I’m jumping around a bit in the timeline of my travels (or does it count as my travels now if I semi-live in China? Hmm…food for thought!). Anyway, my last post was about Melbourne in February. Jump ahead to March 26th and I’ve been in China for exactly a month and it’s my 23rd birthday. I don’t really ever suffer from homesickness, it’s not that I don’t like home or the people there…I do! But events like birthdays are a strange time to be away from home. At home, late March is a busy time with my Mum’s birthday, my parents’ wedding anniversary, mine and my Dad’s birthday all within a week (in fact mine and my Dad’s are on the same day!). Add to this the fact that at university two of my housemates shared the same week as me for their big days and you’ve got a time that is usually filled with celebrations with friends and family. Being thousands of miles away puts a bit of a spanner in the works for that!
I’d already made some lovely friends in Jinan, but a lot of them were working…I mean volunteering of course…student visas and whatnot 😉 *cough cough*. I didn’t really fancy the idea of worki-volunteering on my birthday so I planned to go to the capital to celebrate. Luckily, my friend Frankie has lived there for the past couple of years. So I popped on the bullet train, a return being a reasonable £40 and taking about 2 hours each way. It was great to have a familiar face to spend my birthday with, making me feel a bit closer to home. She also planned a fantastic weekend for me, with lots of food and fun!
Great Wall
Not many people get to visit the Great Wall in their lifetime. Even fewer can say they have celebrated their birthday on this wonder of the world. I was very lucky to turn 23 here! I was lucky enough to have previously visited in 2012 whilst teaching English at Tsinghua University. Unfortunately, it was very smoggy the day I went. I like to say that it was ‘atmospheric’ when people ask me about the experience. But in truth, I was keen to go and actually be able to see the view.
And what a view it was, we were very lucky to have an uncharacteristically clear day in Beijing for our trip. We could see the wall snaking away far into the distance for miles and miles. Last time I went to Mutianyu, a busy tourist spot of the wall that is famous for having a slide down. Other popular parts that are easy to get to include Badaling. These parts of the wall have mostly been restored, so they are intact and easy to walk along. Being closer to central Beijing and easier to get to means these areas are more touristy and busy. In peak season they can be very crowded.
We decided to go to a further away, unrestored part of the wall – Gu Bei Kou. After a long, cramped ride, my first view of a bit of rubble didn’t fill me with joy. However, I quickly realised coming to this part of the wall was SO much more interesting than going to some of the more touristy parts. The wall had completely fallen away at points, creating dramatic sheer edges with a helpful piece of ‘highly safe’ bamboo fencing to save you from falling. Being on such an exposed part of the wall, the wind was strong, making some parts feel a bit dangerous. But I like high places so I loved it!
Top Tips:
- Tours: If you decide to go with a tour company rather than go it alone (probably a good idea if you don’t speak much Mandarin), be careful to research the tour provider. DON’T go for street-side tour vendors. Go with a hostel or a a tour group recommended in a guide book. There are so many touts for this famous landmark or just generally terrible tours. My friends had a hilariously bad experience the weekend before during which their tour guide had given them less than 40 minutes on the wall, threatening to leave them there if they didn’t make it back in time. He proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon taking them to his friends’ shops and then pretty much abandoned them on the way home telling them the traffic was too bad and that they should get the metro.
- Traffic: Which leads me to another warning, Beijing’s traffic is terrible. Although, saying that, a recent Tsinghua University study deemed Jinan (my current city) to have the worst traffic in China. Make sure you get up early to give you plenty of time to beat the traffic and give you lots of time on the wall.
- Know your stop: If you make the trip alone and don’t go through a tour company, make sure you are well versed on where to get off your bus. Lots of people, including the officials at the bus station, will recommend you get off at earlier stops where their friend will be conveniently waited to give you an extortionately priced taxi ride to the wall.
- Make friends: The chances are, even if you are going to a deserted part of the wall, there will be other tourists. There were only three of us, meaning a taxi for the last stint would be quite pricey, but we managed to find some American tourists who we shared a taxi with. Splitting the cost between 6 made a big difference!
- Layer up: Think weather smart. Even if it’s boiling when you’re walking around it can get pretty windy on the wall. So bring a jumper.
Birthday Cake…and burgers…and curry…YUM!
Don’t get me wrong, I love Chinese food. But sometimes it’s nice to have some Western treats. Living in the very Chinese city of Jinan, these are often few and far between. So Beijing was a veritable smorgasbord of nostalgic treats.
As well as Chinese food, Frankie took me to some amazing restaurants around Wudaokou, the vibrant student area where she lives. She bought me amazing cheesecake as a birthday cake and, even better than that, gave me MARMITE AND PROPER BUTTERED TOAST as a birthday breakfast, later making marmite and cheese sandwiches for lunch on the wall. This might not sound that exciting, but when you’ve been away from good bread and any type of cheese full stop for a while this is ridiculously exciting! Oh wow, remembering it is making me sad. I want it right now. I also had one of the nicest curries I think I’ve ever had. It might be because I haven’t eaten Indian food in a while making it taste better, but anyway, it was really good. The restaurant was Khan Ba Ba, again close to Wudaokou station.
In the absence of proper birthday cake (cheesecake is a little hard to transport!), birthday cake flavour Oreos made a great substitute as a Great Wall treat. They have sprinkles inside! Having since eaten Oreos at Tiger Leaping Gorge and on Taishan, I’ve made a plan to eat them on every important Chinese site I go to.
I was also very excited to go to the well stocked D-Mart in Wudaokou. I bought a HUGE tub of hot chocolate to keep me going. Try as I might, they simply look at me blankly as if hot chocolate is the weirdest concept in the world when I try to buy it in Jinan.
I did also eat SOME Chinese food! A lovely Chinese lunch gave me a great excuse to catch up with another Study China pal, Ella, who is studying on the same scholarship as me at Peking University. She also blogs here. Have a read!
Tsinghua Throwback
My first introduction to China was way back in 2012 when I was an assistant teacher at Tsinghua University. Back then, I didn’t really understand that Tsinghua was a good uni. Now I know that it’s really joint first with Peking as the top uni in China. So little 19 year old me who had never taught properly in my life was teaching some of China’s best and brightest.
I had lots of fun hanging out in Wudaokou back then and making the most of all of China’s tourist spots. I was really excited when I arrived at Frankie’s and realised how close I was to Tsinghua’s campus. Well, actually not that close. When I was in Beijing I had had a bike, rented from the fabulously name Dr. Hu (no joke!). That had made the journey from Wudaokou to campus seem like mere minutes. It was actually a really long walk! But somehow I remembered it and was pleased and surprised nothing had really changed. All the markers I had used back then to orientate myself were still there: the C store, the various little cafes and canteens. I had a great, nostalgic hour of two wandering around revisiting the beautiful campus.
Verdict: I love Beijing, it actually made me quite sad to visit. As much as I enjoy living in Jinan and am glad I’m getting a more ‘authentic’ Chinese experience, it does feel a little bit like I’m living in a bubble. Being a big city, Beijing feels like a place I could live more of a normal life. Plus, having spent an amazing month there a couple of years ago, it will always be associated with fun for me. I’m going to be taking my friend Elly there when she comes to visit and hopefully I’ll be able to fit in another trip soon. Having been there before, I didn’t do any of the other tourist go to stops (Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Birds Nest…the list goes on). But definitely check those out if you’re visiting the capital city. And also make time for less touristy things like Tsinghua’s beautiful campus if you have time.
Hi, I'm Emma. 
Leave a comment