China Trip Day 6 The great wall |

20 July 2009

After breaky we drove about 70Km west of Beijing to a section of the great wall. As with most of the tourist attractions we had been near, it was full of people, mostly Chinese who had come to see one of their national icons. It was great to get out of Beijing and away form the constant ceiling that hangs low in the sky there. From the vantage point of the great wall I could see why there is a constant haze over Beijing, Beijing is inland so no sea breeze, it is also built in a ditch surrounded by mountains which certainly doesn’t help with air flow.

Enjoying the blue sky at the mighty wall

That should keep the rabbits out

The great wall was well great, we went up a fair way until we were stopped by the sheer density of people. I stopped long enough to get asked to be in half a dozen photos with the locals. Why you would want to trek to the top of the great wall to have you photo taken with a yob from Australia was beyond me, but I was happy to oblige. Peichen caught up at about this point and we decided to head back down, as it would have taken us into the following week to get through all those people. Peichen also let me know that Tiff and Song who are a bit smarter than us boys had started heading for the coffee shop some time previously.

One World

Mates at the Wall

We met back up with the girls who were enjoying the most expensive cup of coffee in the universe and decided to head back into Beijing, giving the summer palace a miss due to all the crowds. Instead we made for the silk markets where you could purchase imitation brand name clothes. This place was a worry as it is frequented by foreigners so most of the stall holders can speak a small amount of a wide variety of foreign languages. We were set upon by the stallholders as soon as we arrived, handsome boy, pretty girl would you like to buy (insert whatever they were selling). This place was like the other shopping centers in that each level contained a different type of product one level was shirts, shorts and other clothing, another level contained wallets and handbags and yet another with leather goods.

Playing at the silk markets

The prices we were initially quoted were ridiculously over priced and Peichen and Song took it upon themselves to bargain everything down, Song actually seemed to be enjoying herself. We eventually left the market after collecting a few bits and pieces.

We went to a Korean BBQ for dinner, this place was awesome like many of the restaurants there was a large cooker in the middle of the table only this one was designed to hold a round container full of heat beads. The heat beads were brought out already flaming and placed into the well in the center , an upside down concave dish was placed over the top of it and you were able to fry up your catch.

Song and Peichen ordered two dishes that contained dog meat one was a dish with a sauce this was a little strong flavored for my taste, the other was a dog meat soup, Tiff said she enjoyed this one and although I tried it, I am not sure weather it was the flavor or the concept of eating K9, I wasn’t really that keen. Though I have threatened our Maltese spike with this fate since then, especially if he keeps barking at nights.

The rest of the dishes were superb and this restaurant was the closest thing we had had to a normal meal since we had been in china (apart from eating the garnish at the wedding, it was broccoli). Tiff and I made our way back to Song and Peichen’s unit while Song and Peichen headed out to catch up with other people who were there for the ceremony.