AceAstro
Well-Known Member
Rope dropping Indiana Jones Adventure > Rope dropping the Forbidden City’s Inner Sanctum
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Reflections of Mainland China - Now With More Thailand
- Thread starter D Hulk
- Start date
Pi on my Cake
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Finally catching up on the past few days. Just really loved this post! Really has that signature @D Hindley wit and polish!Ignore this post.
All the other stuff as been sounding awesome too. Really well written and sounds like a great time!
Given the crowds, I’d say it’s closer to rope dropping Toy Story at DisneySea.
***
Right now I’m with the Intrepid tour group riding a small bus/van hybrid thing out from congested Beijing to a remote section of the Great Wall.
If you don’t hear from me for the next two days, then there’s no reception up there.
Joining up with the group last night was a major shift in the journey. Now I’m with English-speaking companions, all of them crazed world travelers like myself. We’re largely around the same age group, adults with the perfect combo of youthful spirit but with enough age and means to do such a bonkers trip. The tour itself advertised as “adventure style,” quite unlike some more luxurious trips offered by the same company. Our two week itinerary will see us hiking mountains, sleeping on overnight trains, staying in rural guest houses (that’s tonight!) and otherwise getting down ‘n’ dirty with the Chinese culture.
I’m the only American. There are three Brits, who’ve proved so far to be my closest companions. There are four Australians, mostly older characters, one of them very (Marvin) much the Down Under equivalent of a toothless old-timey gold prospector. He literally makes a living by scrounging. There’s a Swiss couple who are very friendly (they love my stories of L.A. wildlife) despite limited English. And there’s our guide, a Xi’an native who has us calling him “Howard.” His real name is Hu.
Last night there was a lengthy introduction to how the trip will work, followed by a brief guided walking tour of the hutong area near our hotel. Afterwards I split off with the Brits to find some traditional cuisine. We stopped in a simple lovely hole-in-the-wall staffed by a 7-year-old waiter.
This kid was a real pleasure, practicing his English and even tricking my mate Tony into ordering two enteees (the kid then ate one of them). 
For my part I ordered a whole catfish, absolutely drenched in garlic and ginger flavoring. 
That night our group stayed in the same hotel I’ve been enjoying. The plan had been to pair travelers up “two to a room,” but somehow due to a gender disparity I got a solo room. Woohoo!
This morning was technically free time in Beijing before our Great Wall Ride. Still, most of us opted to go with Hu on a mini-tour back into the hutongs surrounding the Drum and Bell Towers.
We headed up there via public bus, crammed shoulder-to-shoulder as seems to be standard daily existence in China. We began by climbing the Drum Tower, just as I did last afternoon, only this time synched carefully to catch a live drum performance.
Oh, and I promised a little history on the Towers. They were Beijing’s official time keepers for 600 years. The bells would sound curfew at night, and the drums would announce the new day. Astounding ancient timepieces like waterclocks helped keep precise time.
Following this we took a quick 20 minute rickshaw tour of the residential hutongs. I rode with my “vacation girlfriend” Anna, a human rights lawyer with a British accent.
After a pleasant ride, the main event began: We were invited into a private home for lunch and a show! What a great chance to see how the average Beijinger lives, something most tourists never glimpse. The home was arranged around a central courtyard, made from basic concrete yet decorated with warm charm. Our hosts were gracious and effervescent.
First up, Mr. Liu the Cricket Fighter demonstrated his traditional cricket-fighting art. I’ve never heard of this before! In days past, a royal court hobby involved breeding and training crickets to battle, much like dogs or Pokémon. Mr. Liu is the reigning cricket champion, with magazine articles to prove it. He enthusiastically showed off finely-carved cricket apparatuses - their bowl, weight scales, battle arena, herding tools, and more. We met a few massive crickets (one named Mike Tyson), and then the grasshoppers came out for some hands-on fun.
Next the housewife demonstrated how to make homemade dumplings from scratch. We all got a chance to try for ourselves, with varying degrees of failure.
Lastly we enjoyed a lunch prepped by the family. It was varied and filling. Naturally, the good dumplings were included in the meal.
Our trek back to the hotel (to meet the bus/van hybrid thing) took us through yet another pedestrian shopping district, this one centered around the canals which feed into Beihai.
That about catches you up with things so far. Today has been a relaxing one, which is great after my two over-ambitious days prior, and with 6 hours of hiking an unrestored section of the Wall coming up tomorrow!
MinnieM123
Premium Member
MinnieM123
Premium Member
@D Hindley -- cricket fighting? Now, that's a new one! 
(Great close-up photos, by the way.)
I continue to be intrigued by all the various meals you've had over there. That catfish looked big--were you able to finish it all?
(Great close-up photos, by the way.)I continue to be intrigued by all the various meals you've had over there. That catfish looked big--were you able to finish it all?
Voxel
President of Progress City
I’ll be hitting on the Japanese night life at some point on my live blog (if I get around to updating it)Oh my!
But basically the Japanese motto is, “take the last train or drink till the bar closes” (which is when the trains start running again so like 5/6am)
DisneyAndUniversalFan
Well-Known Member
i am loving this trip report! forbidden city looks unreal! is it one of the best tourist sites you have seen?
Sans Souci
Well-Known Member
That cricket...
That looks like a praying mantis/grasshopper hybrid.
That looks like a praying mantis/grasshopper hybrid.
Right now we’re riding the bus/van hybrid thing back into Beijing. Tonight we’ll be riding an overnight sleeper train to Xi’an, deep in China’s interior.
The last day and a half have been spent way out along a remote section of the Great Wall of China and in the surrounding villages. This has been tiring, astounding, and overwhelming. I’ll try my best to recap it.
Two days ago we arrived in a tiny mountain village whose name I never caught. This has been a traditional farming village for generations, but has recently converted around a backpacking tourist economy for folks like us visiting the Wall. The Chinese government pays the residents to remain and accommodate travelers.
We stayed in a guesthouse which has been converted into a really rather nice travel lodge. It seems due to the group’s breakdown of gender and nationality, I’ll be licking out every single night with a private room to myself. (Too bad it was placed directly above the downstairs toilet.)
We reached the village in late afternoon; with little to do before the big hike the following day. We wandered the village, separately and as a group, admiring the river passing through and learning of traditional rural Chinese life.
We also took a little sneak peak at the nearest stretch of Wall, starting by the gate tower on the village’s hilly outskirts. Here is where eons ago the Chinese would oversee trade with the Mongolians, with a small section of Wall for peaceful interactions. There is a wretched humid haze covering all the distant mountain ranges, making visibility difficult. Further sections of Wall are hard to make out. Around here the Wall is in heavy disrepair, and it’s totally crumbled into rubble in many spots. Those famous images of the Wall swarming with tourists, that section we won’t be seeing, favoring this bucolic, isolated, adventurous stretch instead.
Our hosts provided dinner at the guesthouse, followed by a demonstration and lesson on paper cutting art. The artisan makes incredibly fragile, detailed works of art just by cutting thin rice paper with scissors. My attempt to cut out a butterfly looked monstrous.
There wasn’t much more to do this night other than pound down huge bottles of Chinese beer. We all turned in around 10 or so (no @Voxel style nightlife in the WiFi-free wilderness). Jet lag has affected everyone differently. The Aussies are barely impacted, while I’ve been waking up early and wandering, and the Europeans have been sleeping in until activities begin for the day.
For this reason I wound up hiking 1.5 miles throughout the village the following morning alone in the peaceful morning mist. Later I found Martin (the eccentric I misidentified before as Marvin) also exploring, long before anyone else awoke.
Eventually all were roused, and everyone took in a hearty breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs and melons all done Chinese style. We collected our bag lunches. The day’s remainder - most of what we did yesterday - would involve hiking the Great Wall up and over stone steps, rising and falling with the mountains’ ridge lines, totaling 10 miles trekked and 240 floors climbed. Up next!
The last day and a half have been spent way out along a remote section of the Great Wall of China and in the surrounding villages. This has been tiring, astounding, and overwhelming. I’ll try my best to recap it.
Two days ago we arrived in a tiny mountain village whose name I never caught. This has been a traditional farming village for generations, but has recently converted around a backpacking tourist economy for folks like us visiting the Wall. The Chinese government pays the residents to remain and accommodate travelers.
We stayed in a guesthouse which has been converted into a really rather nice travel lodge. It seems due to the group’s breakdown of gender and nationality, I’ll be licking out every single night with a private room to myself. (Too bad it was placed directly above the downstairs toilet.)
We reached the village in late afternoon; with little to do before the big hike the following day. We wandered the village, separately and as a group, admiring the river passing through and learning of traditional rural Chinese life.
We also took a little sneak peak at the nearest stretch of Wall, starting by the gate tower on the village’s hilly outskirts. Here is where eons ago the Chinese would oversee trade with the Mongolians, with a small section of Wall for peaceful interactions. There is a wretched humid haze covering all the distant mountain ranges, making visibility difficult. Further sections of Wall are hard to make out. Around here the Wall is in heavy disrepair, and it’s totally crumbled into rubble in many spots. Those famous images of the Wall swarming with tourists, that section we won’t be seeing, favoring this bucolic, isolated, adventurous stretch instead.
Our hosts provided dinner at the guesthouse, followed by a demonstration and lesson on paper cutting art. The artisan makes incredibly fragile, detailed works of art just by cutting thin rice paper with scissors. My attempt to cut out a butterfly looked monstrous.
There wasn’t much more to do this night other than pound down huge bottles of Chinese beer. We all turned in around 10 or so (no @Voxel style nightlife in the WiFi-free wilderness). Jet lag has affected everyone differently. The Aussies are barely impacted, while I’ve been waking up early and wandering, and the Europeans have been sleeping in until activities begin for the day.
For this reason I wound up hiking 1.5 miles throughout the village the following morning alone in the peaceful morning mist. Later I found Martin (the eccentric I misidentified before as Marvin) also exploring, long before anyone else awoke.
Eventually all were roused, and everyone took in a hearty breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs and melons all done Chinese style. We collected our bag lunches. The day’s remainder - most of what we did yesterday - would involve hiking the Great Wall up and over stone steps, rising and falling with the mountains’ ridge lines, totaling 10 miles trekked and 240 floors climbed. Up next!
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I only devoured half that huge catfish. It only cost $5 U.S., making it one of my pricier meals so far. Food is delicious and cheap!
Go home, Voxel, you’re drunk.
I’ll be touring Forbidden City more thoroughly later today, so let’s wait and see!
The Great Wall is teeming with gigantic insects, from crickets to grasshoppers to mantises.That cricket...
That looks like a praying mantis/grasshopper hybrid.
Hiking the Great Wall!
Physically, this wasn’t too far removed from some of the more intense hikes I do at home in the Angeles National Forest. It was less extreme that some (the journey rather beat up a few of my travel mates, though we all completed the entire circuit), but the footing was consistently more uneven.
The day was cool and humid - I’m a desert dweller, and I sweat the most of anyone. There was a hazy inversion later all day long making distant views of mountain peaks and the Wall snaking along them hard to admire. I checked the weather app, which said Beijing was experiencing a smog health advisory. We were beyond that gloom, but still getting some cloudy air pollution all the same.
Even so, the experience was unreal. Other than our own group, there was nobody out hiking this stretch. Very peaceful, especially with the sound of birds, the light breeze, and the smell of plants and dirt. All these are sensory pleasures you just can’t get from pictures. (Hopefully the write up helps!)
As stated before, the initial stretch of Wall was in fairly poor shape. The Wall’s preservation got better and better as we continued, changinf from piles of ancient stones to complete elevated walls. We typically were walking along the top of these walls, not along a paved surface but over natural overgrowth which has reclaimed this section.
The Wall follows the ridges, rising and falling like a wave. The mountains around here aren’t simple spinal ridges and vertical slopes like I know from a California, but random undulating peaks which seemly veer off in every direction. (This morning, with the skies cleared from a rainstorm, we could see distant jagged peaks like dragon teeth.). Every time the Wall reaches the next peak, there is another guard tower. Some of these are is disrepair, but others still have their roofs and their defensive hallways. These spots would occasionally make for great rest stops along the trek.
The first section was the hardest hike because of all the climbing to reach the mountaintops. Only a mile into the hike we’d already climbed 100 floors, equivalent to a skyscraper. After a little more hiking in that manner we paused in the highest guard tower for a lunch break. We all had bananas and spiced veggies in a rice flour wrap - a “Chinese burrito,” to be gauche. I’d packed sunflower honey bars from Beijing, which I shared.
Incidentally, our trail guide was an older Chinese lady who also turned out to be our guesthouse hostess that evening, off in the still-distant village of Jinshanling. She now explained - in Chinese, translated - that the next stretch of Wall would be inaccessible. Evidently the Chinese military still uses this section as a watchtower - it’s somewhat unclear what the present international boundaries are, but that’s China’s problem all over the continent.
To get around this, we marched downslope into a hidden verdant valley for a mile or so. We passed through abandoned farmlands, past ancient wells, a stone farmhouse, and former crops now growing wild. Every single hillside surrounding the Wall, though now overgrown, shows scars of terracing from ages ago - signs of the terrain’s use for agriculture once upon a time.
Along this stretch, I managed to get some pretty neat butterfly pics.
We pause at a National Park gateway, entrance to the Jinshanling portion of the Wall. Here was a lady selling souvenirs and drinks. My 1.5 liters of water (more than most are carrying) is proving insufficient; so I shell out and buy a $2 Coke. (Ugh, Coke Zero!). We rest again, no one talking much but just recovering energy for the continuing journey.
Next up we did a gradual ascent through terraced hills to the proper Jinshanling part of the Wall. This section is immaculately preserved, appearing just as it did centuries ago. (Incidentally, it took several Chinese dynasties 2,000 years to build the Great Wall!) For a while we followed a trail alongside the Wall’s base on the outer, “Mongolian” side. Barbed wire lines the Wall: this is still military domain.
Once we were passed that, a doorway led to a staircase within the Wall, leading up to the top. From here onwards we would walk over actual stone - initially loose and crumbled, it progressively got smoother until it felt like a newly-made brick path. Ascending into each guard tower, we climbed immensely steep stairs, each step 2 feet high. These steps were very tiring; definitely felt it in my calves and glutteous.
Jinshanling is postcard perfect. In fact it’s as beautiful as the popular section of Wall closer to Beijing. Thus far it has been undervisited, but that will change soon. Right now the park service is creating a full-on resort destination at the base below, complete with hotels, malls, IMAX, and a cable car gondola to get visitors up to the section which took us 7 miles of back country hiking to reach. The setting is incredible, the views are unique and stupendous with every step, but I fear many upcoming tourists won’t be able to appreciate the area’s majesty if it’s treated like a Vegas-level resort experience.
Our last hour on the Wall was spent climbing and admiring the exceptional General Tower and similar awesomeness. This was a major artery when the Wall was manned - it’s the Night’s Watch headquarters, and rest assured the Game of Thrones references had already grown tired before we got here. As a part of Jinshanling’s upcoming “gentrification,” we glimpsed the surreal sight of a fancy tablecloth champagne event being set up along the ramparts. Here we were all caked with filth, and event organizers were scurrying about in tuxedos.
The day’s greatest unexpected adventure was about to begin!
You see, this shindig had security guards and other functionaries. Security guards in China aren’t the most creative or flexible minds. They were simple told, “no one gets in, no one gets out.” So our planned route down a wafchtower’s steps to the roadways below - where we were to meet our driver and ride into the village - the guards wouldn’t let us go down there. Yelling and screaming went on for minutes, answering my debate over whether you can sound angry in an inflection-based language. You can!
Eventually our guide Hu simply led us through anyway. The most dogheaded security guard glommed onto us, barking and shouting at each of us in turn (rather impotently, I might add) as we continued on foot down the twisting roadway along an unexpected additional mile to the security checkpoint. Escaping through there we were clear of the guard, though he remained at the boundary vanishing into the distance perpetually hollering Chinese obscenities at us. What a maroon!
We trudged through the under-construction resort complex which will likely be open (based on Chinese construction speeds) two days from now. This will really change the feel of Jinshanling, and I’m grateful to have gotten a chance to see it unspoiled.
The evening was much like the night before, staying in a small rural guesthouse and dining on familiar tasty grub in a nearby inn. This completely off-the-grid village will likely be prospering very soon. As it was, and despite the group’s exhaustion after a 10 mile journey, we were desperate for activities to kill some time before bedtime. There’s nothing to do here! Eventually the innkeeper provided us with a complimentary bottle of rice wine, and that was that.
That about covers it. Likely that’ll be the toughest day of the trip, though there’s plenty of hiking yet to come in places like Huangshan or Disneyland. The Wall was incredible, totally worthwhile and unique!
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
Would you believe I found WiFi on the Great Wall?!
Here’s my view as I type this:
View attachment 313256
A 7 mile hike, over 200 flights. , but totally worth it!!!
I saw this picture and my jaw dropped with a WOW! Fantastic view and photo.
As a little heads up, I’m still alive.
Been too busy or too WiFi-less to do a proper recap of the activities since leaving the Great Wall (I’m falling behind!), but here’s the summary of my last two days:
One final afternoon touring Beijing, complete with a proper visit to Forbidden City, plus an even better visit to the Lama Temple.
Opulent Peking duck dinner.
Overnight train, 11 hours, into China’s interior to the ancient imperial city of Xi’an. Snoozed in a barebones sleeper car with locals.
Exploring Xi’an, including the smaller Goose Pagoda, the city wall, and the Muslim Market.
Lastly, we did a night on the town which climaxed in (and this is no exaggeration) drinking Henessey with the local Triad boss.
Tomorrow we’ll be seeing the Terracotta Warriors and other nearby attractions. Then it’s another overnight train ride, this one a whopping 17 hours into Shanghai.
Will provide full recaps whenever the opportunity arises.
Been too busy or too WiFi-less to do a proper recap of the activities since leaving the Great Wall (I’m falling behind!), but here’s the summary of my last two days:
One final afternoon touring Beijing, complete with a proper visit to Forbidden City, plus an even better visit to the Lama Temple.
Opulent Peking duck dinner.
Overnight train, 11 hours, into China’s interior to the ancient imperial city of Xi’an. Snoozed in a barebones sleeper car with locals.
Exploring Xi’an, including the smaller Goose Pagoda, the city wall, and the Muslim Market.
Lastly, we did a night on the town which climaxed in (and this is no exaggeration) drinking Henessey with the local Triad boss.
Tomorrow we’ll be seeing the Terracotta Warriors and other nearby attractions. Then it’s another overnight train ride, this one a whopping 17 hours into Shanghai.
Will provide full recaps whenever the opportunity arises.
DisneyAndUniversalFan
Well-Known Member
this is totally random but TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!
When this recap last let off two days ago, we were just returning to Beijing via the bus/van hybrid thing. Let’s resume there.
We returned to the hostel (where our larger luggage was being held) a little before noon with around 6 hours for free solo city exploring before regrouping at night. Most did the easy trip to Temple of Heaven, which I saw a whole week ago. I teamed up with Martin the Australian madman (misidentified before as “Marvin”) and a rather staid Britisher named Khanh to properly visit Forbidden City.
Chairman Martin
Last time, I’d misinterpreted the ticketing situation to suggest you could only visit with advance reservations. I was wrong. The three of us speedwalked through Tiananmen Square, which you have to do to reach FC. All this is dead center in Beijing, totally blocking traffic on all sides (which is terrible already), and forcing pedestrian tourists up a one-way route through Tiananmen and then through FC’s mandatory northern exit all automatically creating a multi-mile trek through oppressively huge impersonal spaces. Stuff like this is why Beijing is not a very fun tourist town.
(Of note, it had rained the night before. Beijing’s skies were by a wide margin the clearest we’d seen them, which really helped highlight the city’s monumental sights.)
Anyway, we walked up to the FC ticket booths, strangely identified by signage as a Passport Processing Center. It turns out you don’t receive a ticket after paying for entry. Rather the Chinese government records your passport number (nothing sinister there) and scans your passport at a separate access point. Incidentally, everywhere throughout Beijing you’re always passing through security checkpoints and baggage x-rays, all a part of the local color.
Okay, finally I’d entered the inner sanctum of FC! First we found a massive treeless stone expanse surrounded by monumental architecture. It’s the ancient Ming equivalent of Tiananmen. Then you pass through a foreboding titanic gateway...into an even larger impersonal square.
This sequence happens four or five times, up Buddhist stairs and over uneven cobblestone the whole way. That basically sums up Forbidden City. There are side passageways into smaller-scale sections holding former residences and museum exhibits.
Eventually all the teeming crowds (Beijing got increasingly crowded every day we were there) are bottlenecked together into the northern imperial gardens, before a final gate deposits everyone at the foot of Jingshan Park where I’d already been. Admittedly these final gardens were my favorite part of FC, as they were more intimate and textured, filled with detail and greenery.
But to answer your question, @chriss.moyer, FC is far from my favorite tourist attraction. (By the way, happy birthday!) In fact it was among the less pleasant things I did in Beijing (along with Tiananmen) for the combined reason that visiting each is a hassle. These are THE premiere tourist sites in China, especially for nationalistic Chinese travelers, meaning there’s little sense of exoticism or surprise. It’s like visiting the Louvre or the National Mall or Mecca. If you’re near, you basically have to do them, but the more unique experiences will be more memorable.
By contrast, the Lama Temple which we did next was far more enjoyable!
We returned to the hostel (where our larger luggage was being held) a little before noon with around 6 hours for free solo city exploring before regrouping at night. Most did the easy trip to Temple of Heaven, which I saw a whole week ago. I teamed up with Martin the Australian madman (misidentified before as “Marvin”) and a rather staid Britisher named Khanh to properly visit Forbidden City.
Chairman Martin
Last time, I’d misinterpreted the ticketing situation to suggest you could only visit with advance reservations. I was wrong. The three of us speedwalked through Tiananmen Square, which you have to do to reach FC. All this is dead center in Beijing, totally blocking traffic on all sides (which is terrible already), and forcing pedestrian tourists up a one-way route through Tiananmen and then through FC’s mandatory northern exit all automatically creating a multi-mile trek through oppressively huge impersonal spaces. Stuff like this is why Beijing is not a very fun tourist town.
(Of note, it had rained the night before. Beijing’s skies were by a wide margin the clearest we’d seen them, which really helped highlight the city’s monumental sights.)
Anyway, we walked up to the FC ticket booths, strangely identified by signage as a Passport Processing Center. It turns out you don’t receive a ticket after paying for entry. Rather the Chinese government records your passport number (nothing sinister there) and scans your passport at a separate access point. Incidentally, everywhere throughout Beijing you’re always passing through security checkpoints and baggage x-rays, all a part of the local color.
Okay, finally I’d entered the inner sanctum of FC! First we found a massive treeless stone expanse surrounded by monumental architecture. It’s the ancient Ming equivalent of Tiananmen. Then you pass through a foreboding titanic gateway...into an even larger impersonal square.
This sequence happens four or five times, up Buddhist stairs and over uneven cobblestone the whole way. That basically sums up Forbidden City. There are side passageways into smaller-scale sections holding former residences and museum exhibits.
Eventually all the teeming crowds (Beijing got increasingly crowded every day we were there) are bottlenecked together into the northern imperial gardens, before a final gate deposits everyone at the foot of Jingshan Park where I’d already been. Admittedly these final gardens were my favorite part of FC, as they were more intimate and textured, filled with detail and greenery.
But to answer your question, @chriss.moyer, FC is far from my favorite tourist attraction. (By the way, happy birthday!) In fact it was among the less pleasant things I did in Beijing (along with Tiananmen) for the combined reason that visiting each is a hassle. These are THE premiere tourist sites in China, especially for nationalistic Chinese travelers, meaning there’s little sense of exoticism or surprise. It’s like visiting the Louvre or the National Mall or Mecca. If you’re near, you basically have to do them, but the more unique experiences will be more memorable.
By contrast, the Lama Temple which we did next was far more enjoyable!
MinnieM123
Premium Member
Happy (belated) birthday to you!