Beijing

2nd Sep 2016 - 5th Sep 2016. 3 nights.
19,959km travelled. 7,880km travelled excluding flights.

I got the subway back to the Shanghai Hongqiou train station and got the bullet train to Beijing South, covering the 1,318km in just under 5 hours and cost 640 CNY (85 EUR). The train travels along the longest bridge in the world – 165km over mostly marshland between Shanghai and Nanjing. There was a lot of farmland and the smog persisted. I got the subway to the hostel when I got into Beijing. The subway is the busiest in the world.

The hostel was located in a bit of tourist area, mostly Chinese tourists I think, but it was okay.

Beijing didn't seem as polished or wealthy as Shanghai or Guangzhou. It definitely seemed more spread out.

I signed up for a one day visit to the Great Wall. We left at about 7:45 and arrived at the Badaling Ancient Great Wall scenic area. Apparently there is another section where all the tourists go that has a cable car but I discovered I had signed up to a three hour 6km hike (3km up and 3km back down) along the wall. We only met a handful of other tourists, no foreigners.

I headed over to the CBD district to see the CCTV tower. There is a lot of construction going on in that area – it is becoming an important hub for international finance as well as Chinese media. Many multinational are moving their Chinese headquarters there.

Tiananmen Square – famous for the massacre of several hundred people during student led pro democracy protests in 1989.

Forbidden City, Imperial Gardens, Clocks

National Museum, Money exhibit

I went into a Chinese restaurant and got some food. I couldn't tell if I got what I ordered, everything was very greasy.