Day 2

Beijing 

Date - 4 May

Weather - Moderate, poor visibility, very smoggy

Accommodation - Beijing West International Trade Hotel

It was a busy and wonderful day of touring. The highlights were The Great Wall of China and the Night Markets.

We woke to very low visibility which continued all day and into the night. Mike, our tour leader, said that dust had come in from the nearby Gobi Desert. The air was so thick that the sun could not be seen. 

As we made our way onto one of the six major Beijing ring-roads (soon to be seven!) towards The Great Wall of China we overlooked cars bathed in hardened dust. We experienced peak hour traffic at eighty thirty where there were many late model cars but no trucks as they are banned in the city between 6am and 11pm. As we drove along we continued to see many trees, gardens and hundreds of rose bushes in full bloom. The vegetation is a complete contrast to the thousands of buildings housing the 22 million people who live in the 40,000 square kilometres which comprises Beijing city. 

It took us about an hour and a quarter to pass the many high rise apartments grouped together in condo-style to reach the countryside and made our way to the high mountains to the Juyong Pass of the Great Wall of China. There are 200 passes along the 4,000kms wall and Juyong Pass is considered one of the prettiest. There was much excitement in the bus as we could see The Great Wall of China along a mountain ridge through the smog. 

We were given two hours to experience the wall and many of our tour group chose the more challenging climb on the Great Wall in the West Mountain to reach higher views over the wall and the far mountains.  There was an ominous sign at the beginning of the climb which said, "If you have heart or brain disease, please climb The Great Wall according to your capability." 

The climb was not only very steep but comprised of steps that were very high so each step was in itself a challenge. Henk and I reached the third tower and we took many photos as we climbed. It took us 30 minutes to climb to the third tower and 15 minutes to descend. It was a tremendous experience visiting this UNESCO listed World Heritage Site. 

Our round-table lunch was only a fifteen minute drive from The Great Wall. The restaurant which seated 200 was above a cloisonné workshop and large store. We were given a briefing on the making of cloisonné and a tour of the workshop before having lunch. The work was very detailed and exquisite. 

We were given time after lunch to visit the store and many purchased from the range of cloisonné including bangles, pens, vases, beads and even Christmas decorations. However, some of us went outside to a small stall and with one of our fellow travellers assisted her in buying a warm jacket with a Panda hoodie. We had fun trying it on and it was a real hoot. We bargained from 200Y to 100Y ($20A). 

It took us about an hour to drive through the heavy traffic to return to the hotel at 3.00pm. We had a break until 4.30pm when were picked up for our nighttime tour and dinner. I received an email from my sister during this time which contained a photo of the Beijing weather forecast and it stated "Hazardous Air Quality". 

Our nighttime tour firstly consisted of visiting Shichahai which is located in the north west of the inner city. It is popular with young wealthy Chinese as the well-preserved old wooden buildings surrounding a large man-made lake house 24 hour bars and restaurants. 

It was very pleasant walking around the entire lake. From Shichahai we went to a restaurant for dinner and then onto the Night Markets and Pedestrian Mall. 

The market was very long and noisy with many stalls. It was amazing to visit and It is popular with both the locals and the tourists and it was extremely busy. 

There were also many stalls selling souvenirs and other Chinese artefacts. We all decided not to try the scorpions. They were still alive wriggling their legs whilst skewered onto sticks waiting to be deep fried. Nor did we want any starfish! 

Our return journey to the hotel which is located between the second and third ring-roads took us onto Beijing's most famous street, the Everlasting Peace Avenue which is five kilometres long. We passed government buildings, the Communist Headquarters and the Tiananmen Gate and once again had Mao Tse Tung looking down on us. 

During the day whilst travelling in the coach Mike, our tour guide, gave us good background information on a range of topics including education, family life, house and car ownership. The statistics on almost everything is impressive because of the size of the population. Beijing alone has 61 universities. 

Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing and later tomorrow we take our first of four domestic flights.