Ba Da Ling Great Wall

One More Train Trip:

For our Final Adventure in Beijing this year, we decided that the Great Wall of China would be a perfect topper to our little slice of China. We were going to go to the Simatai section of the wall, since it was reported to have the least tourists, and the least rebuilding. We would have been able to see it in it's weathered condition. Thursday as I mentioned in a previous blog, was the most drastic cold front in Beijing yet, and the temperature hasn't made it above freezing since. We couldn't justify taking a 2 day trip out to the Simatai portion of the wall in this weather, so we settled for the closest, most touristy section of the wall, the Ba Da Ling Great Wall.

We actually woke up this morning, pretty early. We were going to head out early, but we really just lingered until 11am in the apartment. I am going to chalk this up to the cold temperatures. Thanks to Fan, we were prepared, and knew the perfect way to reach the great wall. There is a fast train that goes from Beijing North Railway station on the S2 line that is inexpensive and goes straight to the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall. We caught a taxi and headed to Beijing North Railway Station.

Despite it's opening in August of this year, the station is still incomplete. It's a bit of a maze to make it to the actual railway, but the path is well marked (In Chinese) and pretty easy to find. We bought 2 first class seats (a price difference of 3 RMB per seat between first and second class) grabbed some snacks for the train (Beijing street foods) and headed in to the railway waiting area. It was about ten minutes and the train arrived. We loaded up into the train and headed out.

The first class seats are spaced widely apart. The fascinating thing is that you can actually swivel the "row" of 2 seats around to face the ones behind them. There is a table/tray stowed in the back of each chair. Cullen and I took our seats and got ready for the 1 hour train ride. The seats were comfortable, the train was cozy, and we were prepared for a wonderful ride. The first class area was pretty empty. About 2/3 of the seats were empty. We had a very young couple next to us, a pair of girls behind us that were a little older than the couple, and two men directly in front of us. The female in the couple next to us settled all her bags in the two seats in front of her, then popped out her laptop. She immediately blasted the car with Mariah Carey, and her boyfriend, when the announcements came on, was kind enough to turn the volume down out of respect for everyone else in the car. One of the two men in front of us immediately move to the very front of the car into an empty seat once she started the music.

For 1/2 an hour or more, she blasted the same Mariah Carey song on repeat while they both slept. One of the girls behind us finally tapped the boyfriend on the shoulder and he turned it off. She immediately changed to song to another and put that on repeat. It was a song in Chinese, so I'm not sure what it was, but I could probably sing it to you. Cullen and I were both excited to get off the train and away from that laptop.

Despite this, the train ride was exciting. It went pretty fast and the ride was relatively smooth. Once we saw the Great Wall, all I could say was "wow". It really is an awe inspiring sight the way it snakes over the mountains. I have heard it described as a 'dragons spine laid over the mountains,' and I could think of no better description.

Where's a slip and slide when you need it:

We walked out of the train station and up up up toward the entrance to the Ba Da Ling Great Wall. This section has been developed so that even the disabled can climb the wall. I don't think we actually climbed the side that is disability friendly though. Once we started climbing the wall Cullen remarked, "China has the best paved hiking trails." The inclines on some of the spots in the wall were ridiculous. There was one part, where we were coming down, where we couldn't even see the stairs from the beginning of the set of stairs, the incline was so steep. I could see myself tumbling to my doom, and not stopping until a nice sharp curve in the wall. We were really lucky it hadn't snowed. I wouldn't have braved the wall under those conditions.

I have read several posts about very persistent vendors at the Ba Da Ling Great Wall, so I was prepared to be ambushed at the entrance where all the shops were. These posts neglect to mention that the vendors are actually ON the WALL while you are struggling to climb up. They are gathered in clumps in places where people take a break from the steep incline, and ambush you when you are half out of breath. It's really just a matter of ignoring them though they will yell after you for a bit. Cullen didn't have a scarf for our journey, so he decided to bargain for one, since there was no shortage of scarf vendors. She started pretty high, but Cullen managed to get her down to a reasonable price. We walked to the fort at the top, then worked our way down again... being stopped by another vendor, who knew how much he had paid for the scarfs and offered him a slightly lower price. It's really amazing how they communicate with each other. When we passed the scarf-vendor he had bought the scarf from, they wanted to know how much he had paid for a book of the great wall he had bought from another guy. It's really funny. I love the vendors here. They are all such good sports and so friendly. It's so much fun to watch Cullen bargain with them. Even though I know they are just trying to sell things, they really are amazingly friendly. One lady, while her partner was bargaining with Cullen, helped me correctly pronounce the phrase for "how much is it" in Chinese.

After making it off the wall and back to the train station, I stood in a very short line for tickets for the return trip. While I was in line, a man with a camel sauntered by the railway station. Cullen quickly grabbed the camera from me and went to go try and take photos. He returned with three photos of him and the camel. I don't think it spit on him either.

The sun had set by the time we settled onto the train back. We were hoping for a much more pleasant ride, in a similar time span. This ride actually took about 1/2 an hour longer than the trip there, and despite the no smoking sign on the train, the car was filled with cigarette smoke the whole ride back. This time, the train didn't go as fast between stops and was a bit more rough.

Fancy Pants and his amazing Dance:

When we got off we were both starving, so we decided that the Pizza Hut marked on the map near the railway station would be a fair enough stop for dinner. Through a bit of adventure that I will omit here (Cullen can tell everyone if he likes) we managed to find the mall containing the Pizza Hut. When we entered the mall, the temperature change was drastic and welcome. I pulled my cap off and loosened my scarf. We seemed to have entered in the middle of a break dancing contest complete with a huge sound system and dance floor. It appeared to be the preliminary rounds when we arrived and we were too hungry to watch much before dinner, so up to the second level we went for some Pizza Hut excitement.

Dinner as usual in Pizza Hut. When we were done, I decided to snap a bit of video from the dance contest. It was nifty. Then we caught a taxi home. Our final adventure was complete with a bit of surprise dazzle at the end.