China | Steffi and Tom on the Road

The great wall is actually not that high but high in the mountains and impressively long.

Of course one of the things that you can’t miss out while being in Beijing is a trip to the Great Wall. We decided to go for the easy way going to one of the popular spots and hike until we meet the unrestored part.

According to loneyplant it should be straight forward to go to Mutianyu. From the central bus station bus number 867 should make a detour to the wall at 7 and 8:30 am. So we set the alarm to 5:45 am. Unfortunately we first got up 6:15, stuffed some good in our bags and rushed to the bus station. 6:50 we found ourselves lost between numerous busses, but non had the number 867, when a Chinese woman approached us „are you going to the Great Wall? Bus 867? This bus stopped. I am a bus conductor. You have to take bus 980 and get of at the fifth stop.“ Handed us a note which stated all this in Chinese and stuffed us into Bus 980 and we headed out of the city. At least the bus seemed to go in the right direction. After a while and no signs of a next station we started showing the note to the other people in the bus. They just laughed and nodded and indicated us to get if the bus after about an hour drive. We got of the bus and a Chinese man approached us „need taxi?“ He showed us where we were (far off) but wanted 300RMB bit to much went down to 200 which was still to much and our mood wasn’t to got either with an empty stomach. So we left him there and headed for the next supermarket to buy some food. Tom asked the lady at counter whether she knew how to get to the wall and she handed us a note with the English description???? Where did that came from. We walked 1km to the next bus station got into the right bus and ended up in the city that was mentioned in the lonelyplanet. Got into another bus, without an idea where to get off. Do we just went out with the crowd. Another guy offering us a ride to the wall for 80RMB. But now I was so pissed that I did not mind and we just went for the offer and finally arrived.

The wall itself is quit impressive, and very exhausting to hike especially the unrestored part. But unfortunately we had to learn the the smog grating out all view does not stop at city walls, so we barely couldn’t see more than a few hundred meters.

The great wall hiding itself under a layer of smog.

Tommy and Steffi needing a little break from climbing stairs.

The unrestored part of the wall is slowly taking over by nature again.

One hour way back we again tried to catch bus 867, but one of this minivan drivers did wanted to let us go. So we agreed on taking his service now for 30RMB, if the bus shouldn’t show up until 4:10 pm. The bus did not came ;), but therefore we made it back to Beijing buy 6pm to get us a well earned opulent dinner.

We never actually found out, whether bus 867 still exists.

Tom biking on the bike highways in Beijing, that are usually packed with bikes, e-scooters and cabs.

After a total of a 30h Train and Bus Trip we stumbled out of the Busstation into the never sleeping Beijing. Friday night 2 o’clock welcomed us with street food, Chinese beer and a buzzing sunlintun nightlife. No wonder that you see non-Chinese faces as soon as you step out the door because every nationality settle down here easily. Without any expectations I couldn’t come around to like Beijing immediately.

View from the apartment of Tom’s college (6 am).

Next day we could move to one of these westerners, a former college of Tom, into one of these big and nice apartments with a view over the city. (Thanks so much for the great time.)

Eating hotpot with our perfect hosts.

And how great, she could borrow us two bikes to explore the city. If you bring some sense of adventure, irresponsibility, no fear and no common sense, bike this city! Bike lanes are fairly huge (even though often blocked by parking cars), their are thousands of Chinese on bikes and electric scooter indicating when to cross the red lights and where to squeeze between cars and busses and most drivers are despite prejudges aware enough to not run you over. So even bikes to cars it is still possible to survive and we saw so much more than in a bus, cab or metro.

We visited the forbidden city (keeps the tradition on Mondays) together with as it felt a million Chinese tourists (90 years of openness seemed not to have compensate for the 500 years of forbidden entrence) and wandered for hours between red walls and yellow roofs. Unfortunately or audio guide was not always with us.

Queuing for tickets to the forbidden city with a few other visitors ;).

Workers repairing the square in front of the entrance. Funnily it always takes at least three workers to do something.

… and again a few other visitors taking pictures of some old chairs. Wish I was a kid again.

Fig. 3. A representative image of the yellow roofs in the forbidden city. Most impressing is that such a huge area can look so alike.

The audio guide didn’t really fit my ear size making me a little Indian girl.

We were not the only ones being exhausted after a two hours tour in the forbidden city.

However, the biggest attraction of this city are the people living here. The banana Chinese looking important in suits next to glittering modern buildings, the youngsters in their joggingschooluniforms, the grandparents in green parks, the families living the life’s in the left over hutongs (old traditional housing districts that we enjoyed strolling very much), all the people earning their income on the street. Sure the car drivers using their horn more often than their breaks but everybody we met was friendly and helpful and offered us a smile.

Cleaning crew at Tian’men. The guys with the lowest wage definitely had the most fun.

The historic hutong, containing small shops like this bike repair shop, are slowly replaced by modern high towers.

Hutongs by night. An old lady ridding her three-wheeler home.

School kids going home at around 9 pm. Its not being fun to be between 6 and 19 in China.

Beijing food market. You can buy the fresh made noodles for an apple and a egg.

Beijing food market the second. Everything that is eatable can be bought here. (And you remember chines eat everything with four legs except tables, everything that flys except airplanes and everything that swims except boats.)

Steffi and Tom on the Road

With Tommy traveling in the trains of this World.

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Going great – the wall

Biking Beijing