I must say this beauty is named appropriately.

We started our morning at about 7am with an included breakfast followed by a bus ride to the wall. There were 3 options available as a tour from Beijing and we chose the Mutianyu section that is possibly the most famous and the one where most of the Great Wall photos are taken from. Upon arrival you are greeted with paying a further 80 yuan to take the chairlift to the wall otherwise you have a 40 minute and 2000 step hike just to get to the wall. We paid the extra 80 and thank god that we did.

As you get to the wall the Mutianyu section is about 8kms long which seems perfectly reasonable on the face of it. You enter from the chairlift at gate 6 and can either:

1. Go right to gate 1 which is the end of the renovated section and has the original wall in its un-renovated state

2. Go to the left and wander the relatively flat beautifully renovated sections through until gate 23

We went right. I am perfectly comfortable at this point in reiterating a point from an earlier post. You need to be fit to do this. The trip to the right was best suited for mountain goats as it reached almost vertical sections and we found ourselves stopping every 20-25 meters as our lungs, thighs and calves were burning. Gate 6 to 5 goes down to a valley and then 5 to 1 starts climbing up the other side of the mountain until it reaches the next summit. Despite this an hour later we had made it from gate 6 to gate 1 and started the wander across the top of the mountain range on the old section which was level and a welcome change.

We returned to gate 6 which took less time as the return was mainly down the steps and we mused at the people doing the bit that we had just finished. People seemed to be dying in the 5-4 section and they (like us an hour earlier) had no clue that each section got progressively steeper. Upon reaching gate 6 we thought we would do the wander left. While still a steep walk it was on a paved level surface which undulated and was comparatively serene. We ambled a few gates before returning to gate 6 for our return down the mountain and the included lunch.

The return had 2 options…you could do the chair lift or you could take the toboggan ride down the mountain.

The toboggan was incredible, The only detracting point was that you had to slow down due to a wowser in front who rode the brakes all the way down. You get on and push the brake forward for speed and pull back to slow. We had a group in front and we waited as long as was reasonable, without holding up the whole line too much, so that I had a good section of free track in front of me. I jumped on and pushed the handle forward. Chewing up track rapidly I was having a ball and the laughter from the sled behind me indicated that Jill was too.

Then it ended. Some idiot had let their 8 year old daughter (or there abouts) ride alone and she sat on the brakes. At the speed I was going I had to slam on the brakes so as not to plow into the person in front of me. Now is probably a great time to mention that OH&S in China is not what it is in Australia and you would never get away with such a thing back home. Anyway I slammed on the brakes and stopped before rear ending the person in front and immediately became concerned as to whether Jill would see the sudden stop in time to avoid rear ending me. She did. Needless to say there was a queue of about 20 stuck behind the 8 year old and we all stopped dead hoping to put some track between us so that we could move again.

It freed up after a pause but alas we caught her quickly enough and we got on the brakes hard again. Jill did not notice as quickly this time and I got off the toboggan with her boot prints on my back. No major damage done. A quick meal at a local joint which saw us both stuffed with food and 1.2 litres of beer with change from $20. I found the local bakery option the night before on the walk back from Ghost street and am now addicted. We stopped and grabbed 2 custard tarts, 4 chocolate and 4 vanilla biscuits and something that resembles a vanilla slice (but not too sweet) for about a buck.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City Today

So…after a huge couple of days of hiking (the volcano and the temple of heaven) we decided a nice quiet day at the zoo was on the menu. So we hopped on the Beijing metro and about 25 stops, 3 train changes and a short walk we were at the zoo. At this point I really must stress how simple the Beijing rail system is. A train comes every 2 mins, the maps are simple, english and Chinese characters and announcements for a sum total of 2 yuan (about 30-40 cents per trip) no matter how far you go.

The zoo cost 40 Yuan ($7-8) per person and we headed in…we turned left to avoid the Panda rush upon entry only to find that we walked about 45 mins without seeing a single animal other than enclosures under repair, closed paths and concrete moulds of the animals that were meant to be there. We did find the water fowl exhibit which had 2 sad looking ducks and some blow in crows who were poaching the food that was laid out for the real animals. After many derogatory comments from me and complaints about attending “Piss weak world” we came across the penguin enclosure (which required an additional 10 yuan ($2)). Upon entry we saw no penguins but a bank of goldfish, the comments escalated. Then all of a sudden OMG penguins.

From this point on the zoo got good. There were some logical issues whereby if you enter the exhibit labelled African animals you actually find yourself in the reptile and amphibian house. Once you actually find the animals and ignore the signage it is pretty damn awesome. I saw a bunch of animals that you only get to see on TV documentaries along with the obligatory zoo style ones that we have in OZ like the giraffes and rhinos, tigers and elephants etc. And of course there were the giant Pandas. Claudia would have killed us if we did not post our Panda pics.

From here there was a boat ride to the Summer Palace so we jumped on the boat. A 50 minute ride up the Beijing canal and Lock system (which I never even knew existed) and we arrived at the Summer Palace. We were a little tired after the zoo hike and found ourselves at the extreme end of the Summer Palace grounds (a 720 acre property on the outskirts of Beijing). After walking for about 3kms around the lake towards the palace and still being about the same distance away we decided that we would come back on a day when we were fresher.

We stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch and a few points were solidified:

1. I should never be allowed to order if I am hungry.

2. I am only allowed to order 2 meals initially.

3. I have been banned from ordering any more than one dish with Chilli in any seating.

After 6 dishes were delivered to the 2 of us (3 of which were Brad and Mike Chilli specials) we set the above rules in place. One of the meals was Chilli donkey and garlic. It was pretty good. This was washed down with a new local ale ( Yanjing Beer) which was pretty good and ranked a solid 6/10. At this point I need to make a comment about the percentage of alcohol changing between different bottle sizes. If you buy the 500ml bottle it is 8% but if you buy the 600ml bottle of the same it is 3.6% and if you buy the one with Chinese and not english characters it is different again.

We needed a break after we found our thighs, calves etc burning after some serious trekking. So we had a planning day and made arrangements for our Great Wall trip the next day and Jill booked some train rides for India which is to follow. That said we did go for a cruise around Beijing to Ghost Street, a strip of restaurants that seems never to end, with the lanterns and touts everywhere. One restaurant was seemingly indistinguishable from the next so we randomly stopped at one and had a meal which was excellent. Jill has found a new favourite dish but we still do not know what it is called but she has pointed to the picture 3 times now. The dish is similar to duck pancakes but has pork instead and the pancakes are very different too. One of the restaurants had it listed as Beijing Heaving but they had so many translation mistakes it could have been anything.

BEIJING

The flight to Beijing was delayed by 2 hrs which meant our driver had left but we made a call, waited an hour and were scooped and found ourselves in yet another excellent hostel (with a slab of concrete for a bed). We headed to the hostel bar for a local ale (Beijing Beer) which was so nice that we had many. We met a German tourist who was leaving the next day and we all decided that after about 10 pints that it was time to walk 40 minutes to the night markets. We still dont know if we found the night markets but we found a night time strip of street vendors that had every kind of animal on a stick being BBQed.

Jill started us off with BBQ squid on a stick, which was quickly followed by a plate of pot stickers and a bowl of pork balls in Chilli…and then Richard and our new German mate got started. Things that followed included: Crabs, bugs, snake, and scorpions. Needless to say Richard and Stefan did the freaky eats and Jill just shook her head. After a few of these we decided that the pot stickers and a meat on a stick thing was actually pretty tasty.  All of this came for about $2.50 a plate (or stick). Back to the hostel for more Beijing beer.

The morning saw a slow start and a trip to the Temple of Heaven. This was to be a cruisey kind of day that ended up starting our walk at 10:45 and finishing 7 hours later a little tired and emotional. This first challenge was to work out the Beijing Metro which proved remarkably easier than we expected. The temple was awesome but a little sideline saw us lost within a massive park that needed about 7kms walking to get us back to where we wanted to be.