October 17 - Great Wall of China

Headed out at 6am to catch the bus to the Great Wall of China. Took a while to find the hidden bus station since it is about 20minutes brisk walk from the main one at DongZhiMen station. Bus 867 is supposed to go all the way to Mutianyu but the driver says it ends at Hongluosi town. Time for some googling to find out the truth. I've heard of scams where they try to get u out of the bus early so that u have to take taxi or private cars with marked out rates.

Met a couple of Spanish tourists along the way who had some language issues with the bus driver as they did not know how much to pay. Really thankful to be able to speak fluent Mandarin, even though the Singaporean accent is different from the Beijing accent.

Going to the Great Wall of China isn't that easy. You can take either bus 867 to HongLuoSi Town Central or take bus 916E to HuaiRouBeiDaJie. Upon alighting from the bus, look for a private driver to send you to Mutianyu. It'll be easier if you negotiate and ask the driver to pick you up three hours later. Only pay after your entire two way trip is complete. 

There is a cable car that goes up to tower #14 but I chose to take the shuttle bus to the chairlift station and take a chairlift up to tower #6. The chairlift takes about 15 minutes and you will be sitting in a shaky and swinging chairlift as you hold onto your dear life. For someone like me who is scared of heights, I could barely turn my head and look behind me, which was a vast and steep downhill. Upon reaching the upper station, I had to quickly stand up and run away from the chairlift as it will not stop at all! 

The walk along the great Wall of China is a steep one. Only time it was tiring when at certain parts, the steps were about 40cm tall each. Only the steepest portions have handrails, so visitors have to be careful. To be honest, I was bored of the place after 45 minutes  of hiking from tower #6 to tower #8. The wall is endless and the towers all look similar inside and out, with some being grander than others. However, it was a beautiful day; the sky was cloudless and blue and the air fresh. 

After two hours of walking back and forth from tower #6 to #8, then to #5 and back to #6, I decided it was time to head down and I went to queue for my toboggan ride. I have no idea how the scaredly cat inside me chose the toboggan ride, but the chairlift going downhill seemed even scarier as it went down at a steep 60deg incline with the rider looking at the steep drop in front! The queue for the toboggan took about half hour and soon it was my turn. I was queued behind two Chinese girls and they were obviously rather scared and went as slow as it was allowed, causing me to only go at their pace as there was no such thing as overtaking in this single lane slide. A usual ride takes about 4 minutes but mine took 5.5! After reaching the bottom and taking the shuttle back to the main entrance, I was seriously tempted by the souvenirs and ended up buying something that I had considered earlier when I was visiting River Safari in Singapore. A giant Panda clawed glove! Yay! Cheaper than Singapore too! 

As my driver was no where to be seen, even after waiting for fifteen minutes, I approached a random driver and he agreed to drive me to HuaiRouBeiDaJie for me to take bus 916E to DongZhiMen Bus Station. Being the only passenger in his car, it was a good chance to chat with him. I really enjoyed conversing with him in Mandarin and he was telling me how today's weather was exceptionally good as the past few days was cold and miserable. And there was a marathon yesterday, which made me glad I chose to visit mutianyu today! (plus I had wanted to go to Palace Museum today initially instead of yesterday, before finding out that it is closed every Monday) 

Upon reaching HuaiRouBeiDaJie, I paid and tipped my driver and decided to stroll around for half an hour along the streets before catching bus 916E. The ride back took 1.5hours, half the time taken by bus 867 since 916E goes by the expressway. Upon reaching DongZhiMen, I walked over to Hua's Restaurant but found out that they only open for dinner service at 5pm and it was 4:30pm then. Decided to walk back to my hostel and on the way, I passed by a Taiwanese snack store that sold milk tea (!!!) and stuffed Belgium waffles. Bought a cup of milk tea and chatted with the girl that manned the store too. She was really friendly and I told her I come back to try her waffles if I could.

After resting in my room for an hour, and to charge my phone/camera, I was out again and back at GuiJie to have my Peking duck in Hua's Restaurant. The service was decent and the duck was carved right before me. Ordered not just the duck but also Mapo Tofu and a sour plum drink. Felt a little out of place as I was in a t-shirt and hiking pants while everyone else was in groups and dressed smartly. The portions were really big and by the time I finished everything, I have no desire to eat duck in my life again. Interestingly, in the middle of my meal, a girl walked in alone and also ordered a Peking duck for herself. However the waiter mixed up her orders and her duck was sent to and carved at the wrong table, causing her to have to wait very long for another duck to be sent to her! 

After dinner, I decided to walk back to my hostel, even though it is about 3km away, to better digest my food. I decided to head to the earlier visited Taiwanese snack store and bought two Belgium waffles for breakfast, from that girl who recognized me. It's really nice to be able to speak Mandarin while in Beijing. The service you'll get is different! 

It's been a pretty long day today and tomorrow is a day filled with travelling as I will be flying from Beijing to Huangshan in the evening. I'm going to miss Beijing. It felt rather homely to be here, perhaps with its extensive subway and myriad of shops and stalls.