Locations

Friday, April 22, 2011

Beijing - Great Wall from one more angle

April 1st trip to Beijing to welcome my brother in China. Besides catching up with my brother after 7 months, Beijing offered once again many ways of getting lost (though after each time there are more and more stable points where I can 'put myself back on the map'). Bicycling in Beijing is still the best thing to do, especially if finding the narrowest Hutong streets. And of course going to the next wild hike on the Great Wall. Discovered this thrilling way of hiking last year November, post about it here.
IMG_3712
Eager passenger taking his last cigarette before bus is headsing off. Smoking in public places is getting under control, if lucky it is possible even to take a long distance bus trip without smelling smoke not a single time. Still very common to have little cigarette moments in sports halls between sets of badminton, sometimes have to go to happy smokers and point on the non-smoking sign and smile encouragingly into their big confused eyes.






IMG_3719
Hiking on the Great Wall. Previous night rain in Beijing had fallen off in mountains (around 1000m high) as a thin layer of snow. 2nd time to touch snow this winter!






IMG_3725
Man made landscape, even the highest peaks are carved into tiny terraces, no high plantation. Fresh snow brought out the zebra views.








IMG_3733
On the way to the wall, it took some 1.5h walking to actually reach it.








IMG_3729
Lonely tree







IMG_3763
Sections of wall can be very different, in this place there were only 2-3 wall towers that hadn't survived over the time, the top of the wall was opened to the winds without the classical teeth zig-zag. This wall was built as an exemplary defence section, so called model wall :)







IMG_3777
Lunch break







IMG_3772







IMG_3780
Starbucks on the wall, US-China close cooperation







IMG_3812






IMG_3845
Beijing TV tower







IMG_3848
Part of the TV tower complex







IMG_3852
New Beijing






IMG_3857
Old Beijing

No comments:

Post a Comment