Yes, Beijing! Something that every tourist must visit in China. I got there on Friday evening and only had time until Sunday evening. 48 hours, go!
I started my Beijing experience with, as you can probably guess, The Great Wall! I decided to go to the part called Jinshanling, one of the most preserved sections of the wall with many original features.
Bus stations in China were one of the most confusing things to me, so I wasn’t surprised when I got to the bus station and couldn’t find the bus I needed. I met a few waiguoren (foreigners) and they seemed to be as lost as me. A Chinese guy who was trying to help us was also going to the wall, so we joined him. However, because of a few misunderstandings I found myself going to the different part of the wall. So instead of going to Jinshanling I ended up going to Mutianyu, which definitely wasn’t the worst option. It was too late to change something, but there were eight of us, all from the different places and everyone seemed like a good company so I was excited about the trip.
After a while in the bus we had to change, we jumped out in one of the bus stops and got a minivan. Instead of the actual seats it had a bench, and it looked absolutely ridiculous. But nobody seemed to care. Everyone was excited, because we were going to the wall!
When we finally got there, we were almost running up the hill. We spent a few hours wandering around and in some sections there were no people around. At some point I was sitting in a complete silence and I couldn’t believe how impressive it all was. Being there was almost like a dream. Even though that part of the wall was restored and wasn’t completely authentic, it was still great to stand there, look at this long snake on the mountains that humans built over 2,300 years ago. It made me think what legacy I was going to leave and if humans would ever build again something so impressive.
Our Team!
The minivan driver was trying to take a photo of us
I spent the rest of the weekend wandering around Beijing. It was really crowded and I spent a good amount of time getting to and from places, standing in the queues and thinking about the blue sky. It was an interesting city, but not the city where I would like to stay for a while. Some moments fro the trip (very touristy photos, I know!).
Crowded Forbidden City
Temple of Heaven
P.S. A few of my friends were in Beijing that weekend as well. Fun fact from the trip back to Nanjing: friends’ taxi driver fell asleep while driving on the motorway. They only noticed when the guy started snoring. Luckily he woke up on time… Oh China 🙂