Forbidden city - wow I forgot how crowded this place was. We got there half an hour before they opened doors on a weekday and already there was a sea of people belonging to tour groups waiting. The tour group people all wear hats of different colors. You've got your red hats group! Greens hats! Faux Burberry hats! At times you feel as if you're being flushed through the palace, carried away by the great horde. The crowd experience was so intense at first that we spent the rest of the time trying to avoid the "hat people". Luckily the Forbidden Palace is a huge place and it's possible find quiet lanes to walk through and actually appreciate the grandeur of the place.
Great Wall - we wanted to visit a less touristy part of the Great Wall so we decided to go to Huanhuacheng Great Wall 2.5 hours out of beijing. After a semi confusing bus trip (getting off at the wrong stop because of a tour operator pretending to work for the bus company that ended with him getting punched in the face by his coworker), we arrived. This section of the wall is next to a lake and a dam and it was nice to see the water in contrast to the mountainous ridges of the wall. When we got there we discovered that the actual wall section was under maintenance and closed to the public. Undeterred, we ended up scaling a part that had a "do not enter" sign next to it and had the wall all to ourselves. Yes, we managed to invade the Great Wall.
Along the way to the wall we met Jermaine, who is a Maori performance artist from New Zealand. It's not everyday that you get to watch someone do a Maori war dance (haka) on the Great Wall!
Beijing is now the land of over zealous security checks. Everytime you enter the subways or visit a public attraction you have to go through security checks. Just imaging having to going through airport TSA every time you go somewhere. Getting on the train from Beijing to Datong we had to go through it three times! At times it feels as if one cannot make a bowel movement in Beijing without getting your belongings x-rayed and passport checked.
But we really did have a great time in Beijing. Had some great food as well!
