Two feet into China an it's famous Wall

Welcome to rainbow land, land of the plastic-fantastic, the toys and  nonsense crap. Don't worry, tradition, history and ancient flavour still thrive on the upper hand:

I had met Kathy in Mongolia. She had lived in Beijing for a year, teaching English and studying Chinese, so I emailed here to ask if she new a place to stay there. It turned she ha gone back too to apply for an Indian visa and to see her boyfriend.This wicked red-haired girl made my first introduction to this weird country a lot easier. Teaching me some words, taking me to streetrestautant to order incredible flavoured dishes, so mouthwatering after Mongolia and lending me a bike to cycle through the Hutongs (alleyways). Not to forget that drinking a beer on top of a skyscraper roof nightclub at four in the morning is just nicer with friends. She's one of those people I coul talk to for hours, afterwards not really knowing what we all talked about, but feeling much richer.     

So cycling through Beijing, taking your life in your hands with the stuff that comes into your direction, against traffic AND wanting to pass on the right-hand side, blown away by huge bellows of smog from buses, being startled by scooter-bikes who suddenly pass you without making any sounds being electric. For it's size, density in population and traffic, Beijing is a very silent city because of all the electric mobiles, it makes you wonder why it's still so polluted. Mm, lets not forget the coalburning and cigarette smoke.
The hutongs are a great pleasure, peeping into lives, courtyards, flowering walls, old wooden doorways, stone pillars, people sit, talk, play cards or majiang, smoking or eating.  

Very famous, daily fresh, always cool, everywhere to get and suitable any time of the day: Beijing yoghurt. 

The forbidden city by night. After seeing the whole of China, you do get a bit tired of its typical ancient buildings and paintings, something which is why you go to this pleasurdome for the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Not wanting to have this happen in the first week, I decided to skip it realizing later that it's more the air, the massiveness and the exclusiveness for 500years which makes it stand apart from any other place. Next time. 

All parks were in bloom with lilies, so photogenic. 

I did visit the Imperial Palace with it's massive lake, tiptop groomed gardens, elaborate temples and palace itself.

A real pleasant day strolling around the grounds among thousands of Chinese tourists and a handful of foreigners. 

A popular street to eat for Chinese themselves is this red lantern alley. In the old day this would be the only street in Beijing where you could eat after 11pm. The government forbid latenight having-fun, but didn't touch this area.

Five days of Beijing got me excited to venture out. And to make sure I first went to the Big Wall. 

There are many places to get on, I choose a less crowded entrance and decided on the spot to just to it, pack some water, noodles and a bag of prunes and go walk to a next restored section. It would be three days the lady told me.

It's not nice and redone for just a few km spots here and there. When you venture further it becomes fragile, broken down, detached, overgrown, ruined and eventually it disappears. I didn't walk the whole way, not having enough water, loosing sight of the wall and encountering lots of mist. It was just a small path through the brushes and I was not here to do that. 

At another part I climbed back on. Even more steep, with worse deteriorated steps, climbing, struggling into the air, sweat poring down. Truly magnificent. 

I slept in one of the highest towers, mist blowing through the windows, light and thunder at night, strange animals crawling on the wall. A bit spooky, but all the more fascinating. 

Next stop, a little town called Chuandixia. So nicely captured in time many movies are made here and many Chinese want to see it for that. Why can't we enjoy the beauty of a place when hundreds of others are doing the same at the same time? It must be the peace and quiet. 

The precise fitting shingles, roofs, courtyards and hutongs. 

At the top of this viewpoint four students from Beijing took my photo and chatted away in English. A very nice night rolled out of that. Eric, Shuang, Cat and Coco invited me to stay in an extra bed in their courtyard hotel room, we went for dinner and drank beer while playing cards at night. This is what I missed in the last days, all to blame on the language barrier, so it was extremely nice to encounter. Thanx guys, you mae my stay in this pretty town.   

Hop, on my first train, everybody gets noodles (there is hot water in every wagon) and other snacks. I woul get some stuff too, but certainly not this vacuumed packed chickenfeet.  

The Yungang Caves near Datong. Not really any idea what to expect, caves with statues, it was surprisingly shocking to see the hugeness of those Buddha's. And there were so many, in all sizes, sculpted from the wall and covered by clay and colour. Very impressive. Do you see me standing at it's feet?  

Made in 500AD, 252 caves, 15000 statues, in 60 years time.

Like he's wearing a glowing crown.

A foot massage and cleansing? 40 minutes for 20 yuan? Hell yeah! Soaking, a backrub, callousnesses that get scraped off and a feetrub. Delicious. 

Very normal. You walk outside, pull your pants down and pee.

Or to put your dog between the peaches.

My trainmates to Pingyao. All man going to work in Xi'an I think. They were very nice and curious. It funny to see how everybody tries to sleep in all awkward positions.

So this is the view of the courtyard when I get down from my dormitory. Pingyao is a very well kept walled town, being inside the walls you forget there is a whole new city on the outside. Shamefully here too it's very touristic with backpackers and loud Chinese groups. I wonder when I find this quiet little town where nothing else happens then milking cows and farming the land. Especially because you are so stuck to your guidebook, not able to speak and ask much who is not giving me what I'm looking for. And trains don't stop easy if you do see it flash by your window.  

I love how they carve clouds. The small picture.......

.......and the big picture. Pingyao has gorgeous gorgeous inner yards and elaborate hotels and buildings. I love discovering them.

So I leave you with this bowl of noodles, white stuff, pepper, soysause and oil and I promise to keep making those photo's.