So today was great! Up at 6. Off picking up various youth hostellers around the city. We are the most central, so were picked up first.
We went to a far less commercial part of the wall, a good 2 hour drive away, called Mutiamyu. The walk up was steep so we all took the cable car, so we could save our energy for the wall itself. I am so glad I did. MY god it was challenging for poor me and my little stumpy legs and my vertiginous brain. But I took it slowly up and along the wall and I only felt really dizzy once! I reached the end of the walkable wall section within about an hour and a half. it was stunning, but I have to be honest and say the pollution levels in Beijing at the moment are so high that the visibility was pretty poor, which was a shame. A great grey, foggy, dusty cloud was hanging over everything. Pretty much similar to London in the 50s or during the industrial revolution I presume. London averages about 25 on the air quality index mostly and on very bad days goes up to 100. Shanghai , averages around 160 and here in Beijing at the moment the air quality index is at 296; hazardous to health. Glad I'm only here for a few days. But spring is a bad time to visit this city, hence the lack of crowds. This pollution is a real downer on an otherwise incredibly interesting city.
Anyway, when I got to the end of the walkable section it was possible, (in theory)to see the untouched for tourists, real wall curving into the distance. I could make out only a hundred metres or so.
I wasn't looking forward to the descent at all, but luckily I met up with a group of people who were uber fit and had even been clambering around on the unwalkable sections and they helped me down.Which was good of them. We all celebrated with a beer at the end and yes Lesley! I graffitied my name on the last section of the wall on a ledge. yes, graffiti everywhere. Unbelievable!
Right ,as for getting down off the wall, yes, of course there was a TOBOGAN ride! What a laugh and how random. I was behind this guy from Germany and Alex from Manchester and they were great because they went really slowly down the ride for a bit to let the pottering folk get way ahead and then said go and we then all went full throttle round all the bends till we caught up with the potterers! I had my own tobogan but my god, did I get some pace up. It was totally exhilarating and I loved it! ( I kept up with the guys!) A random, Chinese edition to the Great Wall experience.
Met some great young people today. Waitresses from London, who have jacked it all in to travel to New Zealand and find work. A young Swedish guy who has worked for the last three years in a Volvo plant and was getting rather down. So he looked online and found a Kung fu training centre in Southern China and has been training in Kung fu and all its disciplines here for the last 6 months. ( he has been into martial arts since a young age). What a great thing to decide to do!!! He is very happy that I am going to the Kung fu show this evening. He says the Beijing performance is the best in China. ( Hence the world , I presume!)
I also had a lovely chat to Alex from Manchester. we might meet up later too. He has been teaching English here for a year, but has a cushy job of only working at the weekends and having the week days to travel. he has no TEFL either! Funny! Wonder what his job entails.
Right must head off again. Will post more later.
Right, I'm back. I've just had my yuckiest meal since being in China. feel a bit sick actually. Hope I will be OK. It was a bad choice and as most Chinese eat about 5.30 I think the food had been hanging around for a while. Oh well, let's wait and see what happens.
The show was fabulous. it has toured Russia and the states but not in Europe. This is probably because of our stringent health and safety checks. (This show wouldn't pass them!). there was lots of brick breaking on heads and chests. lots of knife waving and other deep stuff.. lots of shouting, leaping, jumping and twisting. lots of lithe, young men bounding and flipping all over the place in lovely costumes. What was there not to like?!!!
The show finished at 9 and I was kind of in a quandary. the weather is so poor I just wanted to come back here and chill with a beer. The smog is like the fog which Britain gets in the dead of winter on a cold December night but here it's warm, over 25 degs today. So bloody weird!
So I had some shit food and now I'm home. I do feel oK though. I think I am just exhausted from all the walking I am doing. There sure is a lot of walking to do in China. Everywhere is so far. Even just crossing one road is a mission of dexterity, speed, positioning, confidence and timing. Every time I make it over I breathe a sigh of relief!
Right,one more thing. There is a sign on my door and it's a mystery to me. It's a helpful sign and says "please take care of your belongings inside this hostel,especially your teeth."
WTF? Surely this is some major typo!! What the hell are they on about?! Are the toothless crones of China prowling the hostels and stealing dentures at night, or what?!!! Any ideas?!
Right, with that thought, I'm off to bed. Night.
I've just checked the air pollution again. It is now to 443. Hazardous . The information doesn't go much over 300. Good Grief. (Oxford was 73 today, not that good either I have to say.)
Follow my health and that of the other 22 million residents of this city at
http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/
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