BEIJING

From the futuristic shanghai & hong kong, we finally arrived on the third leg of our trip that almost didn’t happen.

Still to this day, Kristina still likes remind me every time we talk about our China trip, that I once I didn’t see the value in seeing the Great Wall of China. Why? Because I believed it was just a wall. What could possibly be so interesting about the wall? Would we just get there & be like, “Ok. We’re here. Now what?” Boy was I wrong. Seeing it with your best friend helps, but the adventure that led us to & from the wall was one we’ll never forget.

If You TAKE AWAY anything from this post: see the DAMN wall.

Tiananmen Square

We arrived in Beijing late in the evening on an extremely rainy night. The taxi took us to an old building that would house a very kind, old woman & her family; the location of our newest AirBNB. We quickly headed to bed, because the next day we had an early 8hr tour that would take us to Tiananmen Square (above), The Forbidden City, & the Great Wall of China.

The Forbidden City

Our tour guide, Vic, took us past the giant lines and swiftly inside the many (emphasis on many) gates of the Forbidden City. Occasionally he would stop to spew us a little bit of Chinese history here & there, and history of the Forbidden City, including the horrors of communism.

I’m just going to go off on a wild limb here and say that I got the vibe that Vic really, really, really dislikes communism.

I have to admit, for me, the history was a lot for me to take in. I mean the people of China have one of the longest running history on Earth & filed with numerous dynasties. But despite all of that, I still found it extremely fascinating. As someone who’s half Vietnamese & half Chinese, I only speak to Vietnamese & I’ve only ever visited Vietnam. Because of that, my Chinese identity has been a kind of lost to me, but for the first time in my life, I heard history that I could finally relate to in my upbring. All the movies my mom had me watch about Chinese emperors, or everything she’s told me about Chinese superstitions; it made everything come full circle.

As we exited the back of the The Forbidden City, we came across a huge hill in front of us. Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that it was manmade! Fun fact: the dirt that makes up the entirety of that hill, came from the dirt they had to dig up, to make the mote around the Forbidden City (see below).

After finishing the Forbidden City, we all hopped back in the van & made a short pitstop at a Jade sculpting factory. There we learned what Jade meant in Chinese culture, how it’s used & about how to decipher different qualities of jade. (I honestly question if it was just Vic taking the opportunity to make commission on our purchases in their Jade shop. This stop wasn’t mentioned on website.)

Then It was off to the great wall of china

On the way of the 2 hour drive to the wall, we stopped for lunch. It wasn’t bad!

The Great Wall

Again, yes. I didn't initially want to go to the Great Wall. This was Kristina’s must for our trip.

What sold me though, was knowing that we Could take a ski lift up, and then slide down the Great wall.

Everyone else in our tour group decided to take the slower gondola, which also meant that you have to take the gondola down. What a bunch of squares! I would say, that to this day, sliding down the Great Wall of China was one of the best things I've ever done. Hands down. Thank you Kristina!

When Vic let us loose at the base of the wall, he gave us about 2 hours to explore it on our own. This included making our way up the wall & down. We were told to return to the map to meet him at 3:15PM. That was when our tour group broke off, with the other 4 heading towards the slow gondola. Kristina & I set our alarms to give us a 30 minute warning of when to start heading down (at 2:45PM) & us two crazy girls were off, speed walking to the ski lifts!

Once we actually got off the lifts, and onto the wall, the view was truly remarkable. To think about how they had to build this huge structure, manually stone by stone, is really something.

we even made a photobombing friend up there!

Eventually, our 2:45 PM alarm rang. It was time to head down.

Kristina & I started walking towards the exit down. It probably took us about a good 10 minutes due to how far we got & how steep the stairs were on the wall. Remember, it’s an old winding wall. Not all of the steps are even. We didn’t come all the way to China to injure ourselves, so we headed back slowly.

The slide down probably took no more than 5 minutes & we arrived back at Vic’s side by 3:00 sharp. Of course it’s kind of hard to convey the slide in photo, so check it out in my vlog (down below). Hands down one of the best things I’ve done abroad; right after skydiving in Australia (here).

Watch our vlog of Beijing here:

The only problem is, by 3:20PM, the rest of our tour group had not shown up. 3:40PM? Nothing.

We began to wonder about their safety. Did they misunderstood the return time? Kristina & I were the only ones in our tour group whose primary language was English. Or did they not simply not pace themselves correctly? Did they get lost? As we pondered on all the possible scenarios, we also had to ask ourselves the question: what do we do if they don’t come back?

How long do we wait & how do we find them?

By 3:50PM, the ever so pleasant Vic was starting to lose his patience. They were delaying him from starting our 2 hour van ride back to Beijing. He apologized that they were wasting our time, then joked that he should charge them extra for making us wait. Luckily though, at 4:00PM, the rest of our tour group came moseying along, down towards the map.

Still to this day, Kristina & I cannot explain why they were late. One person claimed they underestimated how long the gondola ride down would be. Another said they misheard 3:15PM as three-FIFTY. Even then, they were late for 3:50PM.

What made us uncomfortable was what Vic did next.

He began to scold how they had wasted Kristina & mine’s time. By the time we walked back to the van, he demanded 100 Yen from everyone, as a penalty for being late (about $14 USD at the time). I mean I’m sure the driver & Vic had family waiting for their return home, but I didn’t remember reading about this penalty during booking.

The couple from Chile quickly handed over 100 Yen each (cash), as well as the solo girl from the Philippines. The man from france though, only had 80 Yen on him. Vic reiterated how they had made the driver & him late, and wasted (our) time. As the car started moving, the French man insisted that it was all he had. Vic threatened to leave the man on the side of the road if he didn’t pay up (of course he didn’t). His threat like was an empty promise from a parent threatening to turn the car around. What made it the most uncomfortable though, was when vic took part of the cash from the others, he immediately threw half of it in our laps “as an apology” in front of everyone.

In Vietnamese, I asked Kristina what to do, because we definitely didn’t want it, & we definitely didn’t want to be pulled into this.

We were the on time ones! In the end, before getting off the van & when Vic wasn’t looking, we threw the prospective cash back to the others & it was over. We will always remember our Great Wall venture for the amazingness that it was while it lasted, but we will never forget the fear that we felt at the end of the trip. This was a part of the story I didn’t have to tell, but I felt like I needed to. I don’t know what it speaks on the stereotypes that I’ve been taught in my upbringing about the Chinese (keep in mind that ethnically, I’m half Chinese), but it definitely left an interesting taste in my mouth & and an even more interesting final impression of China as we left for South Korea the next day.

Jen