Oh great, where's the wall?

JULY 9TH, 2018

On our final day in Beijing we made our way to the Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall. On the way we got to experience the chaos of Beijing traffic and the amount of smog in various parts of the city. It was an overcast day but we could still see the wall as we approached and were excited to finally see this icon up close! There is something surreal about visiting a place you vividly remember learning about as a child and imaging what it would be like to visit. 

Despite the fog and passing rain, we could make out various watch towers in the distance and see just how big the wall truly is. We walked between several towers. Some workers were replacing the steps on a section, and we asked if we could have a piece and they handed it to us. After a day we realized we were just carrying a piece of modern concrete, and decided to leave it behind. 

There were portions with steep and uneven steps, but it was a fairly easy walk. We took another ice cream break while waiting out the rain and then headed back down. When looking at a map, we saw that despite spending a couple hours there, we had walked just a tiny portion of the wall, and we could put into the perspective how huge the wall must be. Not only did they make a wall that was this large, but it was designed to be walked on!

Final thoughts on Beijing:
For some reason we were pretty anxious about coming here, the same kind of feelings we had about going to Russia. We had heard mixed reviews of people who either loved or hated the city but mostly were told it was incredibly dirty and the smog was unbearable. Maybe we got lucky with the time we were there, but while there was definitely some smog it wasn’t as bad as imagined and the city was actually incredibly clean! There are of course some dirty parts, but no different than what we might see in Chicago.

The city is HUGE! While places may look close on the map they would actually be a half hour away to walk to. That is where their amazing subway system was helpful and so efficient. We filled every day as much as we possibly could and still barely scratched the surface of exploring all the city has to offer. We also felt very safe the entire time both on the subway and walking around in different neighborhoods. We did notice, either on the subway or random signage, propaganda media where they were either showing how great their military successes are or how the police will catch you. There was definitely no lack of cameras watching and we had to go through metal detectors and baggage x-rays every time we took the subway.

Chuck kept noticing different car related things. A lot of cars are covered up with a full car cover and they also cover the wheels with either boards or pieces of plastic. Since people are only allowed to drive their cars on certain days, they have to park their cars for extended periods of time, and without garages, they use car covers (which also protect from acid rain), and the wheel covers are to protect from dogs peeing on them. Who would of thought?

Traffic here is insane, as is walking places. We realized the trick to crossing any street is to just walk and cars, scooters, and bikes somehow move all around you. If you want to cross a street and hesitate there is no way cars will stop for you. It also appears that stop signs and traffic signals are sometimes optional.  

Also, people who live in the Hutong neighborhoods do everything outside. We saw people brushing their teeth, making meals, bathing children, and selling items all from the same front steps at various points in the day. 

Finally, we also discovered that squat toilets aren't as scary as we thought they would be!