Great Wall of China

After all the worrying about the flight to Bangkok it turned out perfect. My passport arrived, I was able to leave on the 4^th and Air China gave me a 24 hour layover in Beijing, hotel included. Since I didn’t have a Chinese visa I wasn’t sure if I would be able to leave the airport, but it turns out, as long you leave for less than 24 hrs they will let you in for free. There were people on my flight who paid $165 for a rushed Chinese visa. Sometimes it pays to just wing it. Or be willing to sleep in the airport.

We got in late in the evening so we all (and by ‘we’ I mean the 20 some people who missed their connections. Some of us knew in advance but on top of that our plane left SF late) we were all shuttled to a nice hotel and crashed for the night. The people working there spoke a little English and tried to discourage me from taking public transport to the Wall. They said I couldn’t do it in a day and that I should take a taxi. From the 10 minutes I spent looking it up online in SF it looked possible…so I went. (I'm too cheap for a taxi and was up for the challenge.)

I dropped my bags off at the airport, took a train to the subway and tried to take a different train to the Wall. Everything was in Chinese and people were upset so I hopped back on the subway and went to the bus station instead.

In case anyone is planning on doing this trip soon. The bus number has changed from 919 to 877. Took me a few minutes to work that out after a bunch of 919 buses left and people kept telling me no, but didn’t know enough English to say more. They pointed. So I walked in the direction they were pointing. Bus 877 says Great Wall and Badaling. It looked promising and I knew I wanted to go to Badaling. (it was one of the 10 words I scribbled down on a piece of paper) So I gave them some money and hopped on the bus with a bunch of locals.

Beijing is an interesting city. I’m trying hard not to judge it, but the visibility was only 30 miles. If that. There are beautiful mountains all around, but I had no idea till we were half way out of the city. Because of the haze or smog or whatever it was, it makes them mysterious but it’s gross. It would be like living in Denver and not seeing the mountains, or even the foothills. I’m hoping it’s just haze…

The wall was sweet. I was told I had to buy a ticket for some ride, but then I used the wrong entrance that didn’t have the ride. I got to walk up the wall (it was better this way).

Before going to the wall I knew that this was the most crowded section and going to be a bit like Disneyland. And it was both. If you only have 24 hours then it’s totally worth the effort to stop by, but if you have any more time I would go to another section.

It’s an impressive structure. It snakes up and over and around the hills. Two fun facts – you actually cannot see it from space. I’m not sure where that rumor was started. Interstate 40 is wider. The second is that local people have used rocks from the Wall in certain sections to build their homes.

I am always blown away by what these ancient civilizations were able to accomplish. There are so many amazing structures still standing all over the world. I wonder what my generation is going to leave behind?

Back to my day at the wall. Because of that silly ride I used my bus fare to get home so I had to break some money. Considering the atm fees just to get an extra 5 bucks I chose to ride a camel instead, pay in us dollars and get back some Chinese currency. Yes, there is a camel you can ride at the Great Wall of China…and I did. But only to get bus fare. It was really cool! Camels are awesome! They have bears too.

When I was trying to ride the ride (I forget its name) back up to the wall, the ticket collector was giving me a hard time. Normally people ride up first, but I had walked instead. A couple of American guys, one who could speak Chinese and some locals came to the rescue and eventually I was able to pass. (I was not about to pay for another ticket for a stupid ride I didn’t want to take in the first place. I only rode it down because I couldn’t return the ticket) I hung out with Kurk and Joel for the rest of the day. We made it to the highest tower before walking back down to the bus.

I made it back to the airport early. Slept like a baby on the 5 hour flight to Bangkok.