We cannot travel through China without reciting Mao, who said that one is only a man after climbing the Great Wall.

So we did, though not in a very manly fashion, we just arranged a complete tour through Jack, the travel agent who was located in our Hotel 161. A bit of negotiation and we could take Charlotte for free, however with the restriction that we needed to pay for the entrance fee (which turned out to be for free) etc. ourselves and we had to take her on the lap during the ride (we took the risk and were lucky enough that the bus was not full, so not an issue). Easy way to save 268 Yuan.

This meant getting up early – we were still not completely recovered from the jet lag (handy fact, you need about one day per hour time difference, so 6 days for us) – as the tour left at 8 am. So we’re waiting in the lobby and slowly more people are gathering, at the end we were with 3 groups that joined the same tour to Mutianyu Great Wall.

After the bus arrived we drove out of the city and our English speaking tour guide introduced herself. Her name was Cactus J. The explanation was quite interesting, a cactus is a tough and beautiful plant that can survive in harsh places, just like her. OK… As she introduced the program some things were made very clear, and I mean crystal clear like in an army way by almost shouting commands at us. Soon we had a new name for our guide: “Sergeant Cactus”.  So far we had a bit of a strange feeling, paying for this tour and receiving commands by Sergeant Cactus whose favorite sentence was: “Are you clear???”. The foreigners took it easy and made fun of her by all shouting back together: “YES!!!”. Cactus does not have an easy job managing foreign tourists :O).

During a very long ride (we got stuck in traffic jams several times) we did get a good feeling for another Beijing phenomenon, the smog. We could hardly see 200 meters outside of the bus, it was the whole time till the wall like driving through a thick fog. This was definitely not giving hope for good photos if this continues like this. But ok, that’s life :S

Arriving at the Mutianyu Wall we decided to take a different route than advised to ensure we had to walk only a limited length – travel with children is different. So we went up by the cable car to watch tower 14 and walked east towards tower 6, where the so-called Tobbogan was waiting, a slide with which we could return to the parking area. And big surprise, the sky cleared up, we had a sunny day and sometimes even an empty part of the wall for ourselves as not many people went this way. Just let the photos speak for themselves, of course, we had to do the mandatory “jumping on the wall” picture and were also wanted by the Chinese for pictures with them.

The way back down was also definitely a big adventure, the Tobbagan (Sommerrodelbahn) was a steel slide with cars running 2km down to the entrance area and Charlotte and Martijn got a double one. On the way there were several Chinese checking on the track shouting “slow, slow, slow” while Charlotte was more like “Whoooooo, faster daddy, faster”. After we arrived at the bottom we had to wait a bit before mummy came in 😉

After approximaltely 3 hours on the wall the whole group had a common lunch in a restaurant that was not really bad and we got to talk with several of the other participants, one of which lived as a contractor in Nuremberg during the week (he was Czech) – a small world.

After another long drive back – traffic is a bitch in Beijing and I guess everywhere else in China as well – we wanted to go to a so called Korean BBQ restaurant near our hotel. And then the bad mood came in, Charlotte was tired and did not like to eat there, so we had some discussions and then left the restaurant again to search something different – like I wrote, travelling with kids is different :-/

We ended up in this small noodle restaurant where one could pick its own ingredients, they weighted them and then a noodle soup with those ingredients magically appeared from a very small kitchen. Now this was something Charlotte liked and we also had a good meal there… experimenting gives the best results :o)

This day was again full of tourist attractions, we visited the forbidden city in the heart of Beijing. First we had to get to the Tiananmen Square, which was also quite interesting due to the sheer size of it and of course due to the fact that you need to pass a security check in order to get onto the square.. something to do with problems in the past I guess.

On the square and in front of the forbidden city, where we had to get our tickets, there were a lot of chinese tourist that wanted to take picture with us. At first that is quite funny, but after a while its getting a bit of a nag. Especially our daughter with her blond hairs got a lot of attention.

Within the compound of the palace it was just again amazing. First, the grounds are just enormous, especially if you imagine that this was all just build for one person. Second, the crowds of Chinese visitors that were all walking the exact same route was also quite a view. As soon as we went about 10 meters off the center way we were seemingly the only ones and it is quite nice to have the feeling that the palace belongs to you 🙂

This day Charlotte also took here own camera and is getting quite fond of “Selfies”.

This time we took the bus back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice coffee in a western oriented cafe on the way, which was well worth it 🙂

Second day in Beijing and we’ve visited the Temple of Heaven, one of the highlight here in Beijing. Due to jet lag we slept in quite long, then enjoyed our first real Chinese breakfast with noodle soup and went for sightseeing. But before that we met a young Chinese girl who know also knows a German game. Children can play without oral communication without any issue, thank god

What we experienced in the Tempe of Heaven were three important things. One, sightseeing with Charlotte is going really well, so that is a great thing. We found our mode of operations with her 🙂 Second, all of the known sights are crowded, like really full with tourists, but just a few foreigners as most tourist groups are Chinese visiting their capital city. And third, most important (see photo evidence), never order a Hamburger in China for your Kid and expect something you’ve seen before… Charlotte was very disappointed and decided to stick to Chinese food from now on …

After finishing the tourist part for the day we went towards the subway walking through alleys and suddenly we’re in the middle of a local market. There we found a real Nijntje-eraser, a well known rabbit from Holland and we had to take one with us of course.  That night we all slept well – Beijing is definitely a city where you get to your 10.000 steps a day.