Every November Dulwich has two teacher training days which are a great time to head off around China as not many others are on holiday. Last year we headed to Xian and this year we decided to go to Beijing and the Great Wall.
We set off on the Wednesday night on the overnight train, William and Oliver's preferred method of travel. On arrival in Beijing early on the Thursday morning, we grabbed breakfast at the station and found our taxi to take us out to the Wall. It was a lovely drive out through the countryside to our hotel which was an old ceramics factory that has been converted in to an eco resort.
While checking in we rifled through our cases for extra layers as it was a lot colder in Beijing than Shanghai. Our room was lovely and even boasted a view of the Great Wall.
After getting sorted we headed straight to the cable car to go up the Wall. We bought a picnic lunch from the handily placed Subway right by the cable car! It was an impressive journey to the top and when we got there the views were fantastic.
Luckily for us, Beijing was hosting the APEC and was expecting Obama to fly in later in the week. Therefore all local factories and producers of Beijing's pollution had been turned off! This meant that we had clear blue sky and lovely clean air. In fact it was so clean that one day it registered -1!
The benefit of heading to the Wall on a Thursday was immediately clear by the lack of crowds. Some sections were solely ours.
After hiking halfway to our destination we stopped for a picnic lunch and bumped in to some friends from Shanghai!
We then trekked on, eventually reaching the point of descent. There was a choice of chairlift or toboggan run, unsurprisingly the boys opted for the toboggan. Sam and I were rather pleased as it was much more fun than a chair lift.
The following morning we had a walk around the small village where we were staying before heading back in to Beijing.
We set off on the Wednesday night on the overnight train, William and Oliver's preferred method of travel. On arrival in Beijing early on the Thursday morning, we grabbed breakfast at the station and found our taxi to take us out to the Wall. It was a lovely drive out through the countryside to our hotel which was an old ceramics factory that has been converted in to an eco resort.
While checking in we rifled through our cases for extra layers as it was a lot colder in Beijing than Shanghai. Our room was lovely and even boasted a view of the Great Wall.
After getting sorted we headed straight to the cable car to go up the Wall. We bought a picnic lunch from the handily placed Subway right by the cable car! It was an impressive journey to the top and when we got there the views were fantastic.
Luckily for us, Beijing was hosting the APEC and was expecting Obama to fly in later in the week. Therefore all local factories and producers of Beijing's pollution had been turned off! This meant that we had clear blue sky and lovely clean air. In fact it was so clean that one day it registered -1!
The benefit of heading to the Wall on a Thursday was immediately clear by the lack of crowds. Some sections were solely ours.
After hiking halfway to our destination we stopped for a picnic lunch and bumped in to some friends from Shanghai!
We then trekked on, eventually reaching the point of descent. There was a choice of chairlift or toboggan run, unsurprisingly the boys opted for the toboggan. Sam and I were rather pleased as it was much more fun than a chair lift.
The following morning we had a walk around the small village where we were staying before heading back in to Beijing.
Upon arrival at our hotel in Beijing we had to go through a body and bag scan as we had inadvertently booked ourselves in to an APEC hotel. It was in a great location right by a metro line and shopping centre. We had lunch then jumped on the metro to Tianenmen Square.
Tianenmen Square was enormous and quite imposing. There was nothing picturesque about it and you could really feel the hand of government with security everywhere. To actually get in to the square we had to queue up to be scanned although when we actually got to the front of the queue we were waved through! Everyone with a cigarette lighter had it confiscated and binned, however most people on the square still managed to be smoking and we even saw a woman selling lighters! The sheer vastness of the square meant that we didn't fancy walking round it so we had a look and then headed over the road to the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was a complete contrast to the wall the day before in terms of numbers of people. On an ordinary Friday afternoon the sheer number of visitors was staggering. At one point the queue for tickets looked so horrendous that Sam and I debated whether it was worth going in. We were swiftly rebuked by our sons who told us that of course we had to go in!
Once we were in the queue it moved pretty quickly and we were in. Once again the sheer scale of the place was breathtaking. The Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world. It was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.
William and Oliver were quite taken with the place and insisted on being our tour guides, making up stories about the Emperors and parts of the building. This meant that a walk through quite a repetitive and austere complex became quite entertaining.
After walking through the whole of the city we headed in to a park the otherside and climbed the hill to the pagoda on top. The view down in to the city was very impressive and gave a good idea of the scale of the place. We then took a quick tour through the Hutongs or old lanes on a rickshaw, before heading back to the metro station and our hotel.
We were all pretty exhausted after all the walking and after a sandwich and a bowl of soup we were all in bed by 9pm!
We were all pretty exhausted after all the walking and after a sandwich and a bowl of soup we were all in bed by 9pm!
The following day we had a lazy morning making use of the hotel swimming pool. Oliver and William took much delight in jumping in the icy plunge pool followed by the jacuzzi! We then headed to Da Dong, Beijing's famous crispy duck restaurant. Having had crispy duck in Shanghai at a chain from Beijing we were not sure that it would be very different. However, the meal exceeded all of our expectations and was the best duck we have ever eaten.
We were all quite taken with the dessert of fresh dates which arrived in a bowl of dry ice!
The following day we headed back to the station and this time got the fast train back to Shanghai. It was amazing that for nearly the whole duration of the five hour journey the countryside was shrouded in a haze of pollution. Thankfully, although still by no means perfect, the air around Shanghai was noticeably better.
The following day we headed back to the station and this time got the fast train back to Shanghai. It was amazing that for nearly the whole duration of the five hour journey the countryside was shrouded in a haze of pollution. Thankfully, although still by no means perfect, the air around Shanghai was noticeably better.
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