Holiday- The Great Wall of China

I had heard many different opinions of where to go and what to do when you got to The Great Wall (TGW). I knew that I wanted to get away from the crowds, which in a capital city, it might have been a pipe dream. I had heard that the JinShanLing (金山岭)section was good if we wanted to see the wall without much restoration and more of a natural experience. We signed up with our hostel and our day started at 6am, which when you are on holiday… it’s a VERY early morning. We boarded a very small van that took us to pick up a few more people and then onto a large bus where slowly the seats were filled one by one. The section of TGW that we were all headed to was about three hours outside of Beijing. The tour guide who kept a very tight schedule was a very typical Chinese woman andspoke English with an incredible (almost fake) Chinese accent. She was wearing pants, two shirts, a long sleeved shirt, a hat and a jacket over all of that, plus… and an umbrella. The forecast was hot and sunny, no chance of rain. Typical Chinese. While on the bus, our tour guide told us a story about how TGW is referred to as the largest cemetery due to the massive amount of people who perished while the wall was being built. When someone would perish, their body (as the story goes) would be put

into the section of the wall currently being built.

I had my first sighting of TGW right before we pulled into the parking lot. Due to the intense pollution surrounding Beijing, seeing the wall from far away is near impossible. There were approximately 50 people that were in our group… I started to think, there goes the possibility of seeing the wall without tons of people and lines. We all corralled around the tour guide and she explained that we had three hours on the wall and to be back down at the bottom at 2:20 for lunch and the bus was leaving with or without us at 2:50. She strongly insisted on us taking the cable car up to the top. I know that most Chinese people really don’t like to hike and just walking up stairs is considered a hike for them. Plus, I heard it wasn’t worth it to take the cable car, but I wanted to be on the wall right then! So, we purchased the one-way ticket and we thought we could climb back down. Well, as it turns out, the

cable car took more time to get to the top than it would have taken to climb. Bah!! Coming from Colorado, I should have just known and started walkin! We walked through crowds of Chinese people coming back down from the wall, it was only 10am and I was confused as to why they might be already leaving! But, it was getting warmer and the sun was starting to shine. That means that its time to head inside for most Chinese.

There was still a bit of a walk from the top of the car to actually getting onto the wall. The excitement inside me grew and grew with every step. I almost felt like running to it like a kid on Christmas running downstairs to catch Santa. It was an incredible overwhelming sense of finally knowing that I was in China, knowing that I actually did it- I am exploring the world. Since I have been here, I have really only been in Fuzhou and its like home to me now. Somewhat like being back with family and friends… but being on THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA… I knew I was no longer in Kansas… er… Colorado anymore.

We attacked the wall with sense of urgency that reminded me of kids trying to play one more game of hide and seek before our parents called us in for the night. It was a fantastic workout of stair after stair after stair. The area that we went to had not been as restored as other parts and still had uneven giant-esque steps and slopes that required you to climb on all fours like an animal. Ben and I climbed around for a while and eventually made it to one tower that you

could climb to the top of. This provided a 360˚ view of the wall and Luanping County. Rolling hill after rolling hill. I had an immense rush of emotion while looking out at the Chinese countryside… my eyes filled with tears and I succumb to my emotions as tears started to roll down my cheeks. Even now, writing this and remembering what that feeling was like, I am overwhelmed with emotion. Whew. Okay…

We continued on further and further up and down the wall. 2:20 was blaring in the back of our minds and we decided to turn back a few towers past the Corner tower. We were beasts in our trek on the wall and made it down to the bottom with almost an hour and a half to spare. Not just wanting to sit around and wait, we climbed back up a different path to the wall. We explored for the rest of the time. When looking at a map of the JinShanLing section, we covered almost the entire thing!

When we climbed back up the second time we were in a section that had very few other people. For the entire last hour and a half we only saw two other tourists on the wall. I achieved my goal of getting away from the crowds… and to get away from them on a wall is a very interesting feeling. I did NOT want to leave the wall—but this day, I did not want to be left on the wall with no way of getting back to Beijing and then onto the Philippines. I would LOVE to go back again and hopefully the next time I visit I can do the camping adventure on the wall. We made it back in time to catch the bus and were whisked away back into the hustle and bustle of Beijing. So far, being at TGW is my best memory of my time here in China.

Holiday- Forbidden City and JingShan Park

I have just come back from a HUGE adventure. I had 5 days in Beijing and 9 days in the Philippines. There are so many stories from this incredible holiday that I am going to break it up into parts. I will start with my first day in Beijing seeing the Imperial City and JingShan Park.
Beijing seems to be a world away from Fuzhou. It was only a 2-hour plane ride up north. The day started extremely early in Fuzhou with a red sun. Ben, my travel partner and roommate, and I arrived to Beijing in the morning. We thought that a city that just hosted the Olympics in 2008 we would be able to use the Chinese that we know and maybe even show off a bit. Well, that slapped us in the face as soon as we failed to tell a taxi where our hostel was. I bowed out and called the hostel for directions. Turns out, our Chinese isn’t as terrible as I was thinking; it is just a different accent between what we have learned in Fuzhou and what is spoken in Beijing. It’s like going from the deep southern part of Louisiana to Northern Minnesota and trying to say the same things… Some things might get lost in translation.
We finally made it to our hostel, and immediately left to explore the city. We walked in the direction of what I thought was Tiananmen Square. We essentially just followed the crowds. In looking for one sight, we stumbled into the eastern entrance to the Imperial (Forbidden) City. The Imperial City (紫禁城) was humongous. Just inconceivably massive. It was one gigantic set of temples, palaces and gardens after another. I could have wandered around the city for days and not have seen everything. The Imperial City, much like the other historic scenes in China was constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Only two dynasties lived in the City.
We walked through the Forbidden City for a good three hours. The City doesn’t seem Forbidden at all anymore with its palaces turned into gift shops. The Palace of Accumulated Purity was once the living quarters for Concubines but is now selling ice cream, maps of the city and knockoff relics. I think the Emperors and Empresses of the past would be losing an immense amount of face by having the city where they conducted all secret imperial business being turned into what it is. Despite what it is now… it was incredible to see so much history that was just nestled in the heart of the city just blocks away from where we were staying.
After a good trek through the Imperial City we went to JingShan park (景山公园), which was directly behind the Imperial City. The park is spread out around Coal Hill which is an artificial hill built in during the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty. The hill is about 155 feet tall and built entirely from the earth that was excavated from building the moat around the Imperial City. There is a temple at the top of coal hill that provided the most dramatic overlook of the entire Imperial City grounds.
When we walked in through the gates of the park, the first sign we saw said, Coal hill, butterfly pavilion and the place where Chongzhen committed suicide. I was intrigued by the last location on the sign and wanted to read more about it. Apparently, under immense military pressure from rebels, Chongzhen (the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty) forced his empress to commit suicide, killed all members of his imperial household, daughters and fled to JingShan Park. Then, still dressed in his imperial clothing he climbed Coal Hill and hung himself from a tree. It was a very somber spot in the once imperial garden.

We spent another couple hours in the park just relaxing and hoping to catch the sunset fromthe top of Coal Hill.

The sunset was a bit anti-climatic because of the pollution. The sun just drifted away without any great denouement. It had been a very long day from Fuzhou to Beijing and I was ready for some food and bed!

We found a restaurant that was just like the ones in Fuzhou... we decided to branch out the next couple of days to get something we couldn't get in Fuzhou. The first night we did sample some local Beijing beer. It wasn't great but it was better than the Sedrin we get in Fuzhou!