It seems the jet lag was worse than I first thought… on the last entry I was off by one day (i.e. Monday was actually Tuesday, etc.) Also, a note about the photos… when viewing them, we have added a caption at the top of each picture… enjoy!
On Friday, we opted to visit the Tiantan Park (Temple of Heaven). We tried our chance at the local bus again. We got there with two buses… highly efficient even without bus lanes. Before entering in the Park, we took a taxi to a nearby hotel/travel agency to buy transportation tickets to the Great Wall ($12 cdn pp). The visit of the Temple of Heaven was rather dull compared to our previous visit of the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) and Imperial Summer Palace.
On Saturday, we got picked up at the hotel at 7:30am by a car and then we met up with a mini bus for our trip to the Great Wall that involves a trek between two access points i.e. Jinshangling to Simatai. Badaling is a third access point, which is said to be overly touristy and best avoided.
The 110km (3 hours) ride to Jinshanling was nerve raking to say the least (even compared to my experience in Latin America). I don’t quite understand it but if the same driving habits were used in North America they would certainly lead to chronic road rage – yet in China people just accept it. Surprisingly, there is no vulgar language or hand gestures… it is really amazing. Jessica, I really think you are best to take your driver’s exam in Canada! The driving is really crazy but it appears to obey to certain rules e.g. if you can’t pass on a double line on the left lane then try the right lane (bicycle lane) or if on-coming car or truck is less than 1.5 meters wide you can stay in the middle of the double line for passing a car (3 cars wide on a 2 lane highway like Highway 7 is Ok) or it is always best to pass in up-hill curve with no visibility… ouch!!!
Well what to say about the Great Wall trek but WOW. We opted to be dropped off at Jinshanling and take a 10km (~3.5 hours) walk to Simatai in order to really get a good taste of the Great Wall. The climb up to the mountain ridge where the Great Wall sits gives visitors a first taste of what awaits them on their walk along the wall. We had 30 watch towers to cross before reaching Simatai. The walk over the first 5 watch towers was done on a restored portion of the Great Wall dating back to 1988. The next segment of the walk was along an un-restored portion of the wall (and across difficult terrain). At that point, the guide offered Victoria a short-cut option to meet with us later along the wall. She quickly agreed to accompany the guide along the short cut. At the same time, some local tour guides (a 47 year-old lady with slippers and younger man) hooked up with us to assist us along our trek. Jenny’s comfortable black shoes were far from being great for the Great Wall. Even Jenny, who always says she does not sweat, sweated plenty along the way. The Great Wall was apparently very busy because of the weekend. I can’t imagine was it would be like at Badaling – the main tourist access point.
We met up with Victoria and her guide at about 2.5km before the end on yet another restored portion of the wall. By 3:30pm, we were all back on the mini-bus rather exhausted. Victoria mostly slept on the 3-hour ride back to the hotel.
Today our legs are in much better shape than expected… we are still walking around. In the morning, we visited the Drum Tower – which offers great views of the city over and above the short drum demonstration. We later wandered around some hutongs – a kind of small neighborhood arrangement typical of old feudal Beijing (a kind of square 1 story townhouse stretch with shared alleyway). They are rapidly disappearing to be replaced by apartment buildings.
When we head back to the hotel, we need to do some clothes washing (Can’t even escape this reality!!). Before I forget, I must mention that service levels everywhere in China appears to be superb. Jenny has repeatedly tested our 2-star hotel service by calling for toilet paper… within a few seconds they are at our door. Truly remarkable. In some basic restaurants, we get waited on by 2-3 persons, etc.
Next post should be from Xi’an. Hope all is well with everyone.