“He who has not climbed the fantastic wall is not a true man.” Mao Zedong
The next stop on our trip with China was the ancient, funding city of Beijing. It’s not precisely a budget plan backpacking perfect destination however this heavily populated city of 15.6 million people was somewhere we had been looking ahead to seeing for a extremely long time. We shown up in the morning after having a glorious sleep on the ‘soft sleeper’ class train. most budget plan backpackers most likely opt for the difficult sleeper (as we have performed in the past). however this time around we had no option as well as had to book the elegant soft sleeper. There were 2 beds on either bunk, as opposed to 3 on the difficult sleeper, as well as each compartment had a door. unfortunately the sneaky cigarette smoke still discovered a method to waft into our cabin, however it was much much better than the difficult sleepers.
Goats On The road super excited to be in a soft sleeper compartment!
We shown up at the huge train station as well as realized that we had forgotten to get in touch with the hostel to discover out which bus to take into the city. We had no minutes left on our cell phone as well as discovered ourselves wandering around this busy station aimlessly trying to discover somebody who speaks English-which never happened. ultimately we were able to utilize a phone as well as get in touch with the hostel. We navigated the bus system to the metro line as well as when we shown up the amount of people waiting on a train was unbelievable. We had handled to show up during rush hour as well as people were everywhere trying desperately to in shape onto the train. Of program we had our backpacks on so we had bit to no possibility of fighting our method in. The security guards were actually pushing people with both hands trying to stuff them into the cart! It was hilarious. We ultimately got on the train as well as walked to our hostel, where we were greeted with friendly faces as well as one more cool hostel setting. China is a fantastic destination for budget plan backpackers as well as although the hostels are somewhat more than ones in say, Southeast Asia, they are always a fantastic value for money.
this note at our hostel was somewhat lost in translation
mmm, tasty looking scorpions as well as centipedes for a BBQ on the street
Beijing is a great sprawling city, full of ancient design as well as attitudes, yet likewise showcases its up as well as coming contemporary side. We decided to spend 5 days there in order to see just a fraction of what this location has to offer. On our very first day we made our method to the notorious Tiananmen Square as well as close-by prohibited City. There’s so much to see that we could’ve spent all the time there, however the warm was getting to us so we explored for only a few hours. The prohibited City is the largest as well as finest preserved complex of ancient buildings in China. This huge palace was the house of imperial rule during the Qing dynasties. We wandered around seeing so many sights that we can’t listing them all. a few of the highlights were the Dragon Throne where the emperor would preside over officials, the fantastic Halls which were the most important part of the prohibited City as well as were utilized for ceremonies, the 7000sq. meter Imperial garden as well as the Hall of Preserving harmony which was utilized for banquets as well as imperial examinations.
The prohibited City, Beijing
entering the prohibited City, Beijing
one of the many palaces at The prohibited City, Beijing
Next on our Beijing tour for the day we decided to make our method to the gorgeous Lama Temple. This is the most acclaimed Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet itself. The temple is a location of worship for the regional people as well as pilgrims come from far away to submit themselves here. The location was spectacular! We’ve seen many Buddhist temples however this was one of our favourites. The wonderful frescoes, stunning arches, decorative carpentry, colourful prayer flags as well as 18 meter high Buddha statue were all superb. The Tibetan culture is one of my favourites. Being right here reminded me of the people we had satisfied as well as the villages we had been to during our trekking with the Himalayas in Nepal.
beautiful design at the Lama Temple, Beijing
golden shrines, Lama Temple, Beijing
Buddha needs money !!
monastery at the Lama temple complex, Beijing
18m high Buddha, sculpted from a single piece of sandalwood
Since we were in China, there was no question in our minds that we had to see our 4th question Of The World, The fantastic wall Of China! This is an engineering accomplishment of legendary proportions. The wall started being developed over 2000 years back during the Qin dynasty (the exact same dynasty that developed the spectacular Terracotta Warriors). private walls were developed individually by different kingdoms around China to keep out enemies as well as ultimately were linked together. building the wall took numerous countless workers as well as many perished during this effort; people even state that the bones of the deceased workers were utilized to develop the wall!
Eventually, however, the “impenetrable” wall failed as well as the Mongols invaded China. As time went on, the wall ended up being pointless in keeping out enemies as there were new inventions, i.e: the airplane. There’s so many different parts of the wall that you can go to however we decided to see the less brought back as well as less visited area of Mutianya, which area is famous for its 26 Ming dynasty guard towers as well as fantastic views…or at least on a nice day there would be! Again, we decided to see one of the famous sights of China as well as again, we had rain. It wasn’t almost as poor as our trip to the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces, however there was a low-lying cloud as well as a light drizzle. even so, that didn’t kill our high spirits. We were at the fantastic wall as well as were beyond thrilled to be there.
Goats On The road at The fantastic wall Of China
The remarkable fantastic wall Of China
the fantastic wall Of China snaking down the mountainside
The fantastic wall Of China
Nick at the fantastic wall Of China – willing the clouds to remove up
I wasn’t expecting for it to be such a hike as much as the wall though. We trekked up rock-cut steps for about 45 minutes before reaching the top. when up there, we walked up steep inclines, then back down, then back up, it was a fantastic workout. when we reached the end of the Mutianya part of the Wall, there was a indication that checked out “no tourists beyond this point”, however we’re not tourists, we’re backpackers! So we decided to keep on walking as well as are so pleased we did.
Dariece on the “forbidden” part of the fantastic wall Of China
This was the bit of the wall that was in it’s somewhat original state, not excessively restored, however not crumbling either. the very best part was there were no other tourists there, just us. We walked for about ½ hour more in the “no-go” zone as well as enjoyed every minute of it. The clouds even started to part a bit as well as the rain totally let up. We headed house after a fantastic day as well as enjoyed some chats with other travellers over a BBQ dinner put on by the hostel.
There were a couple more things we wished to see in Beijing before moving on; one being the national Stadium, or Bird’s Nest. The building is massive. Unfortunately, all the money that was put into it for the 2008 olympics seems to have gone to waste. There’s nothing going on at the moment however obviously it will ended up being a buying shopping center or an entertainment complex.
The national Stadium/Bird’s Nest, Beijing
the Olympic complex
The national Stadium/Bird’s Nest up close
Even though we were there to see this big steel sight (over 42,000 tons of steel were utilized in the making of the Bird’s Nest!), I was the star attraction. As would occur throughout our journey with China, many women would come running as much as me stating something in Mandarin as well as waving their camera around. I’ve had so many picture shoots, I should begin charging people for my services.
Dariece getting her picture taken with an excited Chinese woman
photo shoot!
Apart from roaming the streets, we had one more area of the city we truly wished to see, Nanluogu Xiang. This cool area is understood for its tasty foods, inexpensive booze as well as old style architecture. We ate skewers of meat, as well as one fascinating meal – a fried crepe with egg, herbs as well as some kind of fried bread all rolled up together.
line up for the tasty food on Nanluogu Xiang street
the egg, crepe-type thing on Nanluogu Xiang, Beijing
It was a perfect method to end our 5 days in Beijing. We enjoyed our time in this ancient city as well as were off the complying with morning to see yet one more excessively populated city, Shanghai!
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