I was so glad to get off the plane (especially with the 50-mile taxi from the runway to the gate). The descent was turbulent and absolutely not for me. This was also flight 7 of this entire trip. Flying is cool but very tiresome.
We got off the plane and headed to the foreigner fingerprint collection area. We gave our prints and then headed to the border. Trying to explain what we needed was a bit of a hassle. They finally understood that we needed the 144-hour transit visa. We both filled in a form and then we had to go to the police immigration desk for them to check it. They asked me to show the hotel booking and the PDF didn’t have my name on it so I had to find it in the app and show them that. I had to show that we had a ticket to come back to the UK. We got our sticker in the passport to show that we were allowed in the country. I thought that was it all sorted. Not so. We had to go to the normal immigration counter and they asked for our finger again and then took a picture of each of us. Once this was done we were allowed across the border.
We went to collect our bags; mine was still on the belt. We collected them and then had to put them through an X-ray machine to get out of the airport. We left and the driver (yep, we’re THAT important. Haha) was waiting outside for us. We tried to buy a SIM card from the machine but it wouldn’t accept my debit card. We just decided to head out to the car.
The driver didn’t seem overly friendly or keen on having us. We had 2 big bags and 2 cabin bags and it was like he wasn’t expecting us to have any luggage. My big case had to go in the front seat. The bag won out over Ken.
The ride to the hotel seemed to take forever. There was so much traffic for 21:00 on a Sunday night. The trip from the airport to the hotel was 95 minutes. It was only 40 miles away too. The sheer weight of the traffic made it this long.
We finally got to the area of the hotel and it looked a little shady (maybe it was tiredness, maybe it was how dark it was). The guy from the hotel was at the end of the street waiting for us (it was nice of him to do this for us especially since it was raining).
When we pulled up and saw him I said to Ken “See, I told you it was the murder hotel). We checked in and the room is… well… different. The rooms seem to centre around a small yard in the middle (much like houses do in Morocco. See my post about Fes to read it).
We were both so tired and wanted to sleep and also were so hungry. I asked the guy at the hotel about SIM cards and he said they did them and then walked off. That annoyed me no end. I told Ken we should just go to 7-Eleven and find some food. I was in a bad mood at this point. I just wanted to be back home. It was 90% tiredness, 8% hunger and 2% being annoyed with the guy at the hotel.
We went to go to the 7-Eleven and noticed there were surveillance cameras everywhere. They’re not wrong when they say China is a surveillance state! I said to Ken it will be a miracle if we don’t get robbed, raped and then murdered in the alleyways.
We went to where the 7-Eleven was but couldn’t see it. We walked past some sort of office building (which the map said was where it was) and I happened to look back and it was there. So strange. We had to go inside the lobby of this office building to get to it. I was glad to just get what I needed and be heading back to the hotel. The shop didn’t accept card payments and that annoyed me. Luckily Ken had cash with him. Most places here only seem to accept WeChat Pay or AliPay (none of which we use).
We got back to the hotel, got the SIM cards sorted (finally) and then headed to sleep. I wasn’t awake for very much longer as we had been awake around 38 hours at this point. We also had to be up early for our trip to The Great Wall.
Disclaimer: I have tried to be as accurate as possible with the locations but Chinese GPS is ever so slightly off (have a look at Google Maps and then change it to Satellite View and see how the streets are off) so they may not be 100% accurate.
-
Today was our first full day here in Beijing and we had the tour booked to visit the Great Wall of China. It was an early start made even worse by the fact it was late when I got to sleep last night. I set the alarm for 06:15 after being told by the hotel it would take around 50 minutes to reach the subway station that we needed. The only plus about being so tired and going to bed so late last night was that I got a solid sleep. I don’t remember waking up before my alarm for anything.
We left the hotel around 06:50 and then headed to Xisi subway station and this is really where the fun of the day started. We went down to the subway and we had to put our bags through the x-ray machine and then go through a scanner and have a quick wand check us over. I have seen this in other cities I have visited (Baku and Cairo to name a couple). We got through that and then I went to the machine to buy some tickets. They have an English option so I chose that and then proceeded to go through the process of buying the tickets and this is where the fun really started. When I selected all that I needed I opted for cash payments (because of stupid no-card crap) and then it told me I needed to enter my ID details to get the ticket. I don’t even know why this is needed and what the purpose of this is (minus China wanting to know everything). It wouldn’t let us buy the tickets and I was getting really frustrated with it.
I found someone in the ticket office and said what the issue was and I had to use a translator on my phone to do this. She said to use the machine. I had to show her what the issue was and she went to the office and I told her I needed a ticket. I thought the tickets were one price – 3 Yuan – but I later found out I was wrong. Our tickets got issued and we headed on our way. We had to go from Xisi to Xizhimen to change to another line and it seemed to take forever to switch between the 2 lines. It was awful. I was getting even more frustrated at people just dawdling and not moving out of the way.
We got to the line we needed and it seemed to take forever on this line to get to Dongzhimen station. This station was the meeting point for the tour. We went to go out of the barriers and our tickets weren’t accepted. We tried tapping them to get out and that didn’t work. We tried putting them in the slot and that didn’t work. I had to go to the ticket office and tell them where we had travelled from and that it wouldn’t let us out. We had to pay an extra 1 Yuan each to get out of the station.
We finally got out and found the exit we needed and there was organised chaos upstairs from the tour company. We were put into a queue for a specific bus and had to wait another 20-30 minutes for everyone to be ready and walk us to the bus. Ken went to get some drinks for us so we were suitably hydrated. We went to the coach and then got on and set off on our way to the wall. During the ride there, our guide was giving us some information about it. Truth be told, I didn’t really pay attention as I was still in a bad mood from earlier and I was so tired. I had a headache starting at that time which wasn’t fun either.
Getting out of Beijing was a nightmare because of the traffic. It is home to one or two people and these one or two people drive one or two cars and it just causes mayhem and gridlock. People don’t really have any lane discipline here and they don’t care about road rules either it seems. The guide told us it would take about 70 minutes to get to the wall. In reality, it was almost 100 minutes. I was so ready to be off the coach. You can see the route we took on the bus below.
We got there and we had to wait whilst the guide bought our tickets. Ken and I opted for the roundtrip cable car, the round trip cableway/toboggan, a buffet lunch and then a certificate of walking along the wall. We thought why in the hell not get it. It was only £4. The buffet was a fiver. Each roundtrip was £14. Once she had bought the tickets, we headed to the Mubus Family (yep, they call themselves that and say that each customer is like their family. Pass me the sick bucket) building and watched some video about the wall and also some of the rules of the wall. Once this was done, we were given our tickets for entrance to the wall and then we were walked to the shuttle buses. If you don’t have a shuttle bus included in your tour, it costs 15 Yuan. If you don’t want the shuttle bus then you have to walk up yourself and it is about 2 miles uphill. I am glad we had the shuttle included.
On the way to the bus, the guide said I should take the cableway back down as I am a “happy Buddha”. I was a bit annoyed at that and just walked off. Ken said that she went up to him and asked if she had offended me. Ken said she hadn’t. It was easier that way.
There are so many places here selling souvenirs and they are crazy about getting you to buy stuff. One place I looked at for a magnet told me I could have a magnet for 80 Yuan (that’s £8. I didn’t even pay that for a magnet in Switzerland and that place is expensive as hell). I said no and just walked off. He muttered something but I couldn’t hear it.
We were told by the guide that we would only need the ticket for the cableway/toboggan and that everything else is done via our passport and they would just scan that. This is where the next fun bit of the day happened. Ken tried to have his passport scanned but it wasn’t working. They had to double check and the last 2 digits of the passport number were transposed. Our guide had to write something down for him to show the workers at the barriers as this would happen all the time we were there.
We got the bus up to the entrance of the wall. You can either take the east entrance, the west entrance, or both. The guide advised that we do the east entrance first as the queue for the toboggan can be quite long and this would cause time issues for when we needed to leave. We walked up to the east entrance for the cableway and there was so much confusion about the queue. Our guide pulled us out of the queue and to the group we were with. Some old women pushed past us and a couple more tried and Ken said something and we got past them. I’ll be damned if I am letting anyone queue jump.
We finally got to the start of the queue for the cableway and I had my action camera on so I could get the trip up there. I really enjoyed the trip up here on it as it was open so you could see around and it was also nice and peaceful (with a few interruptions when people were going down in the toboggan). I got to the top and you had to be ready to lift the safety bar and get off and out of the way so you didn’t get hit.
When we were near the top, someone had a camera and was telling us to smile for a picture. We saw them as we were walking off the cable car and were asked if we wanted them. We asked how much and I was expecting it to be extortionate. In places like this, you’re usually looking around £25 for it. This one was a shocking £3. I gave them a 100 YUAN note and they gave me 30 Yuan change and I had to tell them I gave them a 100 Yuan note. The person was very confused and it took a good few minutes for them to realise how much change they needed to give. I was holding up the queue. They then gave me Ken’s picture and I had to tell them it wasn’t me!
This is where the walking of the wall started. The views from up here are truly stunning. The wall is amazing to see in real life. I have only ever seen it in books and on the TV. It was really something else to be there.
When we were told earlier we could get a certificate for being on the wall, we were told to pick a picture and send it to the guide to be printed when we left. I could have taken a hundred pictures here for her to choose from. It was that picturesque.
She took some pictures of me and Ken and then we started our walk down the stairs toward the Generals Tower. This was 3 buildings and from the outside looked cool and the roof on each was pretty cool too. They had mythical animals on them and this signified the importance of the building.
Just before we got down here, Ken and I were taking some funny pics and there was a woman behind us as we were and we made her laugh. We aim to please our audience.
We carried on down the stairs. It was not good for my visual references as the wall follows the terrain of the mountain. This was really confusing to me as walls aren’t meant to follow the terrain of the top of a mountain. The steps were sometimes steep and narrow and also sometimes shallow. Some were small and some were more than 2 steps together. It’s really hard to describe.
I decided that I would go up to the next tower and that would be it for me and I would turn back so we could head down to go to the other entrance and take the cable car.
The next set of steps to the next tower was really gruelling. They were really steep and sometimes high between the preceding one and the next one. Ken seemed to barrel on up them without much effort. I’m not that good with it though. The views kept on being as awesome as they were at the start. I was still pinching myself that I was at this wonder of the world. It still doesn’t seem real that I have been here.
I managed to get a shot of myself that I liked for the certificate. It’s the picture below.
Once we had seen what we wanted to this side, we headed back down the steps (I was not looking forward to this bit) and then back up the other side to get the cableway and the toboggan. Ken went for the toboggan and I opted for the cableway (like I had any choice from what Miss Gobby said at the start).
I went to where I had got off the cableway and I was told I had to go back up and round to the other side to get on. My legs were burning a little at this point.
I got on and decided I would do a timelapse of the trip down. You can see this in the video below.
Once I was off and clear I got a message from Ken to say he might be a while as the queue for the toboggan was quite long. I said it was fine and then I had a walk around and found some souvenirs and then went and got some water and some biscuits and then sat and waited for him. It was nice just to sit here and enjoy the sun and just listen.
Ken got back down and then we headed to the west entrance and said we would just do the cablecar up there (to say we had done both sides) and then come back down. Time was running short for us and we were both hungry. It turns out we both said we should go on this side of the wall too and we spent almost an hour up here.
We got the cable car back down and we both said how tired we were and how we both could have just slept in and not done this. We are both glad we didn’t do that and are both glad we went to the wall.
We got to the shuttle bus stop and then got the bus back down and then headed for the buffet. On the way to the buffet, we were accosted by souvenir sellers. One was selling T-shirts. She said something and Ken was laughing. I asked him what he was laughing at and he said that she said I was too fat for a T-shirt! Ladies and gentlemen, the buffet: it was awful. The food was lukewarm and drier than the Sahara (I can say that because I have been to the western part of the Sahara). It wasn’t the best food – then again, what can you expect for a fiver!
We finished and Ken sat there for a while and I went out walking (mostly to find a bathroom) and went looking for a big Chinese flag. Couldn’t find any sadly.
I went looking for some more picture spots and then got a message from Ken asking where I was and I went back to where we were meeting the group to come back to the city. Here, they had our pictures printed and the certificate ready. It was really cool. Bear in mind it was only £4 – we got it in a glass frame. I was not expecting anything this fancy at all. I was just expecting some printed paper in an envelope. It was totally worth the money!
The wall itself is 13,200km long and 16 feet wide.
We were grouped together again for the journey down. This time it seemed so disorganised. They called us by number and then sat us in their entrance hall and then played some weird ass video and then did a little competition of sorts to win a commemorative coin or a mug or some tea. This was a cringe-fest if ever I’ve seen one. For me, the best prize would have been to get us on the coach and back to the city.
One of the seats we were told to sit in (that we didn’t because a certain someone didn’t want to sit at a table with someone else) was called and won a coin. I thought it would have been cool to win this. Oh well. It wasn’t to be.
We finally got called to the bus and got on and it took about 90 minutes to get back to the city. I was so tired.
Ken said he wanted to go for a Starbucks coffee once we got back into the city. We weren’t going to take our lives into our hands crossing these roads unless we really had to. It’s crazy. People just genuinely don’t care – whether that be bus drivers, car drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists or pedestrians.
We got to another road we had to cross and we just had to go for it. I had to do the same in Amman and Cairo too.
Ken got his coffee and said it was really bad. He said they poured cold brew into a cup and then topped up with hot water. Not good. Starbucks back home better watch out when we get back. We had a quick look around the shopping centre and then headed for the subway. I was so not prepared for the journey back and the crazy connection between the two lines. I had the translator ready with the tickets I needed so we didn’t have to go through the same issues as this morning. We got our tickets and then headed to the platform. We changed and it was so much easier this time round. It didn’t take anywhere near as long as this morning. We were far too tired for this and we were glad it was a quicker transfer.
We got back to Xisi and I wanted to find a shop to get some food. Junk food was a good option for me. I wanted to find a 7-Eleven for this. As we got out of the station we heard some singing and then saw some dancing. We stopped by to see what it was all about and I got a video of the person singing.
We then carried on walking and it seemed to be Karaoke night here in this little park. One of the ones we heard was really not good. I walked off and just got some pictures of the park. Ken came and we started to walk in the direction of the 7-Eleven. We took our life into our own hands as we were walking. Scooters are everywhere and they don’t stop and just beep and you better make your way out of their way. I saw a shop across the street that looked like a convenience store and asked Ken if it looked like one. We crossed over and went to it and then headed back towards the hotel.
We got back to the little park and heard something that sounded truly awful. We had to stop and get a video of it. It didn’t seem real. I shouldn’t laugh but it was really bad. So off key and screechy.
We started to head back towards the 7-Eleven from yesterday and Ken said we should just go back to the hotel. We did just that. We were both so tired. Tomorrow is going to be another early start. I cannot wait for the early starts to be over. It will be so good.
Total steps: 17,172
Total miles: 8.14
Below are some pics from today
