On Thursday we did the trip to the Great Wall, leaving at 7.30am with 7 of us in a mini van - a family from Latvia and a Canadian, David who was a bit younger than us. We opted for the trip to Mutianyu which was 90km north of Beijing as not quite so many tourists go there, and especially with us leaving early. This part of the wall dates back to the Ming dynasty (1368)and was built along the foundations of the wall built during the Northern Qi dynasty - AD550-77. The wall itself was actually started in 221-207 BC and took over 1000 years to build and is 7000 miles long. Most of the wall is breaking away and has been restored in various parts for tourists. This section of the wall is noted for its guard towers and its hilly setting. We actually went by cable car to the wall and then spent 3 hours walking and climbing the wall. Dave was determined to see part of the old wall that had not been restored so he and David climbed out of a watch tower and walked about 2km on a section of the old part. We were due to meet our driver back at the car park at 12.30pm and we tobogganed a couple of kilometres down which was great fun. Included in our trip was lunch which the seven of us sat down to in a nice restaurant with a revolving table with various Chinese dishes plus beer - a fabulous lunch. Finally arrived back at the hostel at 4pm, rather pooped.
Friday we did another trip to Tian'anmen Square and visited Mao's Mausoleum and joined the queue to view his body, which is only open to the public in the mornings. Talk about security checks, even just going into the square you are security checked and when going to the mausoleum you have to deposit all bags, handbags etc. in a luggage storage place at a charge of $NZ3, only taking ones wallet and passports. Everyone is stripped searched before going in and you just file past. Chairman Mao certainly looks well preserved and is encased in a crystal case which is raised from a refrigerated chamber for viewing. From there we had planned to visit a special museum close by but it was closed as it is being reconstructed.
Friday night we went to see a Chinese Acrobatics performance which was super and we met up with Canadian, David there and after taking the Metro back had dinner together. That was an interesting experience when two staff members (either Pakastani or Indian) had an argument over some kebabs that had been cooked for some customers and the next thing one threw a teapot of hot tea at the other with Dave and I copping some of the tea and the teapot lid just missing my glasses and landing on our table! That was our third meal at that restaurant as they had a great menu and good prices but not again as we received no apology at all.
Saturday was Dave's birthday and we spent most of the day in Wangfujing Street browsing and also watching entertainment from a variety of artists performing in the street. A good part of the street is closed off to traffic.
Dave was determined that while in Beijing he was going to have a Peking (now sometimes called Beijing) duck dinner. Instead of going into the centre of Beijing for this meal we were recommended by one of the hostel staff a good restaurant just down the road from the hostel. The meal was superb and was considerably cheaper than right in the centre of the city. In Beijing Peking duck is served with very thin steamed pancakes, and thinly sliced cucumber and scallions with a special duck sauce along with the marinated duck. We had a whole duck between us which was sliced up into small slices and these you dip in the sauce and put on the pancake along with cucumber and scallions and then roll it up - delicious but quite difficult for us non Chinese to eat with chopsticks - it all seemed to fall apart!!
Sunday we went to the Summer Palace and walked around the grounds and viewed some of the many temples and palaces that abound in the grounds which covers an area of 290 hectares with Kunming Lake lying to the south. It originally served the Qing Dynasty as an imperial retreat from the stifling summer heat. The palace is most associated with Cixi who had it rebuilt twice, once following its destruction by French and English troops in 1860 and again in 1902 after it was plundered during the Boxer Rebellion. Cixi is remembered as one of China's most powerful women. Having borne the Xianfeng emperor's son as an imperial concubine , Cixi later seized power as regent to both the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors (her son and nephew respectively), Cixi prevented Guangxu from implementing state reforms and in her alliance with the Boxer Rebellion, paved the way for the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.
On the way back from there we stopped off at Wangfujing Street to purchase one or two things we had seen the day before before heading back to the hostel for our last night.
On Monday we took the Metro to Beijing South Station where we caught the 11.45am Bullet train from there to Tianjin - a distance of 120km. Another great trip, arriving there at 12.15pm with the top speed being 328kmh. Once at Tianjin Station it was a bit of a mission finding our way out to catch the shuttle bus to the airport. It took us an hour to find it as there was big reconstruction going on at the station as it is relatively new. Finally arrived at the airport only 2 hrs before our flight to Kuala Lumpur was due to depart. I had thought I had left plenty of time to get to the airport so was starting to panic as did not know how far from the station it was to the airport - a distance of 20km. Tianjin is China's fourth largest city. We boarded our Air Asia flight just before 3.30pm (due to leave at 4.50pm) but with the language problem did not understand what the problem was but the plane finally took off at 4.50pm - we think the smog was a bit thick but weren't sure. We finally arrived at KL LCCT airport at 10.45pm - 30 minutes late. We then did the ten minute walk to the Tune Hotel for the night which we had booked into. The bed there was bliss after the hard beds we have had to endure all over China.
Kuala Lumpur
Yesterday we caught the Air Asia bus into the city - a distance of 52km which took an hour and drops everyone off at the KL Sentral where all the commuter trains run from. From there we caught a light rail train to Chinatown and found reasonable and cheap accommodation within 10 minutes walk of the station. Wandered around Chinatown after we had settled in and also last night when we went for dinner. Today we caught two commuter trains to a couple of malls but did not have any success at finding what we were looking for.
On checking our emails yesterday afternoon we had one from Dave's sister, Barb in Australia telling us that Dave's mother is in hospital after having another fall and breaking her upper arm. As it is so high up they cannot put it in plaster and she is apparently in considerable pain with it so they have her on morphine which is also having various side affects.
Tomorrow night we fly out of KL LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) for the Gold Coast and will spend two nights with Barb and Mal before flying on to Auckland on Sunday from Brisbane, arriving at 5.30pm.