Thursday 21st September, 2011

Afew days have passed and I've taken to the streets to see what the new 'hood is all about. There's alot of companies and warehouses. Across the road from us is a Tesco shopping centre, with a heap of little stores surrounding it. Apparently, there is a large department store on Third Ave, which is where the Soho bar we go to is located, so I will have to check that out at a later date.

On the opposite side of the road, there's alot of cafe's, restaurants and bars. Not to mention the little dumpling houses and noodle bars, which I love so much. Daniel, Uwe and I went to the dumpling house on the Monday night and I have now found my favourite place. They serve decent sized dumplings with the right vinegar with the added bonus of egg and seaweed soup Yum!!!

On Wednesday night, Daniel and I went to one of the local, lively bars called Soho. This place gets really busy late in the evening, but is only open till about 3am. They have a live Phillipino band and they have both Chinese and Russian dancers, who dance up on the stage and up on the bar. It's great entertainment and really draws in the crowds. Alot of expats frequent here.

After seeing abit around the neighbour, I decided I should venture out abit and see what other sights, that are more traditional, China has to offer. Also keeping in mind, the attractions would have to be close to Tianjin as I'd have to travel back the same day.

Doing some research I came across this great Chinese Tourist website called Chinahighlights.com. It caters for 1 to however many day tours you want to do, for all over China. I read about The Great Wall, and there is a section of the wall that I can visit that is only 2 hours from Tianjin. The Great Wall site is at the town of Huangyaguan, so I sent Chinahighlights an email to enquire about it. I asked about the cost, I wanted to confirm if it was indeed just two hours away and if I could do it on Thursday. Later in the afternoon my sales representative, Elizabeth emailed me back to say, she could book me in for Thursday. It would cost me $193US and the trip would take 2 hours from Tianjin. I would have a private driver and guide and they would pick me up and return me to my hotel in the afternoon. I was happy with that and booked it in.

Daniel came home and I told him all about my plans to go see The Great Wall at the Huangyaguan. He agreed it'd be great to get out of Tianjin and see abit of the country. Just before we left to go out for dinner, the phone rang and it was my sales rep, Elizabeth. She rang to apologise because she didn't realise I was in Tianjin and that the whole time she thought I was in Beijing, so now my tour would be cut short as they wouldn't have time to take me everywhere. I was pretty annoyed at finding this out, as previously, when I booked the tour, I had to provide my details and list the address of my hotel. Which I clearly did. I even told her when I originally enquired about the tour about my location. Anyway, I'll put it down to it being a language barrier fault. I said to her that it was OK, nevermind, and to cancel the trip because it wasn't fair that I was paying the same, but only half the tour would be completed??? After that we hang up and there I was again, trying to plan something else to do.

9pm, we arrived back from dinner and the phone rings again. It was Elizabeth again, ringing to tell me, that she sorted it all out. They found me a guide and a driver. They would be leaving very early in the morning from Beijing and would pick me up from Tianjin around 10am. From there, they would take me to see The Great Wall at Huangyaguan. Then we would have lunch, which she said would be free as an apology and then they would bring me back home. I was happy with that. Mainly because I would be able to go see The Great Wall.

9.45pm I get another phone call. How late do these people work I wondered LOL. This time it was Gary, my guide. He rang to introduce himself and apologised for the misunderstanding and confirmed that he would be at the hotel at 8.30am. So Elizabeth still managed to get it wrong lol. Anyhow, Now that it was all confirmed, I was happy to go along with it. After I hung up, Daniel asked me if I was ok with having a male guide and male driver. Two men I've never met before and in a very foreign country at that. He has a point. I had no idea where I was going. All I had was a name, number and Elizabeth's details. I didn't know what to think, as I was kinda over this whole tour and I hadn't even started it yet!!! So we decided Daniel would wait with me in the morning, so he could meet Gary and hence Gary would realise I had a strong, tall boyfriend looking out for me lol. Daniel gave me his phone to take with me, incase of emergencies and I said I'd send him text messages when I got there and when we'd be coming back.

Gary arrived right on 8.30am and seemed like a nice guy. He was short, wore glasses and had his tour guide ID photo attached to his shirt. Feeling confident he wasn't a psycho, I kissed Daniel goodbye and off we went our separate ways.

The car was a comfortable, leather seated sedan with plush toys all smooshed in the backseat with me. Being passenger in the car, also gave me the opportunity to see the area of TEDA abit more before we exited onto the highway.

Well this was it... I truly had no clue as to where we were going or how to get back incase I had to run for my life, so I thought I may as well get comfortable and think happy thoughts.

I dozed off a couple of times, even though I tried hard to stay awake and look it LOL. An hour had passed and I started noticing highway signs that read Huangyaguan and Great Wall, in both English and Chinese. So that looked promising.

We turned off at one of the exits, which then led us up a narrow, winding road. It had rock fencing and cars tried to over take eachother. We reached the entry to The Great Wall with no problem. Our driver parked the car and both Gary and I got out. I just followed my guide over to the ticket gates and he told me to wait there, while he went over to purchase our entry tickets. There were hardly any people and it felt good knowing I wouldn't have to beat any crowds.

The entry gates

Welcome to the Great Wall of China!!!

About to start my climb

Once inside we had to walk through some towers, where Buddhist Monks would approach you to lit an incence stick in return for money. My guide just shooshed them away each time and said to me, 'waste of money' lol.

No money for this guy

After we passed the towers, my guide and I stood at the bottom of one set of The Great Wall. I was amazed. It's one thing to read about it and look at photos of it, but to see it and be standing on it in real life, It's quite an amazing experience. The wall goes on forever and it reaches out to the furthest mountain. To think, I was only seeing a small section of it was unbelievable. Gary explained to me that most of The Great Wall, has been renovated. The reason is that it is safer for the tourists and to maintain the structure. Although you can still see and experience parts of the original Great Wall in Beijing, which is where the main Great Wall for tourists is, you will certainly find original parts of the Great Wall in smaller provinces, like where we are.

The wall goes on forever...

Great day for walking

Even with the renovated wall, the climb is still quite difficult. The steps are steep and it's a long, long walk. The path just goes on into infinity. We stopped afew times to gaze back at the view. Today wasn't particularly a hot day, but climbing the wall gave me one hell of a workout.

Along the way, I asked Gary about his job as a tour guide and he asked me about my life. Turns out he got married a few months ago and he has been a tour guide for around 4 years. He really enjoys his work and is thinking about going out on his own and starting his own company, that will do tours around Beijing. I told him what a fantastic idea it was and I'll get in contact with him when I arrange my Beijing trips.

We climbed a long, long way and managed to reach the starting point of the original Great Wall. It was obvious it had been here for years as the stepping stones were aged and uneven and was a different colour and consistency to the new, renovated steps.

Part of the original wall

Gary apologised and asked if he could wait for me in the watch tower. I said it was no problem, as the poor guy has been up since 4am (as he had to drive from Beijing to Tianjin and beat the peak hour traffic) He said I could continue as for as long as I wanted, but I assured him, I wouldn't wonder off to far. Just enough to get a bigger, better view of the scenery. The original steps are not an easy climb and there is part of a railing that is there for support, but I wouldn't trust it lol. Up here, you could really appreciate the magnitude of it all. It was breath taking.

Look at me!!!

Great day for walking

....

Inside one of the watch towers

I headed back down to the watch tower and met Gary inside. It was so cool inside and exactly what I needed as temperatures had well excedded over 28 degrees outside. We took a few more photos and then Gary said we'd start heading back for lunch. Walking back down The Great Wall took a good 30 minutes. I hadn't realised, with all the sight seeing I'd been doing, how far we really were. Up in the mountains it's so quiet. And a feeling of isolation, as there was hardly anyone around.

Once we got back out through the entrance gates, we headed towards the maze of laneways and headed towards a restaurant, which was also a hotel. The owners were very friendly and Gary ordered some rice, chicken, beef dishes and noodles for the driver, himself and me. The food was served fresh and and looked absolutely delicious...... and it was.

We spent an hour or so filling up our bellies with traditional Chinese meals. It was a great view from the restaurant as the mountains surrounded us and you could see parts of The Great Wall.

After we finished lunch, the restaurant owners took me on a tour around to see the hotel. The rooms were surprisingly very well kept. I would say it was basic accommodation, but with all the essentials. They also had western toilets!!! I'd be more than happy to stay there :P

We soon said goodbye and jumped back in the car. It was now 2.30pm, and we were now going to start heading back to Tianjin. It was a great day for sightseeing and I feel privilige that I saw, stood and touched a part of Chinese history. Seeing The Great Wall is definately on the 'To Do' travel list.

As we drove out of The Great Wall valley and back onto the busy main street, my body knew it was siesta time. Gary actually said to me ' now you've seen The Great Wall, now you have nap' Hahaha. Glad we were on the same page.

The Great Wall of..... CHINA!!! remains copyright of the author Two Otters, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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