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A BREATH-TAKING WALK ON THE GREAT WALL
We arrived at the absolutely enormous Beijing airport and taxied along a web of runways for a total of 16 minutes before arriving at Gate 513 to disembark and set foot in China.
After settling into our hotel, we decided to venture out to explore the city nightlife but after taking just two steps outside we realized how terribly underdressed we were to cope with the near-freezing temperatures. After scurrying back inside and putting on several more layers we left the hotel, rugged up like Eskimos, ready to discover Beijing.
We wandered around the popular shopping streets and braved the famous 'Night Market', notorious for selling all sorts of creepy-crawly snacks! Foolishly, we got chatting to one of the 'chefs' and the next thing we knew we were both holding deep-fried scorpion skewers ready for our consumption! After a few moments of deliberation we decided 'When in China' and chowed down on the crunchy little critters! Surprisingly, they tasted a bit like fried chicken and we were almost tempted to have another. Almost!
The following morning (again wrapped up in our winter-woollies) we visited the notorious Tiananmen Square and the historic Forbidden City. Our guide, Carla, was absolutely fabulous and made sure we had all the knowledge we needed for a cultural trip around Beijing. We then headed to the nearby Hutongs (old style quadrangle homes) where we had a traditional lunch in a local family's home. We were kept entertained by the owner's bizarre pets - colourful (and very noisy) oversized crickets in tiny wooden cages! Later in the afternoon, we visited the Temple of Heaven, where emperors used to worship the Gods of the Sun, Moon, Heaven and Earth. That evening we went to watch a mind-blowing Chinese Acrobatics performance which made all the television shows like 'America's Got Talent' look very average. What these performers can do is beyond incredible and the photos just don't do it justice.
The next day, we were pleasantly surprised by sunshine and rare Beijing blue sky - perfect conditions for visiting the Great Wall of China! First off however we stopped at the Sacred Way, the royal burial grounds for all the emperors who ruled in Beijing. After admiring the ancient carvings along the Sacred Way, we left the city and enjoyed the snowy scenery of the countryside as we made our way to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Taking a chairlift up to the wall we were able to truly appreciate its majesty, winding up and around the mountainous landscape. We spent a couple of hours strolling atop of the wall, posing for countless photos, exploring the watch-towers and marvelling at how few other tourists were there with us! It really was an extraordinary experience to wander the Great Wall of China almost on our own - another amazing tick off the bucket-list!
To get back down, we were surprised to be given the option of 'tobogganing' down the hillside; a fast and exhilarating way to leave the Great Wall! Joel, unsurprisingly, got told off by every 'speed warden' on the entire slope! I, on the hand, was a sensible and law-abiding citizen.
We spent our last morning in Beijing visiting the beautiful Summer Palace gardens, the 798 Dashanzi Art District (a very trendy gallery district located in a revamped factory zone) and Olympic Park. Seeing the Birds Nest and the other Olympic arenas brought back special memories for us from when we watched Craig play soccer at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
One of the more funny "lost in translation" moments we've had here is while we were out looking for a strainer to use with some Lychee tea we bought from a tea ceremony. You'd think a tea-strainer would be easy to find in country of over 1 billion tea drinkers but we searched every shop, corner store and market to no avail. We were just about to give up when a friendly shop owner used 'translate' on his phone to try and help us ... after typing in 'tea-strainer' and giving the phone back to him he read it and excitedly nodded, "Ahhhhhhh noodles!"
From our few days in Beijing, it is already very apparent that the people here in China are used to being governed. There are rules about what days they can drive their cars, what gates they can enter when they visit historical sites, what internet sites they can and can't access, how many children they're allowed to have etc. There are very stringent systems in place to keep this country of 1.3 billion people in order. Even the soldiers drafted into the military have to be the exact same height and of similar appearance. It may be criticised by some but to manage 20% of the world's population I guess there has to be some procedures in place.
High: The Great Wall of China - everything we'd hoped and more!
Low: Stinky tofu - this stuff is everywhere (the Chinese love it) and it actually smells worse than any of the smells we smelt in India!
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