down the street. If you continue to resist, for approximately 30-45 seconds, they let you continue on your way. We humourously fought our way past the first batch but were quickly swept into the second bar. We were looking for a drink anyway.

This bar was quite nice, pricey by Chinese standards, but average when compared to Korea. The good thing about it was that it had continuous live entertainment, including belly dancers and this band which was quite good. The guy on the left sang 'One Night in Beijing'. How very appropriate.

After a couple of drinks we wandered out onto the streets where the crowds had died down a little. Up the road was this long line of street vendors selling all kinds of food for as far as the eye could see. Street food in Beijing is more varied than that in Korea.

Then we caught a taxi home. From my experiences, crime in Korea is so low that it's something I barely think about. People will steal things of course, but I've never felt threatened late at night. Beijing has a slightly different feel to it, which was very evident in this taxi. The driver was encased in a virtual prison to prevent people from robbing him. Not all of the taxis we caught had this kind of fortification though.

The next day we woke up early to head to the Great Wall. While we were trying to figure out the bus route, we bought some meat-filled buns for breakfast from this place. They were fairly average, but were filling and only cost us 45 cents each. I love travelling cheaply.

Check out the wad of cash in the street vendors right hand. I saw this a lot in Beijing, huge wads of cash being pulled out whenever change was needed. I'm not sure if they did it out of necessity or to show off, but I was certainly impressed. I added it up in my head and realised that a handful of money like that only works out to be about $50. But that can still buy you a lot of stuff if you shop at the right places. I'll show you some bargains in the next post.

Well this is the first of three Beijing posts that I have coming along. Stay tuned.

See you soon!