Landed in Beijing early morning and had to catch the connecting flight in the evening. I thought it would be a shame to spend the time in the airport, which by the way was as grand as any other airport. The immigration and customs was easy to clear and found something interesting in the immigration officers desk. It is a polling machine to be used by us, it has buttons to say whether the service given by the officer is good, bad and ugly sort of a thing. What we vote cannot be seen by the officer and all the votes during the shift are added and play a role in their performance appraisal. You would think the experience with the officers in a communist country such as China would be difficult, and it is far from it. In addition to this voting gadget, they also have a thermal scanner to check the body temperatures of the passengers, it glows green or red based on your temperature and it helps to sort out passengers in crisis such as SARs.
I had communicated with a driver via eMail and he was to pick me up in the airport and drive me around for the whole day. I did not pay him any advance deposit for the service, so was not sure whether he will show up. I had a plan on using public transit as well just in case, but Xin was right there.
The first stop was Tiananmen Square. Many of us have watched the protests in TV and the bloody result in this square. Today it was quiet, and seems to truly represent its meaning, gate of heavenly peace. I saw a number of cops and the tourists started pouring in and could very well imagine how crowded it would be later in the day. From the square, passed the Tiananmen gates and proceeded to the Forbidden City.
The forbidden city is a vast complex and could take a day on its own. It was the palace of the Ming emperors. It has a number of halls inside, each for a specific purpose, prayer, reading etc. The palace also has a manmade canal inside the complex as well as imperial gardens. As you would expect there are happy and sad stories of marriages and suicides inside the complex and the tour guides could make it dramatic. The hill on the Northern exit has a wonderful view of the Forbidden City. Unfortunately the thick fog would not let the camera see that beauty.
The next stop was great wall. The wall is long enough to be seen from few areas north of Beijing. Each one seem to have their value, I went to the Mutianyu section as it is less commercial and the wall in this section stretches without any break. It took about an hour to reach the base of the wall and then a cable car whisked away to the spot from where the great wall could be experienced. The wall seem to go way high into the mountains and one can walk as long as they wish. I was told that it is quite possible to walk up and then camp overnight. As I climb down, started to think the amount of hard work that must have gone into building this wall as it is located out of now where, right inside a mountain and then started appreciating the experience even more.
I was there in early December and it was quite cold, the terrain was barren, saw snow on the cliffs and would like to think that late fall when the cherry blossoms around the wall must be a great a time to vist, something to remember while planning another trip.
Soundtrack
Dance of the Yi Tribe in traditional Chinese music
Wang Huiran
Played by Xuefei Yang
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Naadohdi geht nach Wien, Österreich - Vienna, Austriaby naadohdi86 views
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