The Great Wall of China and Forbidden City

Till I reached China I never thought language would be a big problem to deal with.

Language is a huge barrier, so I had to put lot of effort in doing my research and also have mitigation or avoidance strategy in place for any unforeseen risk as I cannot communicate my need to anyone. Even asking for a basic left and right is a tedious task. Unlike India, here they speak pure Chinese and you cannot find a single English word in between. Can you imagine speaking with words like Bus, Train, Signal, road, Burger, Chicken, Bread, .. etc in your local Indian language, but here they do not understand these words as they communicate in pure Mandarin.

The second challenge is the food. I can manage to eat any reptile on earth provided it doesn’t smell different, but here even the rice has a weird smell that is new to me and find it really hard to gulp it in.

I booked my train ticket from Nanjing to Beijing on the Friday night from Nanjing station. I could go to the station either by Taxi (50 Yuan) or Subway (4 Yuan + risk) and I took the subway. I reached the station without much trouble. The train station here is a bit better than the stations in India, most of the people travelling by train are the lower middle class, we I saw one lady begging with a kid, people trying to board the train without ticket.. etc. The train was very neat and comfortable compared to our trains. I reached Beijing at 7 AM and the climate was around 5-6 C. Now I was pretty confident with my research and in case of any problem I had translated some of the common questions from English to Chinese with the help of my Chinese collogue. I took a train to the Beijing North Station and from there I took a train to “Bedaling”, 80 Km from Beijing which is the nearest station to the great wall. I reached Badaling at 11 AM. On the way to great wall, there is a Jade factory where they manufacture Jade Ornaments and Sculptures and I paid a short visit and reached the Great Wall at 12. Among the top 100 Wonders, Great Wall stands at number 2, which means the magnificence is self explanatory. The fog was blocking the view in all directions. I climbed for an hour and reached close to 3 watch towers and the climb is very steep. Small kids and Old people in their 60’s to 70’s climbing the Great wall was a good inspiration to go further, but the climate was playing a spoilt sport. I got down by 2 in the noon and that is when I realized I had not had breakfast. I got burnt sweet potato for the cold climate with some Taiwan sausage and boarded the return train to Beijing. I also got a T-Shirt that says “I Climbed Great Wall” 

I reached Forbidden city at 4 in the evening and it is a must watch place for tourists. After spending an hour I walked to wangfujing street. This is the place all dead reptiles goes into human stomach . I could see Snakes, Silk worms, King Spiders.. etc fried and kept. I made my mind and tried silk worm and I will not be able to give you the exact taste as I swallowed it for the heck of trying something crazy. For dinner I had Beijing duck (in China there is a saying, if you have not eaten Beijing Duck and climbed Great wall, you never visited China) which was more like chicken but a bit harder. I boarded the return train to Nanjing at 10 PM and was in my room by 8.30 Sunday morning.

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China and Hongkong

China and Hongkong

Of the top 100 wonders of the world, I had an opportunity to cover 9 in this trip

1. The Great Wall of China

2. Forbidden City

3. Hong Kong Skyline

4. Qin, Terra Cotta Warriors

5. Yangtze River

6. Mt Everest

7. Potala Palace

8. Lijiang and Shangri

9. Li River



but any opportunity comes with a set of constraints and hurdles, in this trip its time and communication. I am staying in Nanjing and the utmost distance I can cover over the weekend is ~ 3000 Km. If I need to cover all the destinations in China I might have to travel close to 16,000 km’s in 6 days by train which seemed to be unrealistic. Hence I charted out a plan to cover as much as possible with the provided time constraint

• The Great wall and Forbidden City are near Beijing and can be covered on the same day and Beijing is 1400 Km from Nanjing… 2 days.. Week 1

• Qin, Terra Cotta Warriors is in Xian which is 1500 Km from Nanjing will take 2 days, 15 hrs by Train.. Week 2

• Yangtze River is in Nanjing…. Half a day.. Planning to hire a Bicycle… Week 3

• I have 7 hrs before I can take my next flight to Najing in Hong Kong and if I can get a transit Visa I will be able to cover the Hong kong Skyline. But I need to convince the immigration… Week 1

• Mt Everest will be dropped as I will club it when I am visiting Ladakh in July.

• Potala Palace in Tibet will be clubbed when I visit Nepal as it is 3000 Km’s (48 hrs by train) from Nanjing and I need some health certificates to travel to Tibet because of the high altitude.

• It is sad that I have to skip Li River and Lijiang as they are 2500 Km’s away from Nanjing (25 hrs by train) and if I am able to get a days off either on a Monday or Friday I could have made it. But I am dropping them for now.

Skyline of Hongkong

I reached Hongkong airport at 10 in the morning and my connecting flight to Nanjing was at 6.30. If I get my passport stamped for 7 hours transit I had a clear plan, take the subway to Kowloon, see the skyscraper, visit the city and get back by 4 back to the airport but getting my passport stamped was the biggest hurdle as they had some security issues in the Airport. I just gave a shot and was trying to cook up some story and the advantage that I had was I had the tickets of my connecting flight. When my turn came at the immigration I explained that I am a Photographer a Travel magazine in India and I just want to shoot the Hongkong Skyline and get back to catch my connecting flight and the most disappointing thing happened. She immediately let me go without shooting another question and asked me to get back by 4 PM so that I do not miss my next flight; all my preparation to answer all possible questions had gone in vain. I took a 2 way ticked to Kowloon for 90 HK$. Within 30 mins I was in Kowloon and the Skyline was 20 mins walk and for me it was 40 mins as I got lost and finally was in front of the skyline. The weather was pretty bad as it was too foggy and raining. To see the view the tourists buy a 150 HK$ ticket from the ICC hotel and enjoy the view from the 104th floor. When I went to purchase the tickets, the receptionist advised me not to buy the ticket as it was too foggy and I will not be able to see the city. I was in agreement with her and enjoyed the view from a café in the 40th floor. Sipping cappuccino at 7 C on the 40th floor with the entire city presented in front of you surrounded by sea is a true delight. I took the subway to the city and got back to the airport at sharp 3.45 PM. This is the third world wonder I am experiencing and had a sense of satisfaction, the kind of satisfaction you get when you strike a line in the To Do list, and it also the thought of the remaining 97 provides a purpose for future travels.