Walls, Ramparts and Pollution

The view of the Simitai Great Wall
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Beijing is a city which poses many different pictures. Those of the Great Wall straddling the green surrounding hills and the tranquility of the Forbidden City for which the capital city was built around back in the 1400's. As we emerged from yet another chaotic train station we found Beijing to be much more.

The city is massive and the construction for the upcoming Olympics is everywhere. Like every other major Chinese cities, skyscrapers battled with expressways to help the cities 16 million inhabitants function in some way. Unfortunately this has just led to a massive city of gridlocks and coal-pollution spewing into the air. I pity the marathon runners trying to plough their way through the smog at next years Olympics.

Us and the Great Wall
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Our group immediately arrived and trawled the ancient Forbidden City compound. Up to 50,000 people visit this place each day and to be fair it was a complete zoo. We got given a local guide who was more interested in texting her mates rather than immerse us in her overly factual waffle and the whole experience was a tad tedious. The complex itself is architecturally magnificent but constant renovations made quality photo taking a mission. Afterward we headed into Tiananmen Square. The police presence was huge and rumours are that anybody caught activating or even discussing topics such as Tibet, Taiwan or the massacre will see themselves heavily removed from the area and possibly China.

The Shadow
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That evening we had to make our way to our Vodkatrain tour briefing. What followed was a shambles of monumental proportions. We opted for the cab to make our job easier but because we hadn’t had any clear joining instructions we were only provided with the hotel name and the area it was in. The first cab driver dropped us off and we waltzed around and went into a posh hotel to find where ours was. They rang directory and then wrote in Chinese the instructions for our next cab. Unfortunately he took us 5km’s the wrong direction and threw us out in front of another hotel of the same name. Guessing that our budget tour wouldn’t use a hotel with bellboys we were again in the wrong place. Finally after 3 hours in traffic jams and complete disasters trying to get assistance we found the hotel albeit 2 hours later than planned. Luckily most of the group was still there chatting and we achieved our goal.

One of the views inside the Forbidden City
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The real priceless moment was our next day’s trip to The Great Wall. The tour took us to the more sedate and scenic Simitai section. The section comprised of 13 ramparts and travelled uphill for 300 metres before snaking away along a narrow ridge face. As we took the path up we were greeted by a local farmer’s wife (apparently!). We made it perfectly clear that she wasn't here to sell us anything and before you know it we had ourselves a perfectly formed Chinese shadow. Three and a half hours later after climbing to the top and to the back to the bottom of the wall our shadow was stuffed. So were we but we weren't letting on. We took pity and offered to buy her a book over some lengthy negotiations. She kept exclaiming, “Shank you, Shank you”, before we had even completed a deal and in the end we shook hands on a worthless piece of trade. Instead of walking back down to the car park I coerced Emma into taking the zip line down. It was fair to say she was packing herself and there is some priceless video evidence to prove it.

Tiananmen Square form the last gate of the Forbidden City
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That night with our quads and calves shattered we took to the tranquility of a local theatre to watch the local acrobatics troupe. This was possibly some of the craziest stuff we have ever seen. The strength, balance and sheer wonder of these athletes took our breath away. Highlights were some fella climbing a pole with only is hands and the amazing contortionists. The next day we moved hotels and the pollution was so bad that we couldn’t even go outside without gagging. Unfortunately this was a part of China that drove us crazy the most and unfortunately destroys the whole summer over most of the country.