Day 2: Beijing; my blood is on the Great Wall

Slept in to some degree. Caught a tour bus to the Badaling section of the Great Wall.


'Museum' visit included in tour. It wasn't much of a museum, and thanks to my Beijing tour book, I knew what was coming after the jade 'museum.'


We had to pass through the heated and brightly lit jade shopping centre before heading upstairs.


Our tour included a free lunch. This place looked more like a store than a restaurant.


We were fed, however.


Badaling:


It's about 70 km outside the city. Very cold, especially with the winds sweeping through the mountains. Still, I'm glad I went during the low season.




I wanted to visit another section of the Wall as well, but time wasn't permitting.

To get close to a walking section of the wall we rode a pulley/roller coaster up the mountain. This is how we came down:


I was jogging down a hill on the Wall and fell on my ass. A finger cut and blood gush ensued.


The visit to the Great Wall took up most of the day. I wanted to visit another place when we got back to the city, but it was too dark for taking pictures.

Day 1: Beijing

After work on Friday I went to bed early and forced myself to sleep for five hours before waking up and meeting my ride to the airport at 2am. I was at the airport before 3am and spent the next five hours waiting for my flight.

When the currency counter opened, I went to exchange my NT dollars for Renminbi, but I was informed "No China!"

A quick two hour flight later and I was at the airport in Macau. I exchanged my money into RMB there.



I had a two hour layover. From Macau I flew to Beijing, which took about three hours. I then caught a shuttle bus to Xidan. That took over an hour, thanks to the wonderful traffic in Beijing.

I approached a man who I thought was a taxi driver and showed him where my hostel was. He led me to a rickshaw. What the hell, I thought. In case he was planning on harvesting my organs, I thought about the best way for me to escape: jumping through the 'window' at the back. (Knapsack, then body).

Made it to my hostel, organs intact. I was overcharged but didn't mind because I had to be at the hostel by a certain time and it was getting late.


The hostel is part of a hutong and was very clean and mellow. My room was toasty warm and had a comfy bed. I was staying in a four-bed dorm with two roommates. That night we went to a western bar that had live music and male and female pole dancing. The bar was on a street where there were over a dozen other bars offering almost exactly the same things.


Not the most exciting place. From there we took a cab to the nightclub Vics.




By the end of the night I was all kinds of tired.

End day/beginning day

Last day of Winter Camp. Vacation time. The latter includes getting up early and going to the airport ;)

More than a basket

Inside one building at Window on China you can see large bins for people to leave their bags and jackets before they go on a ride. This one is relatively empty, but it's not uncommon to see people leave their goods unattended.

A large meal

Yesterday after our field trip we had a staff dinner at Tasty.




Wall of smiles. Who has the best smile?

Window on China

School field trip to a model/amusement park in Hsinchu.

Mini-Taiwan


I've visited the buildings with the orange and blue roofs.


Mini-China

(Prelude to) The Great Wall of China:




Mini-Europe

L'Opera:



Mini-USA


Mini-Asia


Indoor & outdoor rides.

Night heron

I've been spotting these birds at night by the water near where I live. It's never light enough for me to take a picture of them, however. On the weekend I bought a book that lists some local birds and where to look for them. I've seen two types of night herons. Wooh!