The 9:30 bus departure from the hotel left plenty of time to enjoy the amenities of the excellent Seoul Incheon airport (if only it would not be that far away from the city center), before it was time to board the Lufthansa Airbus, homebound …

With a very light 2/8 load in First and an excellent crew – once more undermining the hypothesis that Munich based crews are better than Frankfurt based crews (no offence to anyone; I’m sure there are exceptions) – the 12 hours passed quickly. An extensive lunch, some sleep, catching up on trip reports and pictures – and all too soon we landed in Munich.

A revitalizing shower, a short hop to Zurich – and back I was in “real life” …

My muscle ache was really bad in the morning, and in retrospect it was a good idea to do this on the last day of the trip, otherwise there wouldn’t have been too much sightseeing a guess. I didn’t think it would be that bad, because the days before I actually walked much more in distance – but obviously not with that much up and down.
In any case it would be an easy day: Sleep in, an early afternoon flight to Seoul and a relaxing evening at the W Seoul Walkerhill.

The flight was nothing special, except for a rather good and extensive service for such a short route. And some stupid passengers not taking any of the advices of the FAs serious … there is a reason for keeping seatbelts on during taxi, guys! I don’t mind if they hurt themselves, but please don’t do this beside me. Second time this has happened on an Asiana flight – bad luck or cultural lack of respect?

Anyway: I arrived in Seoul, took the KAL Limousine bus for the 90min ride to the hotel and was warmly welcomed. Kind of funny if they know your name before you even tell them … and good to know their picture archive goes back at least 3 months.

The room was a bit too much 70s revival for my taste, but it was very spacious and comfortable:

And after a relaxing massage in the awesome spa I was mobile enough to have a few parting drinks in the rather crowded Livingroom bar.

There was one thing I had not yet done which was clearly on my agenda for this trip: Walking on the Great Wall. After much research I concluded that my best option would be to make the hike from Jinshanling to Simatai. Reading the reports there are various interpretations of this hike, from “steep but still easy” to “dangerous and only for professionals”. There are a few smaller tour operators going there, but wanting to save some time in transit (tour buses take roughly 3hrs each way as they don’t go on the highway) and not wanting to be rushed for the hike I decided to rent a taxi for the day. Which was more difficult than expected: The first driver wanted 800, and after my offer for 600 said he actually cannot go there anyway. OK. 2nd driver was new in town and did not know where this was. Finally the third driver did it for an OK price of 600 Yuan (experts will say it’s still too much, but for me it was worth it).
Little did I know that his taxi would barely make 80km/h on the highway – so much for “saving transit time”. And with the driver not speaking a single word of English it was a rather boring drive; until we reached the mountain area and left the highway.

When reaching Jinshanling I agreed with the driver to meet me 5hrs later in Simatai, and off I was for the hike. And what a hike it was!

There are few tourist facilities in Jinshanling in any case, but it being winter (and just a few degrees on the positive) it was very, very quiet. Except for a group of farmers “slash” tourguides, who offered to join me on the way to Simatai if I will buy some souvenirs when getting there. Seems to be quite a bit of work to sell a small souvenir if you ask me … but I anyway wanted to do it undisturbed and without rush.

The first ascent to get to the wall was already a bit exhausting, and I still needed to get used to the cold air and the snow on the ground. But once up there it was simply stunning: There it was, the Wall, with the watchtowers on every other hill top. Standing there for hundreds of years.

And now I could also see what I was up for: A constant up and down, from watchtower to watchtower. The first part of the wall was in really good condition, and it was really more like an easy stroll. But the further I got the less restored the wall was; and it also became steeper and steeper.

I met a few fellow travelers along the way, some overtaking me, others me being faster. But what really amazed me were the – luckily few – people selling stuff along the hike. There were 70 year old guys selling a can of beer at the top-most point, peasants offering a shortcut (tempting, but then again not really the reason of being here), women offering company for the “very, very dangerous you must know”-remaining part of the hike.

At some sections the wall was not much more than a set of brick stones, merely over 1 meter in width, with rather steep cliffs on both sides. And I was happy to have my backpack with me leaving me with 2 free hands to help making the climb.

Lunch was 2 power bars as I did not want rely on restaurant facilities in Simatai (a good idea, because everything was closed). And in any case there was no way they could beat that view:

Getting closer to Simatai there was a rather special “ticket office”, i.e. one guy in a watch tower wanting another 40 Yuan. It was also after that where the wall was in much better condition again. And luckily it was also going down, mostly.

That was until I noticed that the small suspension bridge is at the very bottom of the small valley, and the road down to the parking area would start another 100m higher on the other side. Oh well, what options do you have? (The same applies to the warning sign for the bridge: “Do not participate if you are suffering from … fear of height …” … yeah, right …)

To be honest the wall on the other side looked pretty awesome, but my knees where a little shaky by then and not knowing for sure if the cable car from the top would operate I made my way directly back to the parking area, where – after some wait time – my taxi driver arrived exactly 5 hours after letting me off at Jinshanling. And another 2hrs later I was back in Beijing, happy that my hotel room could be reached without taking any single step up or down.

I was exhausted, but what a day to finish this trip!

More pictures @ Flickr

The weather was still very good, although also still on the cold side. So for today the Forbidden City was the main attraction on my agenda.

Again the usual touting of guides and souvenir sellers at the entrance, but I decided to go for an electronic audio guide which was actually quite elaborate and interesting.

I clearly underestimated the size of the Forbidden City – I think one could spend days in here if you want to visit everything closely. And too be honest I could feel all the sightseeing of the last days in the cold weather in my bones by then, so after a few hours it was enough for me.

However I still had to visit “the egg”, or better: The National Centre for the Performing Arts, architected by French Paul Andreu. A very controversial building right next to the massive and old-style structures of the government area – and once seen you can understand why:

I personally found it fascinating, with the lake completely surrounding it and the two glass-roofed tunnels into the building, which was unfortunately closed for visitors.
And I did go back later that evening expecting it to be lit up nicely – which it was not. Nevertheless some cool pics:

Last stop for the day was Donghuamen Night Market, a famous (read: touristy famous) food street market close by. Anyone care for some snake or scorpion kebab? (And just to be clear: I had dinner elsewhere ..)

More pictures @ Flickr

First full day in Beijing – and so many different things to see and do. I decided to start with the Summer Palace, which can nowadays be reached very conveniently with the new subway. The subway is anyway really good here and super-cheap (2 Yuan), although a bit too crowded during rush hour for my taste.

The Summer Palace was very crowded with tourists and locals, and I was a little disappointed on the state of some of the building and exhibitions. But it still made for a very nice few hours, walking along the lake, climbing the small hills and visiting some exhibits

For something completely different I continued on to the former Olympic site, with the “Bird’s Nest” being the obvious main attraction. From what I’ve read it is rarely used these days and you can see that when visiting the inside – what a shame given how great of a stadium it is.

It was very cool to sit at the side line and later on up at the very top rows of site (quite a climb!). And the architecture is absolutely stunning in my opinion, although it is less present once inside.

Last stop for the day was a visit to the 798 Art District, a former manufacturing area (some factories are actually still active) having become the main place for galleries, nice cafes and some museum. Unfortunately things closed early that day (or every day?), but nevertheless it was an interesting mix

More pictures @ Flickr