Day 13
Freezing to death on the Great Wall, The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.
We met our tour guide, Luna in Beijing. Initially, she came across as a young shy guide with big glasses and a bob but we soon learnt that she’s a badass! She wrote her thesis on the Beijing Student Protests of 1988, knowing that it was controversial given the biased story China are told and received a ZERO for her work (at least she didn’t get whisked away to some unknown prison for speaking out).
Almost immediately, we got on the bus to the Great Wall. We had to have an obligatory lunch at a farm house nearby as our way of ‘payment’ to use their bit of land to camp. However, when we arrived, they were all asleep and the tables were covered in old food and crockery from the last group. So they made us a mediocre lunch and we set off.
It took about 45 mins to hike to the great wall and when we got there, it was beautiful- a completely unrestored part of the wall and we were the only people there. After a little exploration, we began stripping trees of their branches (I know, I felt awful, too) for our camp fire as we were warned it gets a little chilly.
Most people were VERY unprepared for how ‘chilly’ it was going to be that night (including myself). We slept two to a tent. We only had 4 pegs per tent which were used for the guide lines. A pretty obvious consequence of this is that no matter how slight the breeze, it got through. To top it off, we had summer sleeping bags (and it got down to -10). I probably got a grand total of 2 hours sleep and ‘slept’ crossed legged with my feet up my bum just to keep my extremities warm. I’ve hiked up the Himalayas IN THE SNOW and have NEVER been that cold before.
It was definitely NOT worth it just to watch the sunrise, particularly since the ever-present smog in China means the horizon is much higher and it was just the sun by the time we could see it.
Day 14
On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at a restored part of the Great Wall and, although visually stunning, it was so busy, I’m glad we didn’t hike that part.
We also stopped at the Beijing Olympic Park which was like a ghost town- it’s no longer used and half of the apartment blocks are either deserted or only used for business meetings- strange.
After napping for a few hours to make up for what we lost whilst camping, we went to The Forbidden City which was enormous. Without going into too much detail, it was beautiful and worth the visit to gain an insight into the lives of the Chinese Emperors.
Enroute to the Forbidden City, we saw the Tiananmen Square which is where the 1988 Student Protests occurred. It was like a shrine to Chairman Mao (they even have his preserved body in a glad coffin in one of the buildings). You could FEEL the communism at this place. Whilst our guide was explaining the history of the student protests (risky move on her part), a security guard came up behind the group and started questioning her about what she was saying.
As a side note, I downloaded a VPN to be able to use Google and Facebook in China and started researching Chairman Mao and soon after, my internet stopped working and I couldn’t use Google any more- scary.
Day 15
For our last day, we went to the Temple of Heaven which is unlike any of the other temples we’ve seen in China so far (not least because it’s round).
However, far better than the Temple of Heaven was the fact that the Government allows OAP’s free access to the park and it has become a place where they come to do exercise and socialise. There were so many activities: Full-body workouts, Zumba, Gymnastics, Tai Chi, Knitting, Card Games and a full blown choir. It’s a wonderful idea! We, of course, joined in and were recorded by all the locals.
