ANSWER: You learn a valuable lesson about overcrowding, unthinkable lines, and personal space.
We're nearing up the end of our national holiday vacation. More than near I should say as it's Sunday morning now.
As of lately, the weather in Beijing has been perfect fall weather so I really couldn't see the point in traveling around the country when there's still so many things I haven't seen in the vicinity. I've been eager to see Summer Palace(an old summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi), and the Great Wall (supposedly the only man made structure in the world that can be seen from space).
On Wednesday we headed out to Summer Palace using the transportation formula taxi - subway - bus - taxi. As we drove up and approached the entrance the shear amount of people literally made me gasp. Everyone from everywhere was here. At this point I was counting on the huge grounds the Summer Palace encompasses to swallow up some of these people so that I could actually feel like I could relax. Waiting in line to get through the gate made me nervous and uneasy, but we finally made our way in, or should I say we were finally pushed and pulled in. At some point I want to write a little about line culture here and how the sudden influx of people transitioning directly from cave life to city life has changed common mannerisms.
Summer palace is a gigantic park that includes a variety of palaces, a lake and a number of gardens. It was built in 1750, which doesn't make it that old for something in this region of the world. I have never seen so many people gathered in one place in my entire life. One of the bridges looked like a scene from the evacuation leading up to hurricane Katrina. The four of us (Luhan, myself, Angela and Mao) stuck around for a little while, rented a boat and explored by lake. This made it easier to escape the masses. All in all it's definitely a spot I want to return to, but never again on national holiday.
On Thursday, Luhan and I finally put together a little trip out to the Great Wall. There are a lot of points to visit the wall from Beijing. Some are more popular than others and given our experience from the day before, we opted for the less explored route. We made a plan to hike on the wall from one town(Jin Shan Ling) to the next (Simatai). At that point we'd stay over night, then head back to Beijing.
To get to Jin Shan Ling from Beijing we had to leave pretty early, take a bus to the last stop in Beijing, then hire a driver to take us the rest of the way. The total travel time is about 3 hours. Once we made it to the outskirts of Beijing we met a driver that was willing to take us the rest of the way. After negotiating a price we hopped into his tiny little beat up car that probably hadn't been inspected in years. Now, this is the first time I've been in a rural area of China and also the first time I've been on the highway outside the city. The type of driving behavior I witnessed still makes me cringe. First of all, these people apparently think that a two lane highway is actually 4 as they include both shoulders. On numerous occasions we passed people, and were passed by others on the shoulder. Secondly, if someone wants to pass someone else(keep in mind that this is all a two lane highway) but another car is coming at them it simply doesn't matter. The other person will either have to stop or pass by on the shoulder. It's like a racetrack and anything goes, but no one really seems to get angry.
Finally we made it in one piece and started our hike. We took cable cars to the top of the mountain to give a us a little head start. It was such a relief to find that the wall was not packed with people and that we could hike at will seeing people only now and again. It was a tough climb with some slopes as steep as climbing a ladder. The wall hasn't had many renovations in this area leaving the terrain to be worn down over the last 400 years. This stretch was a perfect day's hike and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an overnight trip to the wall.
At about five o'clock we made it to our destination, a little guest house beside the wall. We hung out there with this French guy named Frank, drank beer and watched the owner's anxious little boy kick around an empty coke can for hours.
We headed out in the morning, hit the racetrack and made it back to Beijing in one piece. You can check out my photos
here
