What goes up, mus come down!! Oh, my friends I have climbed up to a lot of towers in my life but today was different. We kicked off this week by taking a day trip to the Great wall of China. That is one of musts of course once I have found my way all the way this far. The Wall is one of world’s seven wonders and not in vain! We visited the part of Mutianyu, about 80km away from Beijing. For a nice suprise there was almost no people there so we did not feel like mass tourists. A chair lift ride from the village couple of hundrad meters up saved alot of strenght for the actual hike at the Wall.
And that really was needed. The spectacular building seams to have absolute no flat surface. There were steps, normal steps, unfrequently strange steps, giant steps and enormous steps. Since we were supposed to return back to the same point, it meant all ups and downs. The weather is stil subzero degrees (although fells like nothing after Irkutsk) so I was wrapped in a lot of clothes. This created a nice heat for some moments! After three hours of hiking (=walking and moving like a clubsy animal) I was able to say that I can skip my daily evening jog. Hahaa. Funny end for the excursion was the summer tobbogan slide that took us back to the bus. What goes up, mus come down!
Since we arrived in China's capital 3 days ago, things have gone better and better. Eating with sticks is like riding the bicycle! No starvation anymore. We have also seen Forbidden city, Tienanmen square, Panjiayan dirt market and the Olympic village.
Who was it that told me that moving arround in Beijing is difficult for Europeans? Well, maybe it can be if you are using sign language with taxi drivers but who says you have to?
The metro here seams to be maybe the best one I have ever experienced ever!! (Watch out, Berlin!) Everything is in English (Incl: very loud stop announcements, big signs of stop names and logical maps!! ) It is easy for a VIP and makes it even easier for a foreigner! Best of all, the network is amazingly big. With one change you can reach almost any part of the city.
Another exploration notice is that there is a VIP's guideline (for cane) on every singe sidewalk!! I have never seen anything like that. Anywhere. Often small print menus are also not a problem since many restarurants have menus with pictures. Also thanks to that we are not starving here!
Beijing bottom2: Freezing hostel and mastercard-unfriendly ATMs.
Beijing top2: The Wall and suprisingly easy to get along with English.
We had just arrived in Irkutsk 1,5 weeks ago when we heard that our original Plan to visit Tibet had collapsed. Nice. Since that me and Olli have used too much computers trying to solve this and just one hour ago we got some kind of confirmation that it is going to work out after all. The departure is on Wednesday. Byeaaaah!
Timo
Ps. Despite the time above, this was written Feb 10th in Beijing. Posted from Nepal because the Great People’s Rep of China has not only banned FB but Blogspot also. Schade.
Photo1, Miracle
Photo2, Must se: Gate to th Forbiddn city
Photo3, We went swimming
Photo4, Just another strt view from Beijing
Photo5, a VIP=observation from Beijing West station. Can you see al the info?
Last but not least> Hot pot dinner. The fish swam in. Little wait. Then we ate it!
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