Our short time in China started with a 24 hour train journey from Hong Kong to Beijing (we had thought about spending that time watching a full series of 24, but then decided against it). 
Considering that we had completely under-researched this section of the trip, everything went much easier than expected. On the train we had a 4 bed cabin all to ourselves and the journey was very smooth. Covering 2,000km in just one day in such comfort is a stark contrast from the bumpy bus journeys with frequent stops that we had become accustomed to in South East Asia and the change was very welcome. And not only that, when we got to Beijing, we finally had a chance to tell the immigration officials what we think of them......yes, after they stamp your passport, you are given a keypad in which you press a button to indicate if their service was Very Satisfactory / Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory / Very Unsatisfactory. Didn’t have the balls to press Very Unsatisfactory just in case they pulled our passports back! All in all, rather painless going from Hong Kong to Beijing.
Arriving in Beijing provides a good lesson in feeling very, very small. The population is about 16 million but looking beyond population numbers, the buildings and streets and open areas are just enormous! The train station we walked out of was massive and the 10-lane dual carriageway in front of us was just a typical street forming the blocks of the city. However, despite its scale it struck us as a very clean, organised and orderly place....suppose 
this is what Communist HQ should look like! We stayed in a quieter backstreet area of the city that had real character – recommended to us by Conor’s friend John Pender who had visited here recently and it was really nice (thanks John!) One thing we’ve noticed from travelling to larger cities is that there are so many locals, the tourists tend to get “diluted” and so there are fewer people trying to sell you stuff or offer taxi/accommodation etc. However, both of us being taller and fairer than the average Chinese person, we did get plenty of stares.....it sure is a funny feeling walking into a restaurant and having eye contact with everyone that you look to.
Considering that we had completely under-researched this section of the trip, everything went much easier than expected. On the train we had a 4 bed cabin all to ourselves and the journey was very smooth. Covering 2,000km in just one day in such comfort is a stark contrast from the bumpy bus journeys with frequent stops that we had become accustomed to in South East Asia and the change was very welcome. And not only that, when we got to Beijing, we finally had a chance to tell the immigration officials what we think of them......yes, after they stamp your passport, you are given a keypad in which you press a button to indicate if their service was Very Satisfactory / Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory / Very Unsatisfactory. Didn’t have the balls to press Very Unsatisfactory just in case they pulled our passports back! All in all, rather painless going from Hong Kong to Beijing.
Arriving in Beijing provides a good lesson in feeling very, very small. The population is about 16 million but looking beyond population numbers, the buildings and streets and open areas are just enormous! The train station we walked out of was massive and the 10-lane dual carriageway in front of us was just a typical street forming the blocks of the city. However, despite its scale it struck us as a very clean, organised and orderly place....suppose 
this is what Communist HQ should look like! We stayed in a quieter backstreet area of the city that had real character – recommended to us by Conor’s friend John Pender who had visited here recently and it was really nice (thanks John!) One thing we’ve noticed from travelling to larger cities is that there are so many locals, the tourists tend to get “diluted” and so there are fewer people trying to sell you stuff or offer taxi/accommodation etc. However, both of us being taller and fairer than the average Chinese person, we did get plenty of stares.....it sure is a funny feeling walking into a restaurant and having eye contact with everyone that you look to.
In Beijing city, we visited the main touristy areas....Tiananmen Square, the world’s largest public square (can hold up to a million people) and the scene of a government assault on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989: the government sent tanks in and opened fire on the crowd, killing a load of people. Today, security is tight around the square and you need to pass bags through an x-ray 
before you can get access. We also checked out the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace where the Emperors used to live. The Forbidden City is so called because it was off limits for 500 years – the price of uninvited admission was instant execution (a bit like Tiananmen square)! The Summer Palace was their summer retreat. One Empress expanded the Palace using money earmarked for the Navy. To satisfy the navy, she built a large ship made of marble to decorate the lake. We guess they weren’t so happy about that. The hill at the Palace offered some very nice views of the city.
However, our main reason for visiting Beijing (and China in fact) was to see the Great Wall of China, and indeed it was Great! We spent a day walking 8km along a stretch of the wall (from Jinshanling to Simatai). Being a bit further from Beijing than other sections of the wall, and being a bit dilapidated in places (i.e. a bit more natural and less reconstructed than some 
other sections) meant that the wall we visited was not overrun with tourists and we got to see it in a purer form. The walk was quite steep in places and also a bit dangerous as sections of the wall had crumbled away, but we got some fantastic views along the way and it was indeed a Great Walk of China (ha ha ha).
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