Great Wall of China from melissa kaita on Vimeo.

The Great Wall of China. One of the wonders of the world. Of course we had to visit it since we were in Beijing. We went to the Mutianyu section of the wall, which I would recommend doing if you ever go. The more popular (and closer to Beijing) section is Badaling, but it’s way more tourist-heavy. You’ll see in my photos that Mutianyu wasn’t very busy — if you go to Badaling, you’ll get an experience that looks more like this.

The above video is the cable car ride up the mountain to the wall. It’s not really worth watching for the full five minutes unless you’re really bored or you really like The National. Because I was filming it facing forwards you can’t really tell how high it was, but it was a bit scary at times! (Mostly because China doesn’t seem too into safety in general. But no one died, so whatever.)

Is IS possible to take public transit to get to the Great Wall, but it apparently takes many confusing hours. It’s pretty far from Beijing. We hired a a car for 650 yuan (around $100) and the drive was about an hour each way. The car also took us to the Bird’s Nest and Watercube Olympic stadiums, but that’s another entry!

 Checking email before breakfast. Very important.

Okay, this has nothing to do with anything except that I took this photo that day. How cute is this car? IT’S PINK! And not ugly pale pink. Cute pink!

Anyway, after a long drive through the Chinese countryside, we arrived. The area at the bottom of the mountain is lined with touristy stalls selling weird Great Wall tshirts and stuff. You also buy tickets for the cable car here.

I stole this photo from someone because I needed an example of this weirdness. A lot of the stalls were selling Obama as Chairman Mao (Obamao!) tshirts like the one above. I have no idea why this is such a big thing. Very bizarre.

I saw more white people at the Great Wall than anywhere else in Beijing. This isn’t really remarkable, except that I saw almost zero white people everywhere else.

No photos of the cable car ride, because I was taking a video (see above)!

 Obligatory Mao hat tourist photo.

It’s almost kind of stupid to even post photos of the Great Wall because pictures don’t do it justice at all. It doesn’t look that crazy in photos, but it’s almost incomprehensible how insane this thing is. It goes on forever and did I mention it’s a HUGE GIGANTIC WALL IN THE MIDDLE OF MOUNTAINS IN CHINA. YOU CAN SEE IT FROM SPACE. Caps lock don’t do it justice either. But seriously. It’s pretty epic.

 Definitely wear comfortable shoes. It’s a lot of walking.

 How amazing is this?

You can either ride the cable car back down the mountain, or you can take the toboggan. (You can see other people riding down in the video.) It’s fun!

 Probably not so safe, but whee! You only live once.

At the bottom, we stopped to get a jianbing, which is basically a savoury crepe with egg and a crispy crepe inside. It’s really delicious, and like everything, very cheap.

Mmmm, jianbing.

Next entry: Wangfujing! Weird food and shopping galore!

The Forbidden City was the home of the Emperor for almost 500 years. 500 years. This place is old. Living in Canada, it’s always amazing to visit countries with such a rich history, and China is probably the richest of the rich in terms of history. Everything is so old. And big. Castles in Europe having nothing on the Forbidden City. This place is massive. I can’t even explain how big it is. You just need to go to Beijing and see it for yourself.

Waiting in line to buy tickets. I forgot how much they cost, but like everything in China, probably close to nothing. (I’m already planning an alternate future where I move to China and am rich. I know, I know. But still.)

THIS PLACE IS ENDLESS! Each hall leads into another hall.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest of the halls.

The gold was scratched off by intruders in the late 1800s.

Our guide, Annie! She was awesome.

 Everything is SO. DETAILED. So intricate! And it only took 14 years to build this place. The Sagrada Familia really has no excuse for not being finished yet.

 I’m telling you, this place is huge. China knows how to do things big.

I don’t know if this happens to anyone else, but sometimes when I visit places that I’ve heard about and seen before a million times, it almost seems fake. Like I’m visiting the China pavillion at Epcot. I have to remind myself that I’m ACTUALLY IN CHINA and this is actually real and not made by Disney.

 It would be really fun to play hide and seek in the Forbidden City.

Just the biggest palace in the world. No big deal.

 Pretty, right? 美!

Riding a Beijing bus. Yes, the fare is 1 yuan. That’s $0.16 CAD. Let me repeat that: SIXTEEN CENTS! The TTC in Toronto costs THREE DOLLARS to ride.

 We decided to get Peking duck for lunch. Obviously we needed to eat Peking duck in Beijing. As I explained in a previous entry, I don’t usually eat meat, but will for a culinary experience. First, they brought us some smoking (dry ice) fruit for some reason. They also came out and showed us the duck they were about to carve for us.

The condiments for Peking duck. Various vegetables, garlic, sauces, and sugar.

The first course of duck. Amazing, perfectly crisp duck skin. Dipped in sugar, it was so good. This is why I can’t be a real vegetarian. Life is too short to not at least try crispy duck skin. Sorry, real vegetarians.

Eggplant, which I thought was delicious. Eggplant in China is somehow way tastier.

More duck courses! There was duck soup, along with the rest of the duck meat, duck legs, thin crepe-like pancakes to roll the duck in, herbs, and puffy dough that was also used to roll up the duck meat. You basically take a pancake and stuff it with some duck meat and whatever condiments you want. Drizzle it with some of the delicious thick sweet sauce and roll it up like a cigar. Eat. Swoon.

The best/worst part of this meal was that it cost less than it costs for me to eat lunch at McDonalds at home.

Next entry: The Great Wall of China! Is it really great? (Answer: yes.)