Beijing. Visit #2.

I just got back from an amazing trip.  I went to the Great Wall of China.

Crossing those Wonders of the World off the list!  I think that's actually only my first, but you have to start somewhere.

I went to Beijing last May with my mom and my brother, but we didn't have time to make it to the Great Wall.  We spent a couple days on the mainland and saw the Terracotta Army and the Forbidden City. Very quick.  On this visit, I spent some more quality time in Beijing.

Here are my notes from the trip:

So we decided to take a trip to the Great Wall of China.

Some of you may know it as the Alright Wall of China if you're familiar with Karl Pilkington.  If you aren't, you should be.  He's super funny.  Idiot abroad.  Hulu it.

We know it as the trip our friends didn't get to come on because zuji.com messed up our friends' booking and Hong Kong Airlines refused to allow them to rebook.  Our trip started out ok.  We got two taxis to the ferry, made it on the ferry even though the ferry was INSANE. Everyday in HK/Macau  life is a public holiday and today was no exception. There were literally hundreds of people queuing at the terminal. We made it to Central, got taxis to the Airport Express.

And then our luck ran out.

Sally and Laura accidentally booked student tickets and the jerk at the Hong Kong Airlines counter refused to let them rebook their flights. So now Rachael, Erin, and I are two men down. We'll still have fun, but man is that a bummer!

Also there is a screaming baby on this airplane acting as birth control two rows back.

And our flight is delayed two hours.

Nothing in China is easy. Ever.

After arriving at the hostel super late, we get settled in. Rachael and I drug ourselves and we all settle in to sleep.  It is now like 3am. We are awoken about an hour later as Yoda the caretaker attempts to settle a newly arrived backpacker into our now half empty room.  That did not go over well. I managed a defeated sigh and covered my head.  Rach and Erin managed barely comprehensible low rumbling roars before the backpacker and Yoda muttered apologies and retreated. It truly must have been terrifying for all involved because if it sounded to me like a zombiepocalypse, I can only imagine what it sounded like to them.

We didn't get out of bed until ten on Tuesday and decided to plan.  We planned, then decided to fit everything humanly possible into our day.  We started out sweating at the Forbidden City with thousands of other people and making our way through that rather quickly. Too many people and too damn hot.  Then we ventured to the silk store for a little shopping. Success!  After that, we decided to gamble and make our way across Beijing to the Summer Palace.  So so so worth it. Loved it. Still lots of people, but plenty of shade and very beautiful surroundings.  A must for anyone who finds themselves with a modicum of time in Beijing.  Much more worth the effort than the Forbidden City.

We now decide to venture by taxi back across the city of Beijing around 645pm.  Thinking traffic must have dissipated at least a little by now. How wrong we were.  We spend two hours in this poor man's taxi in bumper to bumper traffic.  We drove by the entire city, including the 2008 Olympic stadiums, but to his credit, the driver never stopped the taxi and told us to get out like I kept thinking he would do. He was much more pleasant than I would have been in that situation.  We finally made it to the arts district, which was lovely!, and had dinner. After trying for hours and hours to find an ATM that would accept our BNU cards, we found a Bank of China that accepted our cards and we were flush again.  Sadly, the night market had closed 20 minutes prior to our locating it. So Rach and I instead purchased a painting from a very friendly future Chinese Picasso who was only to happy to sucker a couple gweilos into purchasing a painting. Exhausted, we returned to the hostel to have a beer and a shower before going to bed for our 5am wake up call for our trip to the Great Wall.

Hah.

We sit down to have our beer and a friendly American, who has just been in HK for the Dragon Boat races, comes over and asks us to play a game.  We warily agree because it has been a LONG day, and are joined by two Germans and a Chinese girl.  The game is similar to a Western style Clue and is slow to start, but once we all get involved, it's 3 hours later, we're getting kicked out of the hostel common room, and we have succeeded in getting the Germans and the American drunk.  An excellent time was had by all. I suppose this is why people stay in hostels. Maybe worth it. Maybe.

Today we were up at 530am, dressed, and in our cab by 6.  After turning around briefly for some idiot who forgot their camera (me!), we were on our way to the Great Wall.  And while the pollution wasn't the best it has been while we were here, it was ok and not too hot and the wall is deserted at 730am.  Amazing. We climbed and climbed and took an obscene amount of ridiculous pictures. Totally worth all the stress involved. So glad I came.

We followed that up with Tiannanmen Square and now it is time for Erin and I to take our train out to Shanghai and Rachael to head back to Macau. Kinda ready to get back home and start moving, but the adventure continues!