Nikki arrived in Beijing on the 26th and we spent 5 more nights there. We went out to the Great (signposted Grart) Wall. After an early start we had arranged to meet a member of Ting Tours to take us there. Whilst stood on the street corner waiting for some form of minibus to pull up we noticed a shifty looking character strolling up to us. He spoke no English but gestured for us to follow him, we assume his air conditioned mega van must be parked around the corner. As we crossed the road we realised that our transport for the day was to be a knackered old Lexus coupe "parked" at (on) the side of the road.
It took a couple of hours to get to a section that was brandished in signs proclaiming that "This section of the wall is closed to the public." and "Closed for refurbishment". We turned onto a small dirt track, fearing for our lives (and bruised buttocks), where our mystery guide parked up and we followed him up a steep bank to a broken section of the wall. We climbed up a dodgy 3 rung ladder (and were charged 2yuan each for the privelege by a hermit living on the wall) saw the climb was not yet over. We clambered up broken steps and mounds of vertical rubble to the top of the wall where we had about a 750m stretch of wall to explore, either end of which was impassable. After a couple of hours we headed back to the car and our guide (we'll call him Bob) took us back to Beijing. We payed Bob then parted ways, only to find out later he'd overcharged us!
After a lazy afternoon, we went to the night market where we tried sea snake.
Over the next few days we took in Forbidden City, Tian'anmen square, and some tranquil parks in the middle of the hectic city roads. On our last full day in Beijing we took it easy and went to a teahouse in the afternoon where they put on an hour long show with as much green tea as you could drink. We saw a shadow play, Sechaun face change opera, acrobatics, singing, a comic double act, a magic act and a special olympic tea dance.
We took the train down to Qingdao (about 6 hours) on the east coast to catch a ferry to Japan. We've been here for the past few days enjoying the beaches and the hot weather. The food has been an experience as there are less English speakers here so we have had to play a game of pointing and hoping and on one occasion we were forced to resort to McDonalds (it's just as bad here as it is everywhere else)!
We're catching the ferry this evening (8pm local time, 1pm GMT) to Shimonoseki on the southern most tip of the Honshu island of Japan (the big one with Tokyo on). It's a 40 hour journey so we've stocked up on snacks and the local version of pot noodles (which are a hell of a lot nicer!) to keep us going. We plan on spending a couple of weeks exploring Japan using the railways before returning to Qingdao to continue our Chinese adventure.
Off to catch a taxi now, we'll post again soon.
Love N&M
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4 comments:
huzaa, sounds good. Very little comment was made about the sea snake other than you tried it.... me thinks it was bad? :)
er... it was not the best thing i`ve had in my mouth. was slightly rubbery, but mostly jsut tasted of seasoning.
Hi Mark - are you still vegetarian? Must be a bit difficult if only snake and McDs are on offer!
hi, no not been veggie for quite a few years now! but i would say it'd be nigh on impossible, we ordered vegetable dumplings the other day and they had prawn in them. We met a veggie today and she's had to compromise somewhat as even dishes advertised as veggie can be cooked in chicken or fish stock
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