China

I arrived into China not knowing a single phrase of Mandarin, with no idea where I was going and with no idea what to expect. In a word it was…. BUSY.

I was flat out with work so saw very little of the city as I had a lot of meetings and the hotel was right next to the place I was working, yes, a shopping centre again, so it was very convienent. The hotel was the ritz-carlton and is just under a year old, as it seems, are a lot of things in the city. Another word to describe the place would be Burgeoning.

Seriously, it is impossible to conceive the amount of construction that is going on here. It is awe-inspiring and also a little worrying as 40 story buildings are appearing like zits on a 14yr old. It is incredible.

I was glad that robyn didn’t come with me. Not in a bad way, but more for sanity. Being a road safety person and riding in any vehicle in Beijing, are not complimentary propositions. It reminded me a bit of Bangkok, but with 10 million more people. There are 17million now in Beijing alone, I think I saw every one of them on the roads at the same time.

Lanes, indicators, speed limits, are all irrelevant in Beijing. It certainly makes for an exhilarating ride. I decided the best option was just not to look outside the vehicle at any stage, which was great but made me very ill from the smoke infested cab and motion sickness, so I couldn’t win.

Anyway… I digress, the real point of the Beijing trip (besides work) was to fulfil one of the things I have always wanted to do. Walk on the Great Wall of China.

So on Saturday I had a spare day so I booked a private car, and a tour guide and headed out to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. It was one of the highlights of my life. I cannot do it justice with my words, regardless I will give it a try.

I was not prepared for the first viewing of the wall. It just sort of appears on the horizon darting in and out of the mountains and seems to encircle you. It looks like a thin line of white dotted by watch towers. I went to the Mutianyu section of the wall which is far less touristy and far more beautiful than the badaling section which is the most common section people visit on tours.

The wall is simply incredible. 7000km. Now I know that sounds like a long way, but when you are there and see it heading off into the distance and that’s only 60km, it really blows your mind. I was not prepared for just how steep the climbing on the wall itself is. In some places the wall climbs almost vertically for up to 2000ft. The section I was on climbs 800ft in 200m. Its really really steep. I think I saw a mountain goat fall off in surprise as I went past, that’s how steep it is!

Anyway I loved it. I sat on the top of the wall at the highest watch tower and just looked out over the mountains and thought about all the people who had been involved in building it and how difficult it must have been, the struggles they must have had and the hardships of the weather. I LOVE history and this is about as good as it gets as far as I am concerned.

All up I had about 2 hours on the wall, I would have loved to have all day, alas this was not to be as we had to head off to the ming tombs.