Wednesday July 11, 2018
I didn’t sleep well on the train last night, and I am not sure why. It was quiet enough and comfortable enough. But I felt like I drank a big caffeinated drink before bed, and I was still wide awake at 2 am.
We were all up for the day at 6 am. Everyone washed up as best they could on a train (there is a large sink area where everyone brushed teeth, combed hair etc. before disembarking). We packed up and got off the train on schedule at 7:07 am. We were due to meet a new Mr. Orange driver in Beijing, but nobody was there to meet us when we came into the arrival hall. We started to head out the west exit to look for him before having a change of heart and going back to the arrival hall again – and this time he was there waiting. We must have just missed him. After this false start, we quickly learned that our drivers would meet us inside inside the train stations, not outside.
It was 7:30 am by the time we pulled away from the train station, and those precious minutes counted, because now we were in the thick of morning rush hour traffic. It took about two hours to get out of the city from the Beijing South railway station to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, and unfortunately, it rained the whole time, and only rained harder as time went on. When we got there, we were disappointed but not surprised to learn that the toboggan down from the wall was closed due to the rain. Womp womp – riding the toboggan was half the reason we had chosen to visit this section of wall. We purchased round-trip cable car tickets instead.
One benefit of the rain was that it likely kept the crowd levels low. We were able to catch a shuttle bus pretty quickly to the start of the cable car. We waited in line for a cable car for perhaps 15 minutes before getting one.
It’s a quick 4 minute ride to the top, and then you walk a bit further to the start of the wall, and access the wall itself via a ladder-like set of steps.
Unfortunately, visibility at the top of the wall was close to zero. It continued to pour rain, and there was thick fog to boot. We turned left from the wall entry point and started to walk. The crowds thinned out pretty quickly, and eventually we got to sections of the wall that had few other people. But we still couldn’t see much, and it was raining so hard that I wasn’t even comfortable taking out my camera unless we were in the shelter of a watch tower. We tried very hard to enjoy ourselves and wait the rain out for a couple of hours, but overall it was a pretty disappointing experience, and around noon we threw in the towel and came back down.
We stopped at a Subway at the base of the cable car to buy sandwiches for lunch, and then because there was no seating available there, we took the bus back to the visitor centre to find a place to sit and eat them. Mallory in the meantime picked up a souvenir magnet from one of the hawkers along the way.
Our driver was waiting where we had left him, so we started the trip back into Beijing. Traffic was better in this direction, so it didn’t take long to get to our neighbourhood. We we staying at the Hotel Palace in the hutong district, and it did take a while due to various street closures to get to the hotel.
Our driver attempted to drop us right at the door, and maneuvered his minivan into the narrow alley where the hotel is located, only to encounter a car approaching from the other direction. We wound up reversing back out, which was an amazing feat of driving! Finally we got to the hotel and checked in.
I loved the hotel’s location and the chance to see inside of an old hutong. The central courtyard area, now roofed in and serving as the hotel’s common room, was beautiful. Our room was traditionally styled and was a bit rough around the edges (think of loose bathroom tiles being duct taped back into place), but it was clean and comfortable. We could see the Forbidden City nearby from the rooftop terrace.
By now it was about 3 pm, and we had tickets to the Chaoyang Acrobat show at 5:30 pm. We inquired with the hotel staff member who spoke English as to how to get to the theatre. First he said they would call us a taxi for 4:15 pm, but at 4:15 pm when we asked for it, he said that it would be too difficult to get one due to the rainy day and rush hour combination, and that we should take the subway. This was a bit disconcerting, since we now felt like we were at risk of being late for the show. But as soon as we left the hutong and hit the main street in our neighbourhood, we were able to flag down a taxi on the street quite easily. His price of 100 yuan was definitely inflated, but it was still raining and now it was starting to feel like we were running late, so we sucked it up.
We arrived at the theatre right at 5 pm when the box office opened. We had purchased the cheapest class of tickets available, but individual seats are not assigned until you pick them up from the box office. We wound up getting second row seats with nobody in the first row. (I’m not sure what made these ‘cheap seats’ unless it was the fact that we had to crane our necks back to watch the one performer who balanced on top of a stack of chairs. The seats were excellent though, and I would buy them again.)
We purchased popcorn and a drink to enjoy with the show (some things transcend cultures!), and entered the theatre.
There was a no photography rule, but the number of people with iPads and selfie sticks was nuts, so I didn’t feel bad taking some photos of my own. I would certainly recommend no flash though. All of the performers were amazing, and I would highly recommend the show. The girls on the bikes were awesome.
The show lasted about an hour, and when we came back outside again, it was (of course) raining heavily. We spent about half an hour in the rain trying to hail a taxi, to no avail. During that time about 30 taxis passed us, some with passengers and some without, but none would take us, and we couldn’t figure out why. Finally, we decided to try to decipher the subway system, and in hindsight we should have done that from the get go. It was $2.40 for the 4 of us, quick and easy. The first train we got on was unbelievably crowded, but people just kept getting on – I suppose the motto in China is that there is always room for one more!
We took the subway to Wangfujing, and went in search of the famous weird and wonderful snack street, stopping off at McDonald’s first to get Mallory something familiar to eat and use the bathroom. (As of this point in the trip – still no need to use a squat toilet yet.) We wanted so much to enjoy the snack street, but the rain was coming down hard, and navigating around crowds of people all carrying umbrellas was making me claustrophobic.
We picked a few things to try for our dinner – a shrimp and quail egg combo for the boys, some fried dumplings for me – but it was wearing on us and finally we decided to call it quits and head out.
But Liam looked disappointed, and asked if we could try one last thing. He really wanted to try eating a scorpion while we had the chance.
So we bought one skewer with 3 scorpions on it, and each had one (Mallory passed), likening them very much in taste and texture to the tip of a chicken wing.
We washed those down with a fruit skewer full of grapes, and then walked back to our hotel, happy that we’d stuck around long enough to try something exotic.
Arriving back at the hotel, we filled out cards indicating what time we’d like to have breakfast and what we’d like to eat (Chinese or Western option). Back in our room, we did some reading and went to sleep.
Cook Family Travels 