OK, before anything else I want to say a BIG
apology for doing squat diddly on here for absolutely ages. I’ve been suuuuper
busy recently (work, learning to play the guitar, painting my nails – the usj)
and before that just plain lazy. It’s been summer in Dàlián for the past few months
now and all that beautiful weather has made me actually leave my flat and spend
time away from a computer meaning this blog has suffered!
But anyway, onto the main event: China with two of
my bezzies! So way back in June, two of my friends came all the way over to the
Middle Kingdom to visit little old me! (I’m still SO grateful and happy that
you did!) I’d say there were three phases of our time together – which was only
just over a week unfortunately:
1) Běijīng
2) Dāndōng
3) Dàlián
I’ll begin with number one! So, I left Dàlián
Běijīng-bound on an overnight train – I treated myself to a soft sleeper and
boy was it luxurious! After briefly negotiating the Běijīng tube at about 6am
in the morning I arrived at the Happy Dragon Hostel (second stay here –
DEFINITELY recommend) and was reunited with my friends. It’d only been about
four months since we last saw each other but that was four months too long! We
only had a few days in Běijīng so began our first day with a mosey around enjoying
the fairly nice weather and of course, trying all the food we could get our
hands on. One of those dishes being the famous Peking Duck. My verdict: pretty good eatin', but I don't see what all the hype was about. Our first night was an attempt at a night out but as it was the World
Cup, it was veryyyy quiet. The major highlight of the night though was popping
the girls’ tuk tuk cherry with a particularly mad one. On Day 2 our goal was to
visit the Silk Market and bag us some bargains – which we DID! And the haggling
was as addictive then as my first trip here last year.
Then our final day in Běijīng was Great Wall day. Luckily, it was the perfect weather for it with blue skies and lots of sun. So last time I was in Běijīng, my brother and I visited the Jīnshānlĭng section of the wall - this time, we headed for Jiànkòu and planned to walk from here onto the more popular Mùtiányù part. Similarly to last time, because we’d chosen a not-so-touristy area of the wall, we took a bus from Běijīng to a smaller town and then hired a car to take us to the Jiànkòu entrance. Spot of bother trying to get a driver to take us at a reasonable price, but we were able to haggle him down some. After paying the 30 kuai (I think) entrance fee, we began our trek up to the wall. We weren’t really sure where we were heading but followed what we assumed were the correct roads. After a while we started coming across signs forbidding tourists from venturing onto the wall, so we knew we were heading in the right direction! I don’t really know why these signs were there because after a mini (quite treacherous) jungle trek up to the wall, there was a man waiting to charge us for using his ladder to climb onto it (another 20 kuai) - so tourists were definitely welcome! Once we’d made it to the top, the view we were awarded was stunning! Not that I expected anything less. One thing we did notice though, was that if you looked in the Běijīng direction, even though we were a fair distance from the city we could see all the smog and pollution. But luckily this didn’t impact our visit!
Then our final day in Běijīng was Great Wall day. Luckily, it was the perfect weather for it with blue skies and lots of sun. So last time I was in Běijīng, my brother and I visited the Jīnshānlĭng section of the wall - this time, we headed for Jiànkòu and planned to walk from here onto the more popular Mùtiányù part. Similarly to last time, because we’d chosen a not-so-touristy area of the wall, we took a bus from Běijīng to a smaller town and then hired a car to take us to the Jiànkòu entrance. Spot of bother trying to get a driver to take us at a reasonable price, but we were able to haggle him down some. After paying the 30 kuai (I think) entrance fee, we began our trek up to the wall. We weren’t really sure where we were heading but followed what we assumed were the correct roads. After a while we started coming across signs forbidding tourists from venturing onto the wall, so we knew we were heading in the right direction! I don’t really know why these signs were there because after a mini (quite treacherous) jungle trek up to the wall, there was a man waiting to charge us for using his ladder to climb onto it (another 20 kuai) - so tourists were definitely welcome! Once we’d made it to the top, the view we were awarded was stunning! Not that I expected anything less. One thing we did notice though, was that if you looked in the Běijīng direction, even though we were a fair distance from the city we could see all the smog and pollution. But luckily this didn’t impact our visit!
The walk along the Jiànkòu part itself was quite the
trek! Took us a few hours (I really don’t remember exactly how long sorry!) and
this was a proper over-grown area of the wall. The photos just don’t do it
justice! The majority of the walk was just a bit crumbly and you had to choose
your steps carefully, but one particular area was basically a vertical drop
down on very slippery stones. Not a walk to do in rainy weather for sure. And
maybe this had something to do with the total lack of people again! While
walking the Jiànkòu section, we only saw 2 other groups of tourists. It was clear
when we reached the Mùtiányù section of the wall as this part had been quite
extensively reconstructed for visitors, and there were plenty of these about! After reaching the end of the Mùtiányù part and being
short on time, we decided to get the cable car down
to the bottom which wasn’t as expensive as you’d expect: one-way
journey for an adult was around the equivalent of a fiver I believe. This was definitely one of my favourite days of the trip; brilliant weather, beautiful views and great company - smashing.
A few photos to have a gander at:
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| REUNITED! And on a crazy tuk tuk ride |
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| Taking a break from bargain-hunting at the Silk Market |
 |
| And we did just that! |
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| B-E-A-Utiful |
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| The wild |
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| The veryyyyy steep part - had to keep a firm grip onto the wall to get down safely |
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| View from the steep part |
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| Now entering Mùtiányù |
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| More wall |
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| The last leg of the wall - with the end in sight! |
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| Couldn't be more Chinese if we tried |
So after our long Great Wall day, we boarded an
overnight train to my home town! I’d told the girls
that a Chinese train is definitely something they should try while here and
they were all too happy to give it a go! And it really wasn’t that bad at all - about 12 hours in total. Having done many a long train journey here on my own, I can say it is MUCH
better with company.
I’ll just leave you with this AMAZING song which became
the theme song to our Great Wall journey, and due to the lack of people we were able to belt it out as loud as we wanted:
That’s
all for now folks!
xoxo
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