Things to do and see in China…if you get the chance to visit.
I’ve been pouring over the past four months of images that I’ve captured since I returned to China for Year: 2 trying to decide just how I plan to present all of this information to you. The fact that I am writing this post may give you hope that I’ve figured out a solution to that problem but that’s a false hope. Sorry, there has just been so much that has taken place since then that I have yet to decide how best to bundle the images and the stories together. I did manage to think of one way to talk about what’s going on over here; and that is to mention briefly what you could do if you find you have the time to pop on over for a visit. Which leads us to talk about September.
The month of September is quiet a great time to visit. The weather begins to cool and the mid-autumn festival takes place toward the end of the month. In September I found myself in Beijing visiting Tian’an men square, the Forbidden City, Wangfujing Lu, and two sections of the Great Wall; Gubeikou, and JinShanLing. The visit was brief but abundant in experience and imagery.
Tian’an Men Square and the Forbidden City may be the most known destinations in that short list. At the center of Beijing Tian’an Men, with it’s famously large portrait of Chairman Mao, marks the entrance to the Forbidden City, presently known as the Palace Museum or Gugong [in Chinese pin yin]. The palace is marvelously large and does take some time to walk the length from the front entrance to the rear. Wikipedia [en] reports its land coverage to be 720,000 square meters or 7,800,000 square feet. I’m sorry but I’m no home owner so is that a lot by comparison?
Wangfujing lu, aside from being a famous shopping section of the city, plays host to the night market and snack stands made famous by their eclectic delicacies. It’s nickname: Snack Street. There you can taste everything from the mild; candy coated fruit slices on a skewer, to the wild; sheep’s penis, also on a skewer. Most of the cuisine is bar-b-qued but some require steam baskets and others fry in a wok. There are over a hundred vendors offering a variety of snacks but after a few stands the foods offered begins to repeat. Included in the list of choice snacks in no particular order [and by no means complete]: candy coated fruit, centipede, starfish, scorpion, beetle, seahorse, toad, lizard, crab, oyster, crayfish, squid, and yes sheep penis. The prices are a bit on the steep side which may be expected since it is in such a highly trafficked tourist area of the city. A skewer of food cost somewhere between 6 and 10 RMB per depending on your selection. By comparison in Jiujiang you can get two skewers of a similar BBQ squid snack for 1RMB.
Lastly, if you visit China most will wonder when or if you went to the Great Wall. The Great Wall is divided into regions or sections each uniquely named. The most famous to tourists and closest to Beijing is Badaling. Rather than see the most heavily toured section of the wall, you can take a slightly longer bus ride to Gubeikou to see a much more authentic and seemingly isolated section of the wall. It’s about 128km (80 miles) outside of Beijing.
Trekking this section of the wall is not, repeat NOT, for the sedentary tourist nor is it even for the moderate outdoors man. That said, if you enjoy backpacking, mountains, back country hiking, and you like the challenge of hiking dangerous to extremely dangerous trails then this is definitely the section of the wall you want to see. To put it another way; you will not walk this section of the wall in loafers. You’ll need hiking shoes or boots and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring a day pack along with water and snacks. The wall itself has been left to deteriorate over time so you will not see the poster-perfect restoration that has taken place on other parts of the wall. It does offer you an unparalleled view into the history of China and the natural erosion of the human footprint on the natural landscape. It is truly a beautiful sight to behold.
When you arrive you can house yourself with one of the local village families. Many have a small number of available rooms to rent and they will usually provide an excellent evening meal of local fare. The hike from the base of the mountain to the summit will take the greater part of a day so eat well, sleep well, and get at least a mid-morning start if you want to enjoy the view and return before dusk. Spend two days there and on the second day take a short van ride to JinShanLing where some remarkable restoration to the wall has taken place. This section of the wall does see more tourists and thus offers a much more accessible visit to the wall. You still hike and you still climb but if you are a little weak at the knee or only wore tennis shoes you can still enjoy walking a long section of this part of the wall without worry. There is even a gondola that can transport you from the parking lot to the wall for the price of a ticket, which in September 2008 was 50RMB. The ticket to visit the wall was also 50RMB. Make no mistake however, there are some parts of this wall section of wall that would still rate extremely dangerous on a trail guide.
Well so that’s it for today. New photo albums are online to compliment this post and put a wrap on September, show you the Great Wall, and get a brief look at Beijing. Next, I’ll work on…that’s right, you guessed it…October, November, and December. Eventually I’ll be posting a 2008 Year in Review.
If you’d like to comment on this or other posts please do. If you have questions please ask. If you are curious about other parts of China that I haven’t mentioned but may have seen let me know. I’d be glad to share what I’ve come upon.
