Beijing

Days 1 to 3 (Jul 31 to Aug 2) - Getting There

In August 2004, Justin Settle (my cousin) and I traveled to China for a 3 week backpacking tour. Justin and I met each other at New York's JFK airport on Saturday, July 31 and transited to Beijing (via London), arriving on the afternoon of Monday, August 2. There, we quickly found our local contact for transfer to the hotel. After checking in, we headed out to the Summer Palace. This area sits in low lying hills surrounding a small lake about 30 minutes from our hotel. It was a nice park, but packed with Chinese tourists.

At the end of the afternoon, we returned to the hotel for a quick shower and met the rest of our group, consisting of 15 individuals, including Justin and myself. Yvonne, a medical student from Austria, had already spent several weeks in Beijing studying Chinese acupuncture methods. Richard taught grade school students in England. Karen was studying to become a massage therapist in the UK. Stephen and Hannah were students in the UK - Stephen working towards becoming a chartered accountant; Hannah focusing on social services. Emmy and Lisa were sisters from the United States - Emmy studied international relations at Oxford; Lisa would return from this trip to begin college in New England. Natalie was studying for an honors degree in the UK. Anna came from Italy and was in the process of moving to Scotland to continue her studies there. Anne worked in human resources in Belgium. Kal was an Imaginative Travel tour leader who would eventually lead us out of China into Hong Kong. Shirley, our Chinese tour leader, was responsible for arranging our activities while in mainland China. She did a magnificent job.

For dinner on our first night together, Shirley led the group to a restaurant in one of the local neighborhoods for Peking duck.

Day 4 (Aug 3) - Great Wall

Left the hotel at 6:30 AM for the Great Wall. We drove for about 4 hours and made it to a fairly secluded section of the Wall known as Simatai. Here, we encountered only a dozen or so people on the wall the rest of the day.

The Wall itself is pretty spectacular. The area we started walking in was in pretty good condition, but later became more broken. You could walk on the top of the wall and it was more or less like walking on a paved street. It eventually became quite hilly, with some very steep inclines - reported to be as much as 70 degrees at one point. We also noted constructions unique to this section of the wall, including mini-walls built on top of the Great Wall to defend against invaders who had already gained access to it.

Some of the guard towers were in good shape; the first couple even had stairs in place so one could climb to the second floor for a look out at the surrounding landscape. Since crossbows of the day had a range of around 60 meters, the towers were built approximately 120 meters apart, allowing soldiers to defend the top of the Wall from relative safety.

Our guide mentioned that the main benefit of the Wall was to prevent the passage of horses. Soldiers could scale the Wall and enter the area behind it but once there, would have limited mobility - giving the local garrison time to react. Given that enemy soldiers could be on either side of the Wall, it included defensive ramparts facing both sides.

We ended up walking about 12 KM over 4.5 hours and eventually exited the Wall at a place where it plunged into a river at the bottom of a steep ravine.

Day 5 (Aug 4) - Beijing

Got up about 5:30 this morning for a jog. Interesting to see the locals going through their tai chi in groups at this time of day. I passed a few people who were running, but not too many. Seems like most everybody rides a bicycle, possibly a big reason for the absence of overweight people here.

Justin and I went with the group by subway to Tiananmen Square. We walked past Chairman Mao's mausoleum and briefly debated going through to see his stuffed remains. I have never had much of a hankering to see the remains of the founders of oppressive Communist regimes, so we passed on this opportunity. Nevertheless, the line was quite long - clearly Mao continues to occupy an honored place in hearts of many Chinese.

Instead, Justin and I headed into the nearby Forbidden City. This is the main palace of those emperors who made Beijing (formerly known as Peking) their capital. It was quite expansive with lots of open areas, but almost totally devoid of grass giving the compound something of an urban feel. Nevertheless, the architecture was striking.

We also went to the silk market. The name is something of a misnomer since the majority of stalls seemed to be selling knock-offs of western products. I was a bit disappointed in the quality of goods - neither Justin nor I bought anything here.

The Lama Monastery was large and quite colorful. I would probably rank this place as a close second to the Summer Palace on my list of the places I liked most in Beijing. I have never been particularly fond of burning incense, but here it struck me as giving the place the right feel. I suppose context is everything.

We returned to the hotel by 4:00 to catch an overnight train to Xi'an. There are apparently three classes of train available. The equivalent of first class (historically reserved for Communist Party officials) has two beds and a door for each compartment. Our group traveled one notch below first class, in what is called the "hard sleeper". Here, the carriage is divided into approximately 10 areas (sans doors), with 3 beds stacked from ceiling to floor on each side of these "compartments".

Go to Xi'an for more