Lewisham, United KingdomDeparture from the UKBremen, GermanySchuelpBack to BremenChristmas in the HarzDriving in the HarzAround Bad Harzburg and Christmas Market in GoslarWinter Tourism im HarzAnd home againViennaNew Year'sSightseeing in Vienna Day 2More sightseeing in Vienna and some plansArrival in BudapestTickets Booked!Bath HouseTrain to LvivWe made it to Ukraine!Leaving LvivOdessa, UkraineEventful arrival in KievMorning in KievOn the train to MoscowBrief stop in MoscowOur first trip east of the KnownOn the train to Kazan - a lot to catch up onkazan - at an ungodly hour of the morningOn the train to YekaterinburgOne night until SiberiaSiberia!!!!! Tobolsk - it's not on Google Maps! It's 4 hours north of TyumenDay trains5 Hours from IrkutskSafe arrival in IrkutskLake BaikalBack to IrkutskGoodbye to BaikalAn Experience in Ulan-UdeCrossing the Border - Happy New Year and Australia DayPlans changing in HarbinEnchanted with BeijingBeijing WanderingsCrashingMore CrashingSam's almost better againSecond last day in BeijingLast day in BeijingTianjin, ChinaIncheon ArrivalSeoul!!!Exhausting full day of enjoying SeoulI still love SeoulRainy and grey in BusanUnvalentine's DayInfinite turtlesDry land againA Perfect EndCoolangatta International Airport, or lack thereofBrisbane, AustraliaMum and Dad's
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Beijing, China
We have an extra day in Beijing than we'd thought, because we're leaving from the port near Tianjin, which is very close to Beijing. We'd only been able to find information about ferries from Qingdao and Weihai, which are further from here and would have involved another internal train (possibly overnight). I'm very happy to be here for another full three days, especially as it feels like we only just started with the sightseeing. The Great Wall trip was lovely. I was just well enough to enjoy it fully. The fresh air was lovely and it felt like a walk in the wilderness as there weren't any other people anywhere that we could see.
The Great Wall is no longer continuous, or at least some parts are so badly disintegrated that they're barely visible as the Great Wall. It actually stretches away into other provinces of China, but it's typical to visit the wall from Beijing. There are several sections of the wall within three hours of Beijing, some of which are set up for tourists, with cable cars and regular renovation. These apparently fill up with hundreds of thousands of tourists in summer and even in winter you expect to share the wall experience with lots of other people. Our “Secret Wall” tour turned out to be a very different experience. We stumbled up a steep mountain track, stopped for a loo break behind a large rock (I liked the rock more than your average squat toilet here in the city), clambered up onto the old wreckage of the wall and walked along it for about two-and-a-half hours. It was in varying conditions. One part was so overgrown with shrubs that we had to walk down beside it. But it was still so magnificent to see I snaking away into the distance, up and over peaks and down steep inclines. Several guard towers were still in fair (if crumbling) condition. We climbed up onto the top of one and had a cracker break while our guide had a cigarette break below.
The scenery was also spectacular. The mountains are jagged and dry and you can almost see the desert encroaching. Our guide did a good job of miming the mongols attacking and being stabbed and thrown off the wall by the Chinese defenders. He was an old man who didn't speak any English, but had obviously been doing the job for years. He knew exactly how to look after us, even though he didn't say anything.
We came down from the wall again by a mountain trail that was very hard on the knees and scarily steep. We ate lunch in a house in a village nearby, which wasn't as exciting as it sounds. The food was fairly average and they weren't very friendly, although they did set off some fireworks (perhaps for our benefit), which was fun, but hard on the eardrums (and I'm sure it scared the pheasants in the cage right next to where they set them off – the others pointed out the poor creatures were probably deaf by now). And then we headed back to Beijing – where Sam began to feel sick.
Sam slept for twenty-one hours from Friday night into Saturday evening. He woke up every now and again and was awake for a few minutes, but then he went straight back to sleep. He's still not 100%, but he was well enough to do a full day of sightseeing today. He seems to have had a mild stomach-based illness. He still doesn't really want food, especially not oily Chinese food. But he should be fine in a few days, hopefully. But we may not get to try Peking duck at this rate (although the two of us aren't so sure we're so keen on it anyway).
See next entry for continuation of this (the entry was too long for trip tracker!!)
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