Tag Archives: Beijing

Crowds at the Great Wall

What do they have at the Great Wall of China? They have crowds. Well, not everywhere. They have crowds at Badaling, the most touristed part of the Great Wall near Beijing. If the Great Wall itself isn’t enough to make an impact, throw in a couple of million Chinese and you’ll soon find that you won’t have to worry about falling asleep on top of the Great Wall. To be fair, I should probably say that I’ve heard that other parts of the Great Wall are not nearly so inhabited and in spots it actually seems deserted. I did the Badaling tour for two primary reasons. The first was that it was easy. The second was that they full day trip only cost $20 and included a really nice lunch.

Great Wall Gondola

In this picture I hope you can see two things. First, the Great Wall of China. Second, there is a lift on the left side that is taking me up to the top of one of the sections of the wall. This is only one section of the wall. It’s called Badaling and is the most touristed area around Beijing. The wall is in great shape in this area as it has been restored. To get to the wall, you go to one of the entrances and buy a ticket. I rode the lift to the top. Others walked. There is nothing about the wall at Badaling that I remember being easy to walk. The area is built on the top of a ridgeline and is sloped. And sloped. And sloped. The whole experience of walking on the Great Wall of China is one of the great adventures of a lifetime. At least of mine.

HighRises – Beijing

They’re just like other ones I see in so many places. They are high-rise living structures. I’m sure that hundreds or even thousands of people live in them. I could live in one. My wife couldn’t. And my in-laws? They’d just laugh at me if I ever even asked them if they could live in one. They’re the kind of people where a riding lawnmower is standard equipment. All too often chainsaws and a brush hog can also be found at their houses. Or rather, out in the barn.

Mr Lee’s – Beijing

It’s a chain of noodle shops in Beijing. There are, apparently, several hundred scattered over northeast China. I just know their easy to spot. Mr. Lee plastered his face all over the front of the restaurant. The menu is in Chinese and English. The prices appear to be fair and the food must be reasonably good, the place is successful.

No Way Food – Beijing

I call it No Way Food because there’s no way I’m going to eat any of this stuff. Some of the delicacies you see here are fried silkworms, fried crickets, fried scorpions and fried snails. There were other wonderful treats as well such as fried snake, frog, lizard and an assortment of testicles of various animals you could sample. There was a point when I simply stopped asking what it was because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. These lovely items were to be found at some of the 100 stalls at the Night Market.

NM Food – Beijing

This is a picture of the food at the night market. You can also see some of the chefs who prepare the food.

Night Market – Beijing

It’s the Night Market. Only it’s not quite dark yet. Here, tourists and locals come to sample some really great food (the market is food only) from about 100 vendor stalls located on a street that is right off of a main shopping street. The food was good. The variety was amazing. It was really easy to get a little-of-this at one stall and a little-of-that at another stall. I ate at the market a few times when I was staying nearby. It was also a place where you could get something to eat for a dollar or two, making it a minor economic windfall as well as a fun time.

Huge TV – Beijing

The point of this picture is to show the really big TV in front of the Cartier store. It was one of the bigger TV screens I saw in Beijing, but not even close to being the biggest. That honor is reserved for the screens at Tiananmen Square. But I have to say that his screen was a really nice one. I also need to say that there were TV screens all over Beijing. There are more large outdoor TV screens in Beijing than I’ve ever seen in any other city. They like their high-impact media presentations in the city.

St Joe’s – Beijing

A catholic church in Beijing? Ya gotta love those Jesuits. I say in the park in front of the church for a while. It seems that it’s a favorite place for skateboarders and prospective brides and grooms getting wedding pictures in full attire.

Underground – Beijing

There’s a lot more to this picture than I can tell in this short space. The Beijing Underground is just that, an underground environment. It is supposed to have miles and miles of tunnels under the city and it’s a response to the nuclear threat of the 1950′s and 1960′s. Americans built bomb shelters. The Chinese built an underground city. I would love to have seen this place, but, unfortunately, it was closed, perhaps permanently, when I arrived. The best part of the story is where a Beijing bicycle-cabbie tried to charge me $50 for a five minute ride from the main street to the Underground City. When he held up three fingers, I thought he meant 3 yuan. When he presented his fare card, it read 300 yuan. We almost came to blows when he followed me for blocks and blocks and blocks insisting that I pay him more than 3 yuan for the ride.

Rolling Okie

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