China and the Great Wall

I found a lot of pics I took when I lived in China for four years from 2014-2018. I also had a chance to walk on the Great Wall of China in the Badaling Section which is the most touristy part as you can see.

Took a tour with my school to Badaling Section of the Great Wall. It is about an hour from Beijing north.

https://i.imgur.com/acRAFN2.jpg


We took the cable car up and down.

https://i.imgur.com/HYUyrEv.jpg


It was insanely packed as you can tell. It was even hard to take a photo or selfie.

https://i.imgur.com/YVyiWLA.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/OH72G9x.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/KsBnlNL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GrOf4HG.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/DyVbYKM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/N0mrefq.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/dhkASIt.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/gJFXUQE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IxBEimZ.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/Iivi0gV.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/Qgg7RRv.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/kghrj7I.jpg

Lived in Beijing and Shanghai and took a ton of pics. Will post some.

Visited the Temple of Heaven


https://i.imgur.com/Vi3vZYO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aCuubd8.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/XlBQFsa.jpg

Walked in the Hutongs which are narrow alleys with old architecture and narrow streets. There are shops, and street food along them. This is near the Royal Palace. Many say the Hutongs may not last long as they take them down to build more modern buildings.


https://i.imgur.com/vWmQqpV.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/Ei2fon5.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/BMkKSpH.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/8f1BiRY.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/TYkNlYW.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/yljautq.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/MIpX72A.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/Q3aau6V.jpg

Nice stuff Marilyn... Thank you :)

Yes, interesting photos.

That must have been a real shoving match up there on the wall with all those people!

Great pics.

I believe many of the hutong neighborhoods were already axed for the 2008 Olympics. But there’s a growing understanding of the cultural treasures they represent so some are being preserved or protected.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by misskit

That must have been a real shoving match up there on the wall with all those people!

Great pics.

---

Honestly, looks a nightmare. An hour north or south of Beijing you can find empty sections of the wall which are just as impressive. But no cable car, no touts, and no crowds.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Norton

Nice stuff Marilyn... Thank you

---

Thanks Norton!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by misskit

That must have been a real shoving match up there on the wall with all those people!

---

Yes, it was, but I was kind of used to having lived in big cities of Asia for awhile. lol
Nice to get out of it too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Honestly, looks a nightmare. An hour north or south of Beijing you can find empty sections of the wall which are just as impressive. But no cable car, no touts, and no crowds

---

I wish I was able to visit further out parts of the wall, but didn't get the chance. It was free and given by my school not long after I arrived.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 39TG

Yes, interesting photos.

---

Thanks, 39TG!
------

A few more pics. Through the Hutongs and also visited the Grand Palace near the hutongs.

https://i.imgur.com/fMoYdQ9.jpg


This was a very busy area for sure.

https://i.imgur.com/ELqd3dq.jpg


The hutongs filtered into Houhai lake.

https://i.imgur.com/GC3VZUd.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/NBYzGJ0.jpg

The Grand Palace

https://i.imgur.com/5MelpqC.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/VMgn5rH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xdARs0d.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n01uLCj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PRZNnpK.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/fBMDXQf.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/WXzn3XK.jpg


Yours truly at the palace.

https://i.imgur.com/LBe8vck.jpg


Went to Wangfujing street after which is an open air street food and known for weird stuff like scorpions on a stick... a bit like Khao San?


Just a bit packed..haha.

https://i.imgur.com/4XsXz3g.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/tGLppgE.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/NS7eUp0.jpg

Nice to see, there are certainly crowded days there. :)

I was based in Yiwu for a year mid Naughties, with short term transfer to Wuhan and Beijing. Spent around a month traveling the country by (slow) train. Amazing place.

Was in Thailand previously and when transferred there I had time so went by boat up the Mekhong. From chang saen in Chiang Rai, splitting between Burma and Laos, up to Kunming over around 3 days.

If free and easy again I'd redo the month traveling around the country by slow train and spend a month coming down the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...l_of_China.png

https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...nu/?imgmax=800



You quickly learn to eat at the Muslim restaurants. :)

Nice thread mm.thanks for posting

looks a nightmare, but that's tourism for you.

i was lucky enough to travel in china in 1984, before much in the way of modernisation, it looked like those pictures you see of england during the industrial revolution. chimneys, smoke, dirt, noise, everything looked run down. hardly any foreigners there and it was quite difficult getting around, but the chinese were lovely people, apart from the officials. awful food and hygeine was non existent. very few guest houses or hotels would accept foreigners, but sometimes they would put up a camp bed in a corner of the lobby. most people still wore those green or blue chairman mao clothes and hats.

went back in 2016, to Dalian in the north east and travelled up and down the coast there to the border with n.korea. great food this time, and it was much easier to move around.

I've been there a few times owing to.its proximity to Laos can't say I particularly like it or particularly dislike it. It's certainly modern and efficient the tiddly winks weren't friendly or unfriendly just indifferent. Still. Very interesting place to travel

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by taxexile

looks a nightmare, but that's tourism for you.

i was lucky enough to travel in china in 1984, before much in the way of modernisation, it looked like those pictures you see of england during the industrial revolution. chimneys, smoke, dirt, noise, everything looked run down. hardly any foreigners there and it was quite difficult getting around, but the chinese were lovely people, apart from the officials. awful food and hygeine was non existent. very few guest houses or hotels would accept foreigners, but sometimes they would put up a camp bed in a corner of the lobby. most people still wore those green or blue chairman mao clothes and hats.

went back in 2016, to Dalian in the north east and travelled up and down the coast there to the border with n.korea. great food this time, and it was much easier to move around.

---

Dude I was one years old.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by armstrong

Dude I was one years old.

---

in 2016?

.... and please dont use that word "dude" makes you sound a bit stumpyish.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by taxexile

in 2016?

.... and please dont use that word "dude" makes you sound a bit stumpyish.

---

First date you posted bro. 1984.

Aight.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Edmond

I was based in Yiwu for a year mid Naughties, with short term transfer to Wuhan and Beijing. Spent around a month traveling the country by (slow) train. Amazing place.

Was in Thailand previously and when transferred there I had time so went by boat up the Mekhong. From chang saen in Chiang Rai, splitting between Burma and Laos, up to Kunming over around 3 days.

If free and easy again I'd redo the month traveling around the country by slow train and spend a month coming down the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou.

---

That's cool that you took the slow train and lived there awhile. I bet it'd look different if you went again. How was the pollution then? China had always been on my bucket list mostly for the history. My dream was to climb the Great Wall, so I was happy I did even amongst the crowds. I also visited Tianjin, Suzhou, X'ian, etc. Lived in Shanghai for a year as well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by taxexile

i was lucky enough to travel in china in 1984, before much in the way of modernisation, it looked like those pictures you see of england during the industrial revolution. chimneys, smoke, dirt, noise, everything looked run down. hardly any foreigners there and it was quite difficult getting around, but the chinese were lovely people, apart from the officials. awful food and hygeine was non existent. very few guest houses or hotels would accept foreigners, but sometimes they would put up a camp bed in a corner of the lobby. most people still wore those green or blue chairman mao clothes and hats.

went back in 2016, to Dalian in the north east and travelled up and down the coast there to the border with n.korea. great food this time, and it was much easier to move around.

---

Wow, I bet it'd look so different now to you. I heard good things about Dalian being on the sea I believe. I wasn't too fond of Chinese food, but I found a few places I'd eat at regularly as the food in Beijing can be super oily.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BLD

Nice thread mm.thanks for posting

---

Thanks, glad to hear your opinion on China too. China is so huge and so much to see from province to province.

More on Wangfujing Street


https://i.imgur.com/WMb5yba.jpg

Beijing milk like a yogurt, very good too.
https://i.imgur.com/jCyhNgs.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/ohMoPhF.jpg

Scorpions and sea dragons anyone? I wasn't brave enough to try.. lol

https://i.imgur.com/RR6iace.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/814EntN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/F513P4l.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/Qu7C7rS.jpg

I can post more on China, but first need to get my pics together. I have them all over including fb, external hard drive etc. More to come.. thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MarilynMonroe

It was insanely packed as you can tell. It was even hard to take a photo or selfie.

---

The curse of the social climber!:rofl: