Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Yet another early day and the first day of week 10. Up at 5:15 for a 6:30 start. As we left the ship the Volendam was moored by us. Today was to be a day of ancient and modern. We drove to Tianjin railway station and boarded the Fast Train, in other words the bullet train. We reached speeds of 295kph and it took 33 minutes to reach Beijing.
We then drove from Beijing South station to the Forbidden City. On the way we passed Tiananmen Square. We then walked through the Forbidden City from the South Gate to the North. It is a huge place and we only spent about an hour there, all of it spent walking through. We never actually went into any of the buildings, although we did have a glimpse of the Dragon Lady's rooms. It would be easy to spend a complete day in the place.
We then drove off to a large jade sale room which had a huge restaurant above it. There we ate a Chinese meal, which was really good. Finally we boarded the coach for the highlight of the day.
After a 20 minute drive, during which the landscape changed from flat to very hilly, we reached the Juyong Pass. And there it was! The Great Wall of China! I climbed up about 6 or 700 metres. The steps were anything from 3 inches to about 24 inches. I was wheezing like a traction engine when I reached my goal, I could have gone on for a few more kilometres if I'd wanted too.
Then it was a three hour drive back to the port. We passed through an extremely flat plain. All of the towns and cities looked the same, drab, dull and full of awful high rises. Tianjin was like this too, but near the station were a lot of modern office buildings, most of which seemed to have clocks on them!
Beijing seemed similar to other places, but we did pass old low rise buildings, which I have to say looked just as bad.
The weather was unexpectedly good. Cool but bright with light winds. We had been told to expect bitter cold, indeed last year's excursion to the wall met foot high snow. All in all another good day.
I'm writing this waiting for room service to deliver dinner, it's taking an age because of the long tours and people skipping dinner in the restaurants.
Late night update: we won both the Masquerade Challenge and Syndicate Quiz, so two more bottles of wine.
Hannah was taken off the ship because of pregnancy complications, Carl and Keo went with her. They're supposed to rejoin us in Hong Kong.
- comments