Great Wall and Huton Old China

We have been driven all over Bejing for hours each day seeing mostly highrise housing, business towers, leafy streets, massive traffic congestion, but little in the way of retail outlets and home stores, but today we passed through to the outer limits of the city - passed ring road no 6, and went into the mountains 50km from Beijing to Jujong section of The Great Wall.  This section  as the last stratigic line of defence which protected Beijing City and the Emperors from the neighbouring Monguls.

It was a privilage to be allowed to hike part of The Great Wall, up uneven stairs from car park 4 to Fortress Tower 11. We needed an extra 1/2 hour to get to 12 (the end of this branch) and back to 11,  our total round trip was 2 hours. It was hot, humid, smoggy and a public holiday. Crowds thinned as we passed through each Fortress Tower. The gatorades were great at the shop at Tower 9!   Tonns of stairs and quite gruelling, glad we had our poles, fyi we were the only 2 that did.   As we got to each tower and then looked past it, the mountain just kept going.  Fabulous experience. 

Huton Village is part of the old Beijing, heritage listed district where the old town square is walled, has an ancient bell tower, narrow lanes, and a lake. It was where the villages lived .... those who did not live in the Forbidden City.  Now most people move out of the Huton district and live in high rise in Beijing City CBD.  22 million.  In China, the Govt owns the land, and in old districts like Huton houses do not have toilets or bathrooms, there are communal toilet blocks, and you have to pay for a shower.

Bell Tower

Rick shaw ride, visit to the mandatory China Town with its food shops, market shops, the lake, traditional home cooked meal.

A little bit of authentic old China,  I wonder how they feel about the daily tourist invasion, TripaDeal guides everywhere.

Not your normal kitchen decor in the west.

Very well looked after by Trip a Deal, then given plenty of free time to get lost on our own.

City Squares and Village Greens

Firstly, internet in China, whilst accessible, you are limited to which search engines and social media can be used.  China have their own version of all our western platforms eg. Facebook is called “we chat” etc. So even with our own VPN taking us back through Australia’s web, we were limited with data speed and unable to post the blog daily.

Our tour was with Tripadeal, and this is our tour group of 36, who came from all over Australia.

Our tour guide “Jingles” reminded us today that we could not possibly see all of China in 11 days, however we would be able to enjoy some of the “highlights” of the 3 regions we would be visiting. 

Our first region is Beijing and our first stop is Imperial Beijing (political head quarters) with a 4 hour visit to explore the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

We have always been drawn to many city Squares, town Market Places, and village Greens, to explore the central hub of daily life. These public spaces play a vital role in a regions history, culture and politics, and can showcase its architectural beauty in the form of churches, fountains, buildings, shops, markets and cafes, but visiting Tianammen Square which just happens to be the largest square in the world, today reminded us of the political hotspot it once was.   Jing says it is a part of Beijings history that is never mentioned nor acknowledged.

Today it was not like other city squares, it did not encourage the public to stay and relax, there were only tour groups and souvenier sales vans, it contains a few imperial monuments and sculptures, no seating, a military and security presence, was not welcoming, and left us feeling quite solomn as we remembered its past even if Beijing chooses to forget. It was really a very lifeless place, and the grey rainy weather added to the somberness.

Plenty of security police, armed. But, not as many as we were expecting.  Looking towards the Forbidden City.



Security cameras

Next door to the square is the Forbidden Palace. Once a Forbidden city to the everyday person, it has been open to the public since 1924. It was completed in 1420 and has served as the residence of 24 emperors with 980 buildings.. Its size was remarkable, being the world’s largest palace complex, 74hectares, room for 80,000 visitors daily, but lacked any signs of grandeur and  extravagence unlike many European palaces. It was a maze of walled courtyards.

Some of the highlights

The colours were outstanding and the architecture was amazing.

The last Emperor and Empress were in residence today.

China - Warriors, Wall, Culture

Following an overnight in Sydney, we will be flying China Eastern for an 11 day visit to China on a package deal. It will be nice to let someone else do the planning and organising and we are looking forward to being taken care from the moment we board our flight until we land back in Sydney. 

It is a country we have thought about visiting but have been reluctant to do on our own. Although we are not fans of big cities, we hope to see a good mixture of culture, scenery and history......

Sydney Devotional

With only 8000 tickets available, we were blessed with the opportunity to attend a devotional at the Sydney International Convention Centre, and spend an evening with the leader of our Church President Russell M Nelson and his wife, who gave inspiring talks to help us navigate our way through these times. 

We drove the 7 hours to Sydney, spent 2 nights and were able to take Jordan with us too, and found a few hours to take him on a ferry to Circular Quay from Darling Harbour where we stayed, so he could see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

100 Days Since.......

Derek, what do you think of the last 100 days since we became “homeless”?

    Response: it’s great

Do you regret anything?

    Response: no

Do you miss having a home?

    Response:  absolutely not!

So that’s it in a nutshell.  100 days has passed since we moved out of our rental property, and became full time nomads.

We have explored regions of Victoria and South Australia, done a little housesitting, and are getting use to calling our van home.  We are learning alot about van life and being on the road, learning from our mistakes and mishaps, but most importantly we are totally enjoying the challenge.  We have mixed feelings regarding our landcruiser with it being a petrol motor, our fuel economy is not great, and as much as more internal space in the van wouldn’t go a miss, we are daily grateful that we are only 15’ not 20’ long. We are finding it easier than we thought to go with less, it is surprising how few clothes, makeup, and household things you really need. But, if I could take the grand kids with us I would, missing family is the downside, but we are definitely no worse off than if we stayed in the Sunshine Coast with half the family in Cairns and the other half in Finley.

We love waking up to a new day knowing the day is totally what we make it, and are feeling excited about our future.

Murray Moments

We are back in Finley for a month to do a bit of babysitting and generally helping out whilst Jessima has knee surgery on her anterior cruciate ligament, after completing our 73 nights away visiting south west Victoria and parts of South Australia. It gave us a chance to get a good taste of van life, sort out some small issues to make life more comfortable and help us gear up for long term travel.   Total Kilometres 6,045.

We criss crossed the Murray R a few times as all vehicle ferries are free and operate 24 hours per day.  We have seen the marvels of irrigation at work in what would be a very arid region, and developed a liking for slow travel and staying in secluded, quiet campsites with a great view, by this we mean non-caravan/holiday park camp sites. There were many very enjoyable moments and scenery......  and probably even more if you are a foody.....

Fun Fact #4 Growing Cricket Bats

We drove past this sign today at Wood Wood ( no pun intended) on the Murray Valley Highway,  ummm, we grow cricket bats? 

We are attempting to give England a run for their money in the manufacture of cricket bats.  See their web site for some great history and back story.

Fun Fact #3 Border

We always thought South Australia’s border was straight, like we all draw it.......

But it has a kink in it ........

Abc.net.au

The border is part of a 70 year battle south of the Murray. It was supposed to run a long the 141st meridian line of longitude. But longitude is measured on GMT and watches were not that great in the 1800s.  The result was a 3.6 km gap where the borders were meant to have met. Longitude was determined for Fort Macquarie, in Sydney hence a 2 minute discrepancy  compared to Victorias calculations.

Our 3rd night on the Murray R

The photo speaks for itself, Plushs Bend near Renmark, very secluded camp spots and not another Van in sight.

The Murray, Whyalla’s only hope.

The Murray is a green oasis meandering through a very dry and harsh landscape. Select parts have been cultivated and irrigated for orange and grape growing, but the majority of the land is high, parched and overlooks the river as it flows through the gorges.

The Murray is piped 357km to Whyalla and the northern Eyre Peninsula.  I found the No1 pump station in Morgan which was built along with the pipeline in the 1940s, this is the start of the line supplying Whyalla’s life blood. The second line was completed in 1967.