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Getting on top of the Great Wall
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We spent four days in Beijing taking in the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and other sites. The wall was absolutely amazing. Nothing can describe the feeling of being on the Great Wall of China, you pinch yourself to make sure you're not dreaming, it's overwhelming.....
We met a 68 year old Japanese tourist who went practically running up the wall as soon as we got off the bus. Eh, we took the cable car. Hey, she was really energetic ok?? We're not lazy!! The weather was really good so we could see the wall snaking along the mountains for miles. Because it was almost Winter and the weather was just about to turn very cold we almost had the place to ourselves! Only downside was this old chick trying to sell us souvenirs (we stupidly bought some hoping she'd leave us alone) followed us for about half an hour down the wall, jeez!! No we've enough postcards!
The day after the great wall we checked out Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (which is massive, by the way!). We got approached countless times by "university art students" who wanted to show us their paintings (back to that later). We weren't expecting the Forbidden City to be so big, felt like about 2 miles in length alone. Wandered through snapping away at the temples til we came out the other end after a couple of hours. Strolled around Beijing playing dodge the bicycles and cars who seem intent in knocking you down! The little green man is just inferior in this country!! At the traffic lights on the way to Forbidden city, 2 guys spotted us and made a beeline claiming they were art students and they had an exhibition on in some hotel. Ok we should have scrammed there and then but being a bit green (and stupid) we were like oh um ok we'll look at your paintings. They brought us down a hutong (small alleyway) to a side entrance into a hotel and then we hopped into the lift we went down to the basement (what were we thinking??) We said to them "what the hell are we going to the basement for?" When the lift doors opened, there was an art exhibition, phew. So after telling us the "history" of the paintings they spent hours working on we decided to buy a couple, just so they'd let us go. When we eventually got out of there we were thinking ok well at least they're unique. NOT! They had the identical paintings in the souvenir shop in Forbidden city and every other souvenir shop in China for a fraction of the price we paid! That was the last time we'd get screwed (except it wasn't).
Found a great little restaurant near the main bus station which served up the best noodles ever, mmmm. The staff took great enjoyment out of watching us use the chopsticks and eventually brought over a couple of forks. We're getting the hang of it though! Beijing is a cool city with great shops and mysterious hutongs hidden everywhere. Spotted a clothes shop dedicated exclusively to dogs. Everyone kits their pooches out in only the best! More thumbnails ...
Where I stayed:
The New Dragon
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| 2. | Getting on top of the Great Wall - Beijing, China Nov 07, 2006 (  34 ) |
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