THE GREAT STALL

My first piece of advice for anyone who plans to visit the Great Wall of China is not to go on the weekend that includes the May 1st Labor Day holiday. We had anticipated lots of traffic, so our tour leader, Carolyn, contacted the tour company and told her we would be arriving an hour earlier than previously announced. She said “Great, the earlier the better.” So, as we waited for one hour for our guide to arrive, we were not happy. Even the other Cruise Critic group who were using a cheaper, less reputable company had already left when she finally arrived. Sabrina, the guide, told us that she had the email that she had been sent but obviously it had been before the latest arrangement with the company.
While driving through the city of Xingang, the guide had a slight melt-down because of our unhappiness about the hour late start and after a phone call to the company to voice our displeasure, we finally got everything resolved and decided that from then on we would have a good time. We passed a school where the students were parading outside in their Labor Day observance for the next day’s holiday.



School’s Labor Day Parade

We then started our long trip to Beijing, 3 hours away. Along the way, we saw the farmers’ compounds where they lived in mud brick joined houses with terra cotta tiled roofs. There were large ponds all over the place that we thought might be fish farms but turned out to be irrigation reservoirs.



Farming Compound



Compound Reservoir

Our first stop in Beijing was to be the 2008 Olympic venues because the traffic would be too bad in the afternoon. The traffic was bad enough during the morning – I think all 18 million who live in Beijing were driving on the freeway. As we crawled along we had plenty of time to see the parks along the way. Most of them had trees with bare branches but fruit trees were starting to blossom in some. I loved looking into one and seeing where the businessmen had hung their suit jackets on the bare branches in order to practice with their Chinese YoYos. We also saw many familiar chain brands that we were surprised to find here.



Chinese YoYos



Familiar Sign

We arrived there at the Olympic venues around 12:15, stopped on the side of the freeway for a few minutes to take pictures and then moved on before the traffic police could cite us. So after almost 4 hours in the bus, we found out that it would be another hour to the Badaling section of the Great Wall.



Birds Nest



Water Cube



Dragon (Converted to Hotel)

Unfortunately, the best preserved and most accessible section of the Great Wall wasn’t the first section we passed. On the way, after passing a bankrupt theme park that never saw a single visitor, we passed gateways to several sections of the Wall before we arrived at our destination. So, we had plenty of opportunity to take shots of the Wall before we arrived.



Bankrupt Theme Park



First View of the Great Wall



First Entry



First Section from Bus

We finally arrived at the Badaling Section of the Great Wall at 12:15. It had taken us almost 5 hours to get there. We immediately climbed aboard the cable cars and began the ascent up the steep mountain to actually get on the Wall. After seeing the other sections of the Wall on the way that were relatively empty of people, it was a shock to see so many at this section, especially since the first 30 or 40 feet was a really steep ramp that had been worn smooth. It was almost impossible to stand upright and to move you were in constant danger of your feet slipping out from under you. Bill and I never actually got on the Wall together, so had to pass up our picture I had wanted for next year’s Christmas newsletter. (Of course, I never got this year’s done, so that may have been overly optimistic anyway.) I did get a shot of him with the Wall in the background, though.



Cable Car



And It Keeps Going



Bill with the Wall



So Many People



I Got Up This Far

We had been on the Wall for about ½ hour when the other CC group arrived. It turned out that even though they had left ½ hour before we did, their driver didn’t seem to know where he was going and it had taken all this time for them to come straight to the Wall. They had arranged to pick up a box lunch to eat in the van and they said they were going to stay 10 minutes and then go directly back. With that, we decided to skip our lunch and also start directly back. Our guide kept insisting that the traffic wouldn’t be so bad on the way back because we weren’t going to go through the city but directly back to the ship by a different highway and we had time for lunch. After the morning ride, though, we didn’t believe her and gave up our lunch anyway (as if we couldn’t have given up several days’ lunches without hurting any of us). We then headed back through the countryside.



Last View from the Bus



Spring Planting



Wildflowers

Our exciting ride then started. We got onto one of the Outer Ring Roads that surround the city and experienced Chinese driving practices. There were signs along the highway that said in English “Oversize Vehicles Keep Right” but I have no idea what they said in Mandarin, since every truck on the road seemed to be in the left lane or blocking both lanes at the same time. Our driver was a pro, though. He would zoom up to the tailgate of a truck and even if there was another truck in the left lane coming up on first one, he would zip in between the 2 with inches to spare. If they were blocking both lanes, then he would take our 45 person bus on the shoulder to pass, never slowing down a bit. One of the guys came up to the front of the bus to film out of the front windshield because no one at home would ever believe this ride. We came up to where one lane was cordoned off and we were saying “No – he wouldn’t, would he?” And yes he did, right down the cordoned off lane! We were just hoping it wasn’t coned off because a bridge was out or construction trucks were parked in the way. At one point, we came up to a toll booth and found out there was an accident on the road he meant to take. So he just crossed over the low divider into the oncoming traffic, turned the bus around and went back the way we had come to find another clear roadway. We passed another off ramp where we could see traffic stopped for an accident. The drivers all were turning around and going against oncoming traffic to get off the ramp, so it must be the accepted practice. But we were supposed to be back the ship at 5:30 for a 6:00 departure and we were there at 5:15.
The other group wasn’t so lucky. Their driver had taken them back into the city to go to the Olympic venues, even though they said they wanted to skip them. But their guide didn’t seem speak English so they ended up in the city with the preholiday Friday night traffic. They did get back to Xingang a little after 6 and they were in contact with the port agent to let them know they were going to be late, but then their driver took them back to the wrong port and they spent another ½ hour for him to find the right one. Meanwhile, their passports were ready to be given to the authorities at the port so that they would have them to fly to our next port in Dalian. They arrived just as the ship’s gangplanks were being taken up. But then the Chinese officials were not going to let them through to get on the ship. The Captain and the security officers were yelling at the officials to let them through and they still refused to let them get on. Finally, after 5 minutes of yelling, they were finally able to get back on.
After all of that, we were even more grateful for our driver, even if the ride had its scary moments.