Today began with an early start; 6am as we had to be ready for the drive to the Great Wall. Our guide who had picked us up last night had mentioned that traffic might be ‘extreme’ if we waited for tomorrow as that would be the 8th and final day of the Chinese celebrations, and, even going today we might take 1-4 hours to get there. Beijing traffic is ..... chaotic. You don’t simply give way to your right, or left, you move into or pull out whenever there is any space and the horn is there to simply register the fact that you have done so. As such, I don’t know how many near misses we had today. When you are driving a) in the wrong lane, b) heading directly towards a truck and c) trying to then turn behind the truck, things get slightly interesting. We did make it to the Wall without a single scratch on the car which shows that miracles do exist in the world. Now, the section of the Wall that we got to experience has 2 different cable cars up the side of the hill for you to take. You are able to walk from the car park, past the hundreds of screaming (well, enthusiastically persuading) at you to buy their items. The cable car was efficient and quick and deposited us at the Wall fairly quickly. We then had two main options available for us; left, towards Tower 20 or right towards Tower 1. Left meant walking up a slope, but the view would probably be better. Right, and you were going slightly downhill, but of course would then have to walk back up. We chose the left option. Now, the Great Wall is exactly that, great, but what it is not is flat or smooth. There were constant rises and falls, with steps ranging from 3cm to 40cm, and over. Some of these slopes were particularly steep, so the soldiers manning this place must have been extremely fit. Todd and John made it along a fair bit of the walk to Tower 20, with John getting to the hill towards it. Ben and myself pushed on up the steep slope. The steps to get up into Tower 20 was almost a ladder. The view was fantastic, grey mist over the cedar and poplar trees and the Great Wall disappearing off into it. Once off the Wall we were driven to a jade factory, apparently the largest in Beijing. Why? I’m not sure, perhaps commission. We had a talk from a representative informing us about the cultural, historical and geological aspects of jade and then, of course, were shown into a massive showroom of jade. It was huge. There was also some pressure to buy ‘something’ as well; we were even shown the discount section as we walked in. Everybody did buy something, myself included, but I got the feeling that they were a little disappointed that we hadn’t spent more. To top it off, when I was looking at a jade flower, which was quite awesome, I mentioned that it was almost as good as the jade cabbage that I had seen before. Oops. That piece is now in the museum over in Taiwan, one of many artifacts that Chiang Kai Shek had ‘appropriated’ when he fled the country. The jade rep mentioned that she had seen pictures of the piece and seemed a bit put out that I had even mentioned a piece that should be back in mainland China. We left the shop at this point.
Lily (our guide) then stated that to avoid another early start tomorrow that we should visit the Summer Palace and this meant another crazy drive through the smog ridden streets of Beijing. The Summer Palace was set up by the last dowager Empress as she was not fond of the Forbidden City and wanted something more scenic. As such, she ‘adjusted’ another huge Palace for the Chinese Imperial family; at great cost to the nation. The results, however can be described as majestic and ostentatious. While the Summer Palace is certainly more scenic than the Forbidden City, with a lot more greenery, a lake and a much more scenic setup. She did however change several structures within the Palace. As she was very fond of Chinese Opera, and loved to perform herself, she ordered a huge opera stage and building created for herself. The structure of the Palace also incorporated rooms (buildings) set aside for the emperor where she could monitor/control him. The results of the Palace are, however, impressive. It is also immense!
From here it was time to go back to the hotel for the night, but Lily asked what we were doing for dinner, and also that because Todd was so exhausted after today, whether we would like to have her organise a Chinese massage for us tomorrow night? She highly recommended a local chain of restaurants that serve, in her opinion, the best Peking Duck in Beijing. Naturally, she had a loyalty card which she handed over for us to use. After a shower we headed of, following the concierge’s advice (in not much English) of, “Leave hotel, turn left.” Ooookay. We did this, walking up the street until it ended at a T junction of a VERY busy road. Not looking so good. Maybe we had missed it? Walk back to the hotel and check. No. Maybe it was on the other side of the road. No. Hmm. Maybe it was up some side street, only the only one was a small alleyway. Ok, there are 4 of us, we can manage this. Still no luck, with Todd trying to open a door to see if there was anything upstairs and suddenly being confronted by a security guard looking none too happy. We tried explaining to him about the restaurant, even showing him the loyalty card we had been give however the writing (all in kanji) was too small. Ben grabbed his phone, took a photo of the card and enlarged the text. The guard smiled and pointed us to the other side of the alley where there was a door with the title (again in kanji) of the restaurant. Awesome! We walked in and it was that classic western saloon clip where everyone stops what they are doing and looks at the strangers who have just walked into town. We explained, by way of sign language (holding up 4 fingers) that we wanted a table for 4 people. Ok. We then handed over a note from Lily that she had written in Cantonese that stated, “no seafood, no organs”. Again, ok. Luckily, the menu had pictures, and while the duck was pretty obvious, some of the others weren’t. A picture of steamed buns showed 3 in the picture. I held up 2 fingers indicating 2 serves and that’s what we got; 2 steamed buns. No rice was served with dinner however, the duck was done well, with pancakes and sliced spring onion and cucumber, as well as dipping sauce provided. The skin was also served on a separate plate, however when the chef presented the skin he reached into his pocket and pulled out a sachet of popping candy, which was sprinkled liberally over the duck skin. Interesting.... The last dish was some form of Kung Pao chicken, which despite the prevalence of chillies, really wasn’t hot. All of the drinks were served in carafes, and despite ours looking like Brussel Sprout juice, was really Lemon/Orange/Lime juice, with mini limes on the surface. Excellent dinner. The cost? With the discount card it came to $75AU. Not a bad end of our first day in Beijing.