But nothing is simple.
CHINA: PART FIVE
Mondays are viewed with disdain, the one thing that is sure to spoil any weekend, but on this particularly Monday we were up early (not necessarily awake I might add) and ready to visit one of the most significant historical sites in China. Of course, being on tour does screw up your sense of time so half of us probably had no idea what day let alone date it was. I never considered the Great Wall to be much of a big deal, but I found myself very much looking forward to seeing it that morning. My knee injury from the Guangzhou dodgems incident had been sore for the last few days, a reaction to the drop in temperature. I was worried that it might impair my ability to climb the wall, but with my mentholatum rub and ‘Voltalen’, I was sure things would be fine.
Before we got to the Wall, though, we made a brief stop at a jade factory. The visit was like a repeat of the pearl and silk factories: they gave us some background on jade, how it’s used, how to spot fakes, and then shepherded us into their huge showroom of very pricey souvenirs. Our stay there was quite rushed so we could have as much time as possible at the Wall.
We reached the Great Wall with little fanfare. One moment we were driving down the motorway, the next we were surrounded by mountains - and off to our right was a really large chunk of the Wall. As we got closer our excitement began to overfill the bus. It’s amazing how things you’ve seen hundreds of times in books and on television always look somewhat surreal when you see them right before you. I couldn’t believe we were staring right at a section of the Great Wall, let alone getting the chance to walk up it. We gathered our layers and got off the bus. We were actually pretty lucky as there was no wind that day which made the climb a lot easier. Those that were foolish to think they could run up the Wall were met with a nasty realisation after sprinting just one tiny section - this was going to be tough. The first few sections were a struggle. The steps were step and very worn down, and in some places the handrail was slipping off the wall. There were parts that were terrifyingly narrow. But as we climbed higher, the path became easier to navigate, and the view became richer with every step. For a few of us it took about 40 minutes to reach the top. I took and hour and a half because my knee started playing up halfway, but when I climbed on top of that tower it was so worth it. The view was just priceless, and the air so fresh. I didn’t want to come down, it felt so peaceful up there. Sadly, our bus was waiting for us so we had to get a move on. Even though it took a fraction of the time, in some places it was harder getting down. My knee was starting to get really sore which complicated things, but I soldiered on and made my way down slowly.
While we were at lunch, the absurdity of our morning kept replaying in my mind: we’d only just climbed the Great Wall. There were plenty of moments like this on our trip, but this was by far the best.
As expected after such an eventful morning, the afternoon was a little more down-key. We got through the Ming Tombs pretty quickly. I found the exhibition rooms there of the artefacts collected from the tombs quite fascinating. There were a lot of things I’d never even seen or heard of before. As with a lot of the places we visited, there is a lot of mystery surrounding the tombs, something I have made a point to read up on. When we arrived at Sacred way the sun was setting very quickly, along with the temperature. We had to race through the statues, but we still found time to fool around. Leight and I had photos taken on top of one of the stone horses - very, very cold and not the most comfortable of positions to be in.
By the end of the day we were absolutely exhausted, yet we still scrounged up the energy to have a night out in Beijing. While we were out that night we had to face a set of beggar kids again - it was pretty frightening when they chased us down an entire block. We also saw a man get beat up on a street corner by a group of young men, some with baseball bats. When they finally relented and left he pulled himself into the safety of a taxi. A very eventful day indeed.
On our free and final day in Beijing many of us made the most of it to do some last minute shopping. A few of us went to the newly reopened Old Silk Road markets which I thought were much better in terms of quality, choice and cleanliness than the other markets we had visited in Beijing. I purchased a few finals gifts for friends as well as more Polo’s (yes, it was getting increasingly more disturbing this fascination with Polo’s - and I’m saddened to say it didn’t end there). I spent most of the afternoon packing, experimenting with different methods in an attempt to fit everything in. A small group of us had our final dinner in China at the diner across the road from our hotel. I succumbed and had my first taste of meat on a stick. We had noticed throughout our travels in China that Chinese people really like the meats on sticks. I guess it’s easy to walk and eat at the same time, skewer safety aside.
We didn’t get much sleep that night. We were all packing and discarding of all unnecessary items. A discard pile in the hallway was quickly growing by the minute - toiletries, old clothes from home, new clothes from China, unfinished Milo, it was all there. We decided to bundle it all up and leave it for some beggars but I don’t know what the final fate of those bags were.
We were up by 4:00am. Our bus collected us and took us to the airport. It was a strange bus ride - Beijing was asleep, the streets had a haze of comedown. We were all pretty silent the whole way, either from tiredness, or reflection, or both. As I stared out those windows, everything we had experienced began to filter through my mind. It seemed impossible that I had seen and done so much in such a short amount of time, that I had made so many new friends, friends that will forever be a part of me for the rest of my life. It’s no wonder we all bonded so quickly - everything we experienced we had been through together, and all those emotions of happiness, sadness and relief were what we had all felt as we took that first step onto the plane that morning back in Auckland, to the first step into our ancestral home, to the final step on the Great Wall.
Mondays are viewed with disdain, the one thing that is sure to spoil any weekend, but on this particularly Monday we were up early (not necessarily awake I might add) and ready to visit one of the most significant historical sites in China. Of course, being on tour does screw up your sense of time so half of us probably had no idea what day let alone date it was. I never considered the Great Wall to be much of a big deal, but I found myself very much looking forward to seeing it that morning. My knee injury from the Guangzhou dodgems incident had been sore for the last few days, a reaction to the drop in temperature. I was worried that it might impair my ability to climb the wall, but with my mentholatum rub and ‘Voltalen’, I was sure things would be fine.
Before we got to the Wall, though, we made a brief stop at a jade factory. The visit was like a repeat of the pearl and silk factories: they gave us some background on jade, how it’s used, how to spot fakes, and then shepherded us into their huge showroom of very pricey souvenirs. Our stay there was quite rushed so we could have as much time as possible at the Wall.
We reached the Great Wall with little fanfare. One moment we were driving down the motorway, the next we were surrounded by mountains - and off to our right was a really large chunk of the Wall. As we got closer our excitement began to overfill the bus. It’s amazing how things you’ve seen hundreds of times in books and on television always look somewhat surreal when you see them right before you. I couldn’t believe we were staring right at a section of the Great Wall, let alone getting the chance to walk up it. We gathered our layers and got off the bus. We were actually pretty lucky as there was no wind that day which made the climb a lot easier. Those that were foolish to think they could run up the Wall were met with a nasty realisation after sprinting just one tiny section - this was going to be tough. The first few sections were a struggle. The steps were step and very worn down, and in some places the handrail was slipping off the wall. There were parts that were terrifyingly narrow. But as we climbed higher, the path became easier to navigate, and the view became richer with every step. For a few of us it took about 40 minutes to reach the top. I took and hour and a half because my knee started playing up halfway, but when I climbed on top of that tower it was so worth it. The view was just priceless, and the air so fresh. I didn’t want to come down, it felt so peaceful up there. Sadly, our bus was waiting for us so we had to get a move on. Even though it took a fraction of the time, in some places it was harder getting down. My knee was starting to get really sore which complicated things, but I soldiered on and made my way down slowly.
While we were at lunch, the absurdity of our morning kept replaying in my mind: we’d only just climbed the Great Wall. There were plenty of moments like this on our trip, but this was by far the best.
As expected after such an eventful morning, the afternoon was a little more down-key. We got through the Ming Tombs pretty quickly. I found the exhibition rooms there of the artefacts collected from the tombs quite fascinating. There were a lot of things I’d never even seen or heard of before. As with a lot of the places we visited, there is a lot of mystery surrounding the tombs, something I have made a point to read up on. When we arrived at Sacred way the sun was setting very quickly, along with the temperature. We had to race through the statues, but we still found time to fool around. Leight and I had photos taken on top of one of the stone horses - very, very cold and not the most comfortable of positions to be in.
By the end of the day we were absolutely exhausted, yet we still scrounged up the energy to have a night out in Beijing. While we were out that night we had to face a set of beggar kids again - it was pretty frightening when they chased us down an entire block. We also saw a man get beat up on a street corner by a group of young men, some with baseball bats. When they finally relented and left he pulled himself into the safety of a taxi. A very eventful day indeed.
On our free and final day in Beijing many of us made the most of it to do some last minute shopping. A few of us went to the newly reopened Old Silk Road markets which I thought were much better in terms of quality, choice and cleanliness than the other markets we had visited in Beijing. I purchased a few finals gifts for friends as well as more Polo’s (yes, it was getting increasingly more disturbing this fascination with Polo’s - and I’m saddened to say it didn’t end there). I spent most of the afternoon packing, experimenting with different methods in an attempt to fit everything in. A small group of us had our final dinner in China at the diner across the road from our hotel. I succumbed and had my first taste of meat on a stick. We had noticed throughout our travels in China that Chinese people really like the meats on sticks. I guess it’s easy to walk and eat at the same time, skewer safety aside.
We didn’t get much sleep that night. We were all packing and discarding of all unnecessary items. A discard pile in the hallway was quickly growing by the minute - toiletries, old clothes from home, new clothes from China, unfinished Milo, it was all there. We decided to bundle it all up and leave it for some beggars but I don’t know what the final fate of those bags were.
We were up by 4:00am. Our bus collected us and took us to the airport. It was a strange bus ride - Beijing was asleep, the streets had a haze of comedown. We were all pretty silent the whole way, either from tiredness, or reflection, or both. As I stared out those windows, everything we had experienced began to filter through my mind. It seemed impossible that I had seen and done so much in such a short amount of time, that I had made so many new friends, friends that will forever be a part of me for the rest of my life. It’s no wonder we all bonded so quickly - everything we experienced we had been through together, and all those emotions of happiness, sadness and relief were what we had all felt as we took that first step onto the plane that morning back in Auckland, to the first step into our ancestral home, to the final step on the Great Wall.