Day 455 - 9 Oct ‘24 - Gyeongju. Today was our last exploring the city of Gyeongju, so we all slept in and left the house around 11am. Dan and I decided we’d walk the 2.5km to the museum rather than get a bus, which annoyed the kids a little. Too bad!
“We walked the same distance yesterday,” Dan pointed out, “so we can walk it again now.”
The Gyeongju National Museum was really well laid out, and free, which we believe all museums should be. Each building had its own themed displays, and had directional arrows to keep the flow of people moving. Much better than milling around in whichever direction you chose.
The English translations were fairly extensive throughout, which was appreciated; there were only a few instances where all that was in English was the name of the item.
There was pottery and stone tools from the Neolithic and Palaeolithic periods (although how anyone can determine a rock with some pieces missing is a tool, and not just a rock with some pieces missing, is beyond me)!
A section that Alex rather liked were the incredibly rusted iron armour for both men and their horses.
In fact, most of the items on display were not preserved well at all. The iron was rusted, and the pottery all broken and glued back together.
“They weren’t very clever with their burial techniques, were they?” I mumbled to Dan.
“Well, you saw how many rocks they used!”
The main reason we came to this museum was to see the treasures that had been uncovered in the burial mounds.
We got to see the all-but-disintegrated sword and golden jewellery of King Isaji, as well as a small Silla crown, which they think may have been for a lesser royal.
The largest crown was impressive in its size and technical skill - super thin pieces of gold dangled in chains or individual hoops, with cashew-shaped jade pendants hanging off it.
In the next museum building we got to see some awesome stone carvings. Sadly, the sandstone showed some signs of weathering, which is why they were now indoors.
We had been very impressed with the museum, not only for its organisation, but also for the incredible lighting, the staff who were constantly cleaning the display glass, and the sheer number of fire suppression systems in place - numerous cases containing gas masks, blankets, torches, extinguishers, and pre-packaged wet cloths to cover your face with.
“I’ve never seen so much fire prevention material, ever, anywhere!” Dan said.
“I know!” I agreed. “They’re everywhere! Train stations, bus depots, shopping malls…. No damage to the cases, everything left peacefully for an emergency. It’s fantastic!”
After the museum, we walked along the river until we came to Woljeonggyo Bridge, Korea’s largest wooden bridge.
Built in the Silla era in 760, it was burnt down in the Joseon period, and rebuilt in 2016 following extensive research. It was constructed similar to the temples we’ve seen, with the same decorated open beams and upturned gable ends.
It was then around 1:30pm and we were all getting a little hungry, apart from Abigail, who was STARVING, so we went back to the same convenience store we went to yesterday. Everywhere was a lot busier, as today was a public holiday celebrating their written language.
We had seen everything we wanted to see while in Gyeongju, so headed back to the apartment mid-afternoon.
“We can watch a movie!” Abi said.
“You can do schoolwork!” I said.
“How much?” Alex asked.
“At least an hour.”
“Forty minutes?”
“‘At least an hour’ means you start at one hour and then work your way up, not down…”
When it came time for dinner, nobody had any inspiration, and we didn’t walk past any restaurants that looked even slightly inviting, so burgers won out again. Not an ideal meal, but food in our tummies nonetheless.
Day 456 - 10 Oct ‘24 - Gyeongju to Busan. Our apartment was a five-minute walk to the bus station; check-out time was 11am and our bus was scheduled for 12pm. No need to rush in the morning.
Which was ideal, as I didn’t get to sleep until 3:20am, despite all my best efforts. Dan was also tossing and turning, adjusted the temperature on the air conditioner a couple of times, and had a sore tummy. When 9am rolled around, and the alarm went off, neither of us felt like getting up at all.
Abi was the first out of all of us to be ready, with her rucksack and backpack placed at the front door before I’d even had my cereal!
“Wow! Well done Abigail!” we congratulated her.
We made it to the bus station with plenty of time to spare, but there was still a rush to get on the bus, which arrived and left again in the space of just three minutes!
“You sure wouldn’t want to be late,” I commented cynically to Dan once we were in our seats.
The drive to Busan was only 55 minutes, and a fellow passenger confirmed that the stop was the correct one, as the name of the station was not the same as the one on the ticket. Personally, naming a bus station two different names, is not a very smart idea…
We grabbed some quick lunch, were watched by some elderly Korean men and women as we ate, then got on the subway to our destination. The station had a pretty cool plant art on the wall, which was a map of South Korea.
We were luckily allowed to check-in an hour early, which gave us plenty of time to watch a movie, do some schoolwork, and hang up a load of washing.
In the evening we wandered the local streets trying to find somewhere to eat. We looked at the pictures, but they weren’t too appealing, and the Google translations were not exactly correct:
“This one says ‘not a spider’, and this one is ‘grandma’s jacket’.”
Yummy!
We eventually settled for a beer-and-pub-food type of place, where Abi had a tuna rice ball, and we had fried bits of chicken and some sausages.
Yummy!
Day 457 - 11 Oct ‘24 - Busan. This area of Korea is known for being a tourist destination for locals and foreigners, who flock here to visit the beaches.
Today we went to the number one beach of the region, Haeundae, a major tourist hotspot. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a warm 21°C when we got off the subway. The main road towards to beach had some colourful and decorative gardens set up the whole length of the median strip, which made it very inviting to walk down.
As we neared the beach, we realised we’d all left our umbrellas in the apartment. Bugger! The UV was only five, but that was still high enough to burn, and the only one with sunscreen on was Dan.
Despite it being off-peak season, and mid-week, there were still quite a few people out enjoying the seaside.
“If this is how busy it is today, imagine how busy it is in summer!” Dan said.
“I know!” I agreed. “And judging by the number of high rises and restaurants, it’s obviously quite a lucrative spot as well.”
We walked to the water’s edge, where we were amazed at the clarity of the water - we could easily see through the small tumbling waves as they broke on shore. Abi tested the temperature and said it was about as warm as the New Zealand sea, so the rest of us were quite happy keeping our shoes on!
We turned around and headed back to the shops (there was no shade anywhere), and wandered along the traditional market street. We were handed a couple of miniature samples of icecream, and then were utterly horrified to see a fishmonger skin an eel…while it was still alive.
“Oh my god, I feel physically sick,” I said, as we walked past, gagging at the sight.
“IT WAS STILL WRIGGLING!” Alex complained. “Why wouldn’t he chop its head off first?”
“I’ve no idea,” I replied. “Maybe they eat the head too?”
“It must have been in so much pain,” Abi added.
So. Gross.
We had a look at a restaurant’s menu for some lunch, but when we saw a pizza on offer for $25.50NZD, we walked past it to Burger King. I didn’t have anything, and bought a chocolate milk from a convenience store afterwards.
We popped briefly into a cosmetic store, where I bought 15 face mask sheets for $17NZD (LOVE Korean skincare and their prices!), then hopped on the subway again. We’d decided that there wasn’t anywhere else we felt like looking at (in regards to temples, museums, markets, or viewpoints), so wandered around a mall for a bit then carried on back to the apartment.
The kids did some schoolwork, Dan did some work work, and I spent time on my phone drooling over oak sideboards and dining suites I couldn’t afford!
Dinner was an unplanned disaster. I’d contacted our host yesterday to ask for her recommendations on nearby bulgogi restaurants. She suggested two, and I’d found a third online.
We arrived at the first one to discover is was full, and there were people sitting outside waiting their turn. Not knowing how long they’d be, we walked to the second place, but it was closed.
We went back to the first place, which now had even more people waiting outside, so carried on to the third place. This one had someone in a uniform greeting patrons, so we didn’t even get out of the elevator and quickly left, as it would have been out of our budget.
“Mum’s wasted so much time!” Alex angrily accused.
“Hey! That’s not fair! It’s not MY fault they were closed, or busy, or too expensive!”
“Let’s go back to the chicken place we went to last night,” Abi suggested.
“No, I don’t want that,” I said.
“Why don’t we walk back down that other road and see what’s there,” Dan said.
So we walked back down the other road that Dan suggested, again passing by places with no pictures or erroneous translations.
“Fine! Let’s just go back to the chicken place from last night!”
I’d had enough. I really couldn’t be bothered looking for food that was a) affordable, b) nearby, and c) something we’d want to eat. Strange though it may seem, still-wriggling eel, baby octopus, and fermented fish held zero appeal.
The chicken was tasty, and Abi had two tuna rice balls and sweet potato chunks, so everyone was moderately happy. But it wasn’t the bulgogi I’d hoped we’d have.
Day 458 - 12 Oct ‘24 - Busan to Seoul. Are you tired of having a good night’s sleep? Do you wish you could lie awake for hours when you go to bed? Let me enlighten you on inner-sprung concrete mattresses.
Rock-hard, with only a thin mattress topper, you will be guaranteed to toss and turn for hours on end. If you lie on your stomach, any squishy bits are most definitely squished, and any protruding joints, like knees or jaws, are compressed in unnatural positions. If you lie on your side, your hip joint is completely immobilised, which will also last for some time in the morning.
For added sleepless benefit, think about installing thin white curtains! The latest fashion craze, you will be wide awake in the pre-dawn light…if you had finally managed to drift off around 3am.
Getting out of bed not-even-slightly refreshed (with a bonus headache), repeat for a few days in a row to achieve complete exhaustion.
I’d tried to go to sleep, I really had, but it was just rubbish. Dan told me in the morning that he had the best sleep out of the last six nights, but that wasn’t really saying much. Five or six hours of crap sleep is not a good sleep!
Today was an exciting travel day - we were going on a high speed bullet train back to Seoul! These trains can get up to 300kph, but there was no speedometer for us to verify it on today’s trip.
The distance from Busan to Seoul was 395km and we took just two hours and 50 minutes; it can be a little faster or slower depending on the number of stops it makes.
It was an incredibly smooth trip, and quiet too, with no noisy track connections to clickety-clack over. At every stop, numerous seats would empty just to be immediately filled with new passengers.
When we arrived at the Seoul train station, we then caught another train to the airport, which took almost an hour. Once at the airport, we hopped on the free airport shuttle to our accommodation, which was only two stops away.
Dan had chosen an ideal place to stay for the night, as we had to be at the airport at 7:40am. The reviews were a bit mixed, however, with half of them saying how handy it was to the airport, and the other half complaining about the firmness of the beds and the air-conditioning not working.
Sure enough, the beds were just as hard as the other ones, and the room was 31°C!
“I guess that’s why there’s three fans in the room,” Dan commented.
All three were switched on in short order, and the windows opened for good measure, then we went back to the street to find something for dinner.
There were a couple of restaurants that yummy smells were coming out from, so we sat down in a Chinese one and ordered our meals. Dan picked chicken noodles with soup, Alex chose steamed dumplings, Abi had prawn fried rice, and I chose Szechuan special noodles.
“What is that?” I said to Dan when my bowl came out.
“I’m not sure.”
The ‘that’ in question was a long, super thin, white strip of something, with notches.
“That’s octopus, mummy!” Alex said.
“What?! Octopus! I’m not eating that. And the prawns aren’t cooked!”
“They’re cooking in the sauce,” Dan pointed out. “The bowl is super hot!”
I fished out a few pieces of onion, left the raw octopus and prawns in the bowl, and spooned a little of the sauce onto my separate bowl of noodles.
It turned out that Szechuan was code for ‘volcano-hot’. Sweet mother of god, my mouth was on fire! I’d barely put a teaspoonful in the bowl!!
Dan’s chicken noodles and soup also had prawns and octopus in it.
“I think that’s what they mean by ‘special’,” Dan said.
“I’m sorry, but I’m just not eating it.”
Abi’s fried rice also had uncooked prawns that slowly got to halfway done, and a bowl of caramelised onions in a black bean sauce, which I used to liberally douse my noodles with (they tasted yummy).
“If this is what our meals are going to be like, it’s going to be a long two weeks in China,” said Dan after we’d left.
“Mmmm…” I replied. “That’s what I was just thinking.”
We bought some sushi triangles and chocolate milk for our breakfast tomorrow, then watched a movie before bed. We all went to ‘sleep’ in our undies, lying on top of our duvets, with all three fans still on, and the windows wide open.
Listening to the planes fly in and out.
Can you believe someone complained about that in one of the reviews for this place? The noise of the planes at an airport motel?
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Day 459 - 13 Oct ‘24 - Seoul to Beijing. Well. What a shite night. Everyone was wriggling around in bed the whole night, and when the alarm went off at 6:45am, it was hard work to get up.
“I can’t remember the last time I woke up with bloodshot eyes,” I said when I looked in the mirror.
The temperature in the room had dropped a massive 0.5°C by morning, and the much cooler air in the hallway when we left, was a welcome reprieve. Dan had sent a complaint to the manager last night about the air conditioning not working, to which the response was ‘it’s building policy that it gets switched off in October’.
Bullshit! There were heaps of reviews dating back to January complaining about the temperature in the room. (We had booked another night here on our return to New Zealand, but Dan cancelled it last night and booked us somewhere else for more money).
The shuttle bus back to the airport was only five minutes, but as we walked through the door into the terminal, I asked Dan which airline we were flying with.
“Korean Air, why?”
“Because this is terminal one, and Korean Air boards at terminal two. It’s written all over the door.”
“Oh no!”
Of course, by this time, the bus had already left, so we had to wait for the next one, which arrived 12 minutes later. The truly unfortunate aspect, however, was we no longer had seats, and terminal two was 25 minutes’ drive away.
Not a great start to the day.
Once we’d arrived at the correct terminal, there was a brief moment of concern when we got asked for our visa information, but there is now a 15-day visa-free period for New Zealand citizens.
The flight to China was smooth and the meal nice, and the immigration process at the airport was much quicker than expected.
Once we’d collected our bags, we caught the airport express train to a subway station, then changed lines and got another train to wherever it was we were staying. We were met by a couple of Chinese men who spoke no English, who walked us to our apartment building.
Our room had a fantastic view but stank of smoke, and had no bowls or plates or cutlery, which would be a tad problematic for breakfast!
The clouds, which were low on our way to the apartment, turned into rain not long after we arrived. None of us felt like doing anything (most of our travel days are right-offs), so we just chilled out for the afternoon.
In the evening, we began our favourite game, What Shall We Eat For Dinner?! Absolutely LOVE this game…
Between the subway entrance and our apartment building were a number of restaurants we thought we’d try out. But first, McDonald’s, to try the Chinese method of cashless payment - AliPay.
We’d tried using AliPay while still in Korea, to buy our tickets to the Forbidden Palace, but we couldn’t get it to work. After doing a bit of research, it could have been because we weren’t physically in China at the time, so we kept our fingers crossed while buying one small packet of French fries.
Success! It worked! Relieved, and convinced our time in China might not be as difficult as previously imagined, we walked to restaurant number one.
You’ll note I’ve numbered it…
Restaurant one was a noodle place, so that was a no.
Restaurant two had some steamed rice, but nothing else for Abi, so that was a no.
Restaurant three was really just a small booth selling mine and onion wrapped in pastry, so Alex had one of those.
Restaurant four was a smorgasbord/buffet that you paid by weight of your plate, and had lots of vegetables and meats, with only half of them in soy sauce.
Ladies and gentlemen, we had a winner!
We all grabbed a plate and made our way down the row of dishes, picking and choosing as we went, with Abi avoiding anything with a sauce, and me avoiding the dishes with nuts. Our plates were weighed and Dan went to pay, so Abi and I sat down and started eating.
“Where’s daddy?” I asked Abi after a few minutes.
I turned around and saw him still standing at the till, with a large queue that had formed behind him. There were a few people up trying to help him, and when he made it back to the table, he told me the payment hadn’t worked. He quickly left to find a cash machine, and Alex stayed up at the register with his plate of food.
After a couple of minutes, Alex sat down at the table and said a couple of men had bought his dinner, and as they walked past the table on their way out the door, they smiled and Alex thanked them again.
“What happened?” I asked Alex.
“They kept pointing at my plate and I kept saying no no no, and then one man came and took my plate and put it on the scales, and I tried to take it back, but he kept smiling and pointing, and he paid for it!”
“Wow! That’s super kind of him! I hope you said thank you.”
“Yes! Lots!”
Dan arrived a couple of minutes later, and we told him about the men buying Alex’s dinner.
“They paid for ALL of our dinners,” he said.
“What? No, just Alex’s. You’ve still got to pay for ours.”
“No, they paid for everyone’s! They showed me the receipt of 55¥ when they saw me at the cash machine, and I tried to give them some money but they wouldn’t take it.”
“Oh WOW! That’s incredible!”
“Why would they do that?” Abi asked.
“I guess because we were foreigners trying to buy dinner, and struggling at the till, and then daddy went to get cash, so they knew we were trying to pay…”
“…and I was standing at the till with my small plate of food waiting to eat,” Alex finished.
“You’ll need to make sure you pay it forward some day Alex,” I said.
What a generous thing for those total strangers to do! Granted, our meals came to $12.75NZD, but that’s not the point at all. While everyone else was staring at us, those two gentlemen helped us get a meal.
We didn’t hang around for two long, and once we left, Dan bought one of the mince pastry things Alex had eaten previously.
“I see what you mean, Alex!” Dan exclaimed, referring to something Alex said to him earlier.
“Yeah! Do you want to try, mummy?”
“Okay…oh wow! What have they put in this?”
We were suddenly hyper-salivating and our tongues had gone tingly-numb! It didn’t last long, but it was really bizarre.
“It was just pastry, mince, onion, and parsley,” I said, bewildered.
“Maybe it was in the oil they used to wrap it up?”
Whatever it was, we wouldn’t be buying any more. We went to a supermarket after that, to get some milk for breakfast. And bowls.
“Oh no! I’d forgotten we’re almost out of cereal!” I said when we got back to our apartment. “The bowls may be a moot point if we’ve got nothing to eat out of them!”
Hopefully Dan could find the plastic spoon he said he had somewhere, or else we’d be eating our cereal with chopsticks…
Day 460 - 14 Oct ‘24 - Beijing. Comfy bed, dark curtains, ear plugs…a good sleep! Exactly what was needed for our first day in Beijing.
Our day started promisingly well. Not only did Dan find a spoon in his bag, he found TWO spoons! Woo hoo! We didn’t need to wait too long for our turn using a spoon at breakfast time!
However, our day quickly turned into not-so-well when we got to Tian’anmen Square, and discovered we needed to have booked a reservation.
“Muuuuuuuum!” complained two children, who unfortunately belonged to us.
“It’s not my fault!” I defended myself. “Why would I think a public square needed to have tickets?!”
We then spent roughly half-an-hour standing by the queue trying to work out how to get tickets. The security guard at the entrance had told us we had to book our tickets a day in advance and to use WeChat, which is China’s answer to Google/Facebook/any-other-Western platform.
WeChat is not the easiest website to use, and it’s constant switching back to Chinese is problematic. It’s also how most payments are conducted (as well as AliPay), and we’d been having issues with that as well.
Dan found a display board (in Chinese) that we tried to translate, but that’s when my internet stopped working. Another security guard came over to help, and got Dan’s phone to the correct section, then Dan put in all our information (including passport details) and booked our tickets for two days’ time.
“Where shall we go now then?” Dan asked.
“I’ve no idea. I don’t know what needs tickets now! If a public square needs tickets, then what will a garden or temple need?”
I decided we’d go to the White Dagoba at Beihai Park, and that we’d walk. I didn’t bother looking at how long it would take, or if there was a subway nearby.
“Think of today as an exercise day, since yesterday we did nothing.”
When we were almost a quarter of the way there (only a quarter after 20 minutes?! I should have gone a different way), Dan changed our plan - he wanted to get a Chinese e-sim to hopefully make things a lot easier for payments and internet usage.
We couldn’t find the shop he was after, so I suggested we speak to someone in the massive Apple store across the road, who may be able to point us in the right direction.
There wasn’t a single staff member in sight that we could determine. The shop was filled with people looking at phones or trying on the virtual headsets, but nobody was wearing a uniform, so we couldn’t find anyone to speak to.
We went back onto the main road and started walking towards a larger mobile store Dan found, when a Chinese man stopped us to say hello. He spoke to us for a bit, said he was an English and history teacher at a nearby school, asked us about our trip and where we were from, then asked what we were doing today. When we told him we were trying to get an e-sim, he offered to take us to a small store nearby (which happened to be the first one we tried to get to).
When we got there and it was closed, he called the owner, and then told us the agent wasn’t there at the moment, but he could bring us a card in an hour’s time.
Abi and Alex were then the most embarassing children on the planet. They both kept saying “scam, scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, we should just go to the other store, we didn’t want the food here, why is he still here”, while the man was standing right beside us!
Never before had I so badly wanted the ground to swallow us. Or the kids. That would have been more sensible.
The man politely interrupted us telling the kids off with an “excuse me” then suggested we eat some lunch while we wait, took us to a nearby restaurant that he said had English on the menu, and when Abi didn’t like any of the options, he then walked us back to the mall to McDonald’s. He then gave us his number and said he’d meet us in 30 minutes with the sim card.
Sure enough, half an hour later once some lunch had been eaten, he returned with the SIM card, made sure it worked, we paid him, he said goodbye, and then left.
Hopefully this card would solve all our problems!
So far, after just one day, we had not found China very tourist-friendly. The subway ticket machines required us to enter our Chinese ID numbers (which we don’t have) in order to pay with cash. The inability to book anything online without WeChat or AliPay was frustrating. We hadn’t even been able to book things while still outside the country. Plus, trying to buy things in stores when they don’t accept Visa, even through WeChat and AliPay, made it difficult.
At least they had an efficient public transport system! Rather than walk back to where we made the detour, then carry on walking to the pagoda, we decided to try the subway again.
We were waylaid for a bit in a Lego store, which had some pretty awesome displays!
There was a really cool mountainside with temple buildings, a giant panda on a bridge, a Chinese lion, and a palanquin that you could sit in!
It was 2pm by the time we finally made it to Beihai Park, a massive area of 71 hectares, mostly taken up by a lake.
The park, which used to be an imperial garden and part of the Forbidden Palace, was first built in 1179, and was opened to the public in 1925. It is designed to emulate many other areas of China, and had a variety of temples and areas of significance dotted around it.
The first we came to was the Nine Dragons Screen, which was built in 1402 and is one of only three in China. It is 25 metres long, six metres high, and 1.5 metres thick, and the nine dragons dancing in the clouds is on both sides of the wall.
Next was the Five Dragon Pavilions, which were built above the water and connected by small bridges.
In the Chanfu Temple, there were hundreds of floral displays in the shapes of animals and objects, which we thought may have been set up for their national holiday a couple of weeks ago.
Some of the larger flowers had started dying, and some of the smaller ones were only starting to bloom; this was lucky for us as it was very pretty, but must have been a shame for the organisers a fortnight ago!
Everywhere we looked were women dressed up in traditional historical attire. Tired of being the object of numerous photographs, I pushed Abi towards a group of costumed ladies and asked for a photo of our own!
The next place we saw was the Minor Western Heavenly Gate. Built over two years by somebody whose name I can’t remember, to honour his mother’s whatever-it-was birthday, it was unfortunately closed to the public, which meant we didn’t get to see the elaborate octagonal ceiling or any of the artefacts. That didn’t stop all the dressed-up people posing for their ever-present photographers!
We turned around and walked back the way we came, then carried on to the White Dagoba, which was on a small island at the other end of the lake.
Originally built in 1651 in honour of the visit of the 5th Dalai Lama, it had been rebuilt a couple of times following earthquakes in 1679 and 1976.
Sadly, the stupa looked better from afar; it hadn’t been maintained very well, with cracks and peeling paint visible everywhere.
While standing at the top admiring the almost invisible view (the smog and haze had obscured our view all day), Abi and Alex had an argument at the railing, about who had more space and who wasn’t moving over.
Then, while Dan and I were trying to work out what to do next and which route to take, Abi decided to walk down stairs in a direction we weren’t going.
And that was the final straw.
We didn’t know where the stairs went, or if she’d wait for us at the bottom or try to find us by coming back up a different way. I suggested we split up but Dan said it was her own fault, we’d just go down the same way that she did and hopefully she’d be there. She’d be in trouble either way.
“What took you guys so long?” she said when we came into view.
Ooooooohh…
Abigail then got quite the dressing down while standing on the path. Goodness knows what passers-by thought, but I’m sure they would have worked it out.
Then, as she sulked off down the stairs, she fell down three, skidded over a flat bit, then fell down two more. Amazingly, she only hurt one of her knees, and just with a bang, not a scrape.
We then all slowly made our way back around the lake to where we started, got the looong subway ride back to our apartment, then collapsed on our beds for a while.
We returned to last night’s restaurant for dinner, as it was cheap and filling and close.
“It’s amazing what 24 hours will do,” Dan said as we left. “Yesterday we stood around trying to translate all the signs, and watching people to see what they were doing, but today we just walked straight in, grabbed our plates, and looked like we’d been coming here for six months!”
One thing that we found hard to stomach was the table manners of some of the people. We saw one man tip his food out onto a napkin on the table, and another made such a mess it would put a two-year-old to shame! Then, when they’d finished eating, they just got up and left, without even attempting to clean up their mess. We felt sorry for the cleaning lady, but she was super quick at her job.
Another thing we’ve found difficult was the constant hoicking of people, men usually, onto the pavement or road, or even inside subway stations. Super disgusting!
We all managed to get into bed at our normal times, which was good, as I think we were all still tired from travelling yesterday as well as the time change from Korea. Plus, it was an early start tomorrow!
Day 461 - 15 Oct ‘24 - Beijing. 6am alarm wake-up, and a banana for breakfast, as that’s all there was. Fortunately, Abigail was still eating her way through a box of gluten free weetabix, so she would have a little more energy than the rest of us.
We left the apartment at 6:45am and got on the subway, and arrived at our pickup point at 7:30am. Today we were off to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, and it was an hour-and-a-half drive to get there.
The Great Wall was built in the 7th Century BC, and was originally nine separate walls around nine cities, each one controlled by a different emperor. It wasn’t until China was unified by Qin Shi Huang in 220-206BC that each section of the wall became connected to the other.
The full Wall measures just over 21,000km and has been renovated in some sections. It is estimated that 20% of China’s population died building the wall; 10% civilians, 5% soldiers, and 5% prisoners. Working conditions were harsh, with many dying from starvation, and the bodies were buried under the walls during construction.
The section we went to today, Mutianyu, was split into two, the Eastern and Western sides, measuring 2.25km long. We decided to tackle both sides because, well, we were here, so why not?
Our guide told us to take the Eastern side first, as the queue to get down was shorter in the morning. He also told us just to go from watchtower six (where the gondola went to) to watchtower four and back, as we wouldn’t have enough time to do it all otherwise.
I must confess, I wasn’t expecting quite so many steps! I’d imagined the sections of wall between the watchtowers to be paved, but they were steps. Lots and lots and lots of steps. Some shallow, some steep, but all steps. Steps up, steps down, more steps up, more steps down. Steps, steps, steps.
The Wall was built on the top of the mountain ridge, and as such, it followed the curves perfectly. Watchtower four, also known as the Mutianyu Pass, was rare in its design as it had three separate towers connected by pathways both inside and outside.
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We kept walking, up some very steep steps (they even had a handrail), until we made it to another watchtower, which turned out to be number one. Oops!
“It’s not like they’re numbered!” I said to Dan when he told me we’d gone too far.
The doorway to the rest of the Wall was blocked up, so we turned around and quickly made our way back to the starting point.
Our guide had told us it would take one-and-a-half hours to do this side, and sure enough, we were back at the gondola platform in exactly that amount of time.
“We’re going to have to get a move on though,” I said, “as he told us the Western section would take us two-and-a-half hours, and the bus leaves at 2pm!”
The way to get down was not on the gondola - it was on a toboggan course! The track was stainless steel and curved, and our toboggan was a simple ‘push the stick forwards to go, pull back to brake’ system, much like the luge in Rotorua.
We tried to go fast, but they’re extremely safety conscious here. There were signs everywhere telling you to slow down, and staff at every single corner waving their arms at you. Alex even got a whistle blown!
Once off the toboggan, we walked 50 metres uphill to get on the cable car, which took us up to the Weatern section at Watchtower 14. The Mutianyu part of the Wall, which measures 7-8.5 metres high and 4-5 metres wide, is unusual because it had 22 watchtowers in such a short distance.
There were a few more people on this side of the wall, but we were still really fortunate to get some photos without too many in the background. The other section of the wall near Beijing, Badaling, is apparently super busy all the time; it’s closer to Beijing and flatter.
This side of the wall also had paved sections in between the watchtowers, but they certainly weren’t flat!
The view from this side was possibly better than the other side. We could see the Wall snaking off in the distance, getting steeper and steeper.
We were soon to find out exactly how steep.
Section 19 to 20 started with an angle of 70° and finished at 80°. The steps went on and on and on. I ended up setting a goal of 30 steps at a time (0-10 was easy, 10-20 hard, 20-30 exhausting), then would rest for a minute. At the end, we were using our hands to climb up the final set of steps, some even used their bums to go back down.
The view? Absolutely incredible. And totally worth the effort.
We were so lucky with the weather, with crystal clear sky and no wind. No clouds or haze anywhere, although I do think that it would look pretty magical with clouds rolling over some of the wall.
In the distance, we could see other watchtowers dotting the ridges, as well as the section of wall we’d earlier walked. Some of the other watchtowers were crumbling, and trees and bushes were growing inside the wall.
I could have stayed there for a lot longer, soaking up the scenery, but we had to make our way back down.
It was a slow descent, initially because of the steepness and my knees, but then because I kept stopping to take photos and just enjoy being there.
“Why do you have to keep stopping?!” Alex asked.
“Why are you in such a rush?” I countered. “Once we’re down, we’re done!”
Alex had actually spent most of the walk on the Wall, miles ahead of us, or running up and down the steps. There were more than a few people passing comment on his energy!
I ended up taking almost 100 photos, and Dan had taken a whole bunch as well! Some of our family shots had us all laughing, as Alex didn’t have any sunglasses.
“Okay, cheese! Alex, take your hands away. Alex, just get out the photo.”
Ha ha ha ha!
We had a lovely buffet lunch back down at the main tourist complex, and had a look in some of the stores. The main walkway was lined with ginkgo biloba trees, with beautiful parasols strung up between them.
We managed to get on the first tour bus back to Beijing, and there were a lot of tired people the journey home, with half the people fast asleep, including Dan!
When we got back to the subway, we decided to make a little detour and go to a Carrefour supermarket I’d found online, since it was only three stops away. This supermarket was a chain we’d send throughout France and some other countries, and was our best hope of having breakfast cereal, and maybe even some gluten free items.
It was a 1.6km walk there through a massive park and garden area, where loads of people were out playing badminton or basketball, running, walking, using the free gym equipment, or just having fun with family and friends. That’s something we’d noticed throughout Asia, the community exercise and socialising. People would gather together to do dancing or Tai Chi or play cards or mahjong. It was fabulous to see, and definitely something that is lacking elsewhere in the world.
We made it to the shopping plaza, and followed the signs up to level three, then found Carrefour. Or rather, where Carrefour used to be.
“Damnit!” I said. “I really hoped it would be here!”
“We’d just talked about it on the way,” Dan laughed.
That was true. Only a few minutes before w’d said it would be just our luck if we got there and it was not a supermarket but their headquarters, or a distribution centre, or not there at all.
“Well, look at it on the positive side,” I said as we walked back to the park. “At least we now don’t have heavy grocery bags to carry home!”
“But if you look at it on the negative side,” added Dan, “we now don’t have any cereal for breakfast.”
“Yes…well…bananas for breakfast again tomorrow. There’s nothing wrong with bananas for breakfast.”
“Nope.”
“And do you know what’s worse than bananas?”
“What?” asked Alex.
“Nothing.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” he complained.
“Nothing is worse than bananas. As in, you could have bananas or you could have nothing.”
“Oh, now I get it!”
“Durian is worse than nothing,” Dan said.
“Hmm, would you rather have nothing or durian?” I asked.
“I’d need to have a few days of nothing before having durian!”
By the time we got to the subway we were all pretty much done in. The train was also very full, with attendants on the platforms forcing people on, and everyone becoming more like sardines at every station. We had 14 stops to travel, and one-by-one got a seat by the time we had five stops left.
As we walked home, the idea of going to the buffet/smorgasbord place didn’t appeal, so we grabbed some McDonald’s takeaways, and then some drinks and bananas from the nearby shop, and went back to our apartment.
I looked at our step counters, and we’d walked somewhere between 22,709 and 25,879 (depending on whose phone you looked at), and most of them were probably actual steps!
We’d all be sleeping well tonight!
Or not, if our joints stiffened up…
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