Beijing and the Great Wall

Staggered into Beijing on Saturday evening and we were very much in debt from a couple of weeks of being off the beaten track, sleeping in a Jeep, ill and then better and then ill again, and from the long journey.

We did at least have a bed in a room with a window (this has become our new minimum standard, you'd be surprised how hard it is to find) although our confusion at China continues as despite Chris' best efforts (and his best effort is quite impressive) there was no way we could access the WiFi without WeChat (which you need another user to verify you on) and a Chinese mainland phone number.

We took a day to recover and do our laundry (again, difficult - there aren't any self service launderettes here) and try to catch up on sleep.

Then to attempt to do Beijing in two days. Chris has been to Beijing before and on Monday we went to see the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu where he visited in 2014. We left at 7.30am to catch a bus that had stopped running in 2020, and after two different buses and bailing out our new friend Nick from the US who we met on the bus, Elli got her first experience of Chinese tourist sites: that is, insane crowds and pushing everywhere you look.

Despite that and the insane heat, we climbed up to the wall and then walked all the way to the south end, to the point where they have sadly now bricked it up so you can't continue on to the unreconstructed parts (fun sponges). Then we turned around and walked up to the North end. 12km in total. We were beyond exhausted but the views were actually incredible and the whole thing pretty awesome in the original meaning of the word.

Next day we were exhausted but with one day left Elli got up to see the Forbidden City. Another day of chaos ensued in which she tried and failed to get into Tiananmen Square without a prior booking, but after wandering around the outside of the Palace was let in by a side gate. Turns out you can still buy a ticket on the door despite what the official rules say. Despite the Forbidden City being absolutely huge, it is still a series of courtyards all of which are absolutely heaving with tourists jabbing you in the ribs and the eyes. Sort of impressive, if only for the spectacle.

Chris meanwhile had a lie in, and then had exactly the same experience trying and failing to get into Tiananmen Square and unable to replicate the walk from when he was in Beijing last time, but we met up and had some restorative noodles and melted in the sun again. Tried to go to the food street market at Wangfujing which also closed down during Covid, before heading north for a wander round the Hutongs, a very welcome albeit expensive pint of craft beer, and more marvelling at the ability of crowds of tourists to ruin what used to be probably quite nice parts of the city.

Home, sleep, back on the train tomorrow. 😴Читать далее