山海关 and 北戴河 Trip

Yes, I am back in one piece :p

Well, it wasnt that bad actually. Compared to my last Oct trip, this time was much much more better. Maybe it was only a short journey so I was not that tired. Although we went there with no hotel booking, no tour guide and no tickets back, surprisingly all went on quite smoothly. And no, I didnt get the 'chance' to sleep under the stars coz we did have place to stay, hehehe.
Below is my travel journal for that 3 day 2 nite trip:

Day One - 2 May 2007
Our train ticket was at 01.44 in the wee morning of 2nd May. Well, we wanted to buy the better timing ones but all had sold out. We were left with two extreme choices, the cheapest one which was at this timing or the most expensive one at more convenient time. The ticket seller suggested us to take the cheap ones because it was only a few hours journey - just sleep on the train and once we reach there in the morning, can go straight to travel around so there isnt any waste of time. So we took the cheap ones and tortured ourselves by sleeping on the 硬座 (hard seat) for about 4 hours plus. We reached there at about 6.30 in the morning then went straight to the ticket counter to buy tickets back. It was not that we didnt want to buy the tickets back from Beijing but they didnt sell these tickets. So the only way is like this - reach the place, go to the ticket counter at the train station, jostling with people to buy the tickets back. Troublesome huh....well, this is the thing you've gotta do if you DIY instead of joining a travel agency. To my surprise, all the tickets back to Beijing until 6th of May, left with no seat (无座) ones. Luckily, there is a friend in our group of 11 who had gone to this place before who was saying that it is 'Normal' - just buy the tickets first and once you get on the train just find any empty seat and sit down or you can go to the train canteen, pay Rmb25 for the food and sit there for the whole journey. So we bought the no seat train tickets. While I was "queueing" (you should see the local people when they queue), some of our friends went out to source for a guide and transportation. So by the time I got the train tickets, they had gotten the guide with minivan to take us around.
That friend of ours who had been here last semester found the same guide that they used the last time they were here. Hence, we used the same one to play safe coz he said that the guide was ok. There were initially two of them, the middle aged one is the boss and the young chap is the driver. They were wearing suits when we first met them. Actually, they kinda look like a mafia gangster with black suits, hahahaha..... But they turned out just fine.
First, they drove us around to find a hotel. We went to a total of two hotels, the first one was too expensive so we settled with the second one. The location was good as it is in the heart of the town. As for the room itself - still can get by, not a 5-star hotel room but with Rmb180 a nite budget, this was the most that we can get. FYI, it was not cheap by local standard but this is Labour Day holiday so they have all the reason to jack up the price.
After that, the driver cum guide asked us which places we want to visit. He suggested a place called 长寿山 which is part of 五佛山森村公园. He said that there was five Buddhas statues carved on the mountain itself. On the way there, we stopped by a minimart to grab some food and water coz the guide said the water inside is expensive - you know tourist place stuff price. It was about 9 plus in the morning, the guide said that we might be out by 3 or so. By then, I realise that this place must be huge that he estimated we spent 6 hours inside. Because by the look from the entrance, although the mountain is tall, it didnt look that big :p The entrance tickets that we bought is the all rounded ones which mean we already paid for all the facilities inside which include the cable cars. We planned to go up by cable cars and come down by the 长城 staircases. Little did we know, that eventually we didnt manage to come back through the same path in the end, we were kind lost inside, hahaha
We took the open ended cable car up - you know, the one with only seat and foot rest for your legs. For those who are afraid of height, it is kinda scary because you are actually hung around above the mountain forests. It was a few minutes journey and once we reached the top we continued walking and climbing up to dunno where. We just followed the crowd, hahaha. There are some spots with beautiful views along the way though. There is one part that I especially like which is the whole side of the mountain is covered with purple, bluish little flowers (I think is is lavender, but not very sure). It is so beautiful :p
Then we went up some more and find another place with cable cars again. So we just took them without knowing where it would lead us to - we were kinda happily lost inside, remember? ") This time is the closed cable cars, the one in the box. Guess how long does this cable car journey take? It is the longest cable car trip I have ever been in my whole life. It takes about 30 minutes for goodness sake. It is like once it reaches the top of one line, there is one more line going down and then, the line keeps on going up and down again until we really reach the bottom of the mountain. The view is of course magnificent. I think we transcended quite a few rocky mountains in that 30-min ride. By the time we reached the bottom, we were wondering how we could get back to the same spot again. I wouldnt want to take the same cable car up again. To tell you the truth, although it is an enclosed cable car but it was quite scary. Especially when you were in the middle of the line and strong wind was blowing. You can feel the car was kinda swinging around. And if you look down, you couldnt actually tell where the ground was, as it was covered with thick forest...scary enough rite.
Luckily, there were car rides at the foot of the mountain, they were part of the park rides. So we queued to wait for our turn to get on the car. It was the open air ride, those 10-seated car with no doors for the tourists to enjoy the view. There were 11 of us but we squeezed on one cars anyway. The driver, believe me, he thinks he was driving a racing car. It is not your normal straight highway road that I was talking about here, mind you. It is a mountain road with a lot of twists and turns, although I've got to admit this man-made road is very smooth. It made me think of Initial D film. Maybe the driver is trying to break his own record here, hahaha.
And so we arrived at another part of the park where from far below, we can actually see a Buddha face carved into the mountain. The rest of the gang climbed up while me, Fonny and her sis waited below. I was a bit dizzy from the strong wind and burning sun so decided to rest for a while. After 1 and half hour, the gang finally came down. They still didnt see the five big Buddha statues from there, dont really know which part of the park they are at and it was already 4 plus. Since, we were all very tired from no good quality sleep in the train and no real meal since morning, we decided to get out of the park. We queued again for the car coz they were so many people and no cars in sight. Well, the road up is not actually short, it was about 10 mins. This time we all did not fit into the same car because they were few people already filling up the first 10-seated car so we split into two groups and planned to meet at the exit. We were at a different gate from the initial one we went in. I was not surprised, it is a big park! Luckily, the other group was at the same gate too. And so we called our guide and asked him to pick us up here instead. Day one is already too long, lets end it here, the rest is not important anyway :)

Day Two - 3 May 2007
We woke up at 6 plus in the morning in order to meet the guide at 7 at the lobby. He took us to breakfast at one of the most famous dumpling in town. One jin (which is 0.5kg by normal standard) is Rmb15 and he said that there are 30 dumplings in one jin. In my mind, I thought that the dumpling must be small cute ones, since half kg there are 30 of them. Although the price is quite expensive for dumpling, we decided to try them anyway. So we ordered 3 jin for 11 of us. Well well well, it turned out that their 'One jin' is 1.35 kg, and the dumplings are those standard size that we normally have in Beijing. Actually the dumpling looks more like 'xiao long bao' but they call them 'jiao zi'. Hence, we had six big plates full of jiao zi in front of us, hahaha... In the end we 'dapao' almost one jin of it. We gave half to the driver and an assistant (the boss wasnt around anymore) and kept half for snack later on.
This day we went to 九门口 and 老龙头.
九门口 is also part of greatwall but this one is kinda special because its like a bridge over a river. And the part on the water has nine canal doors that's where the name comes from. So over here, again we climbed the staircases. However, this time round, it was not that high and tiring. After climbing the greatwall, we went to the bird park beside this place. The entrance ticket has included this part anyway. Then inside the bird park, there is underground section of the greatwall that we had climbed earlier. If I got it correctly, this is the only greatwall in the whole China that has the underground section. It was interesting. It is the living quarter for the olden days army, it has everything inside. Storeroom for food, prisoners cells, meeting rooms, bedrooms, toilets, wells, kitchens.....interesting.
老龙头 is the part of greatwall that extend until the sea. It is also called 天下第一关 which roughly translates to the first gate of the world - world here refers to China of course ;) It is basically another section of greatwall. It is special because it extends into the sea. However, it has been renovated and maintained very well so that we dont see any of the ruins on the sea anymore. From above we can view the sea unblocked.
At night, we had seafood for dinner. Actually we had seafood for lunch as well. It is so hard to get fresh and cheap seafood in Beijing because of its location. So while we were near the sea, might as well satisfy our want of seafood, right?

Day Three - 4 May 2007
The itinerary for the day was to 北戴河. It is about an hour journey by bus from 山海关. So we took off at 7 plus and reached there by around 8. There was nothing much here except for the sea. The place we went to is 鸽子窝公园, the dove nest park. It is by the sea as well. So after we saw and feed the dove. We went to the seaside and just played around a bit. Both the wind and the sun were very strong that day. When we finished it was about 10.30 which meant that we actually still got quite a bit of time before our train at 13.50. So on the bus, the driver asked us whether we wanted to go to 孟姜女庙 which is one of the place that we originally wanted to visit. Since we all wanted to, hence we quickly headed back to 山海关. This temple was dedicated to 孟姜女 - there is a big legend behind her story. For short: she was looking for her husband who was forced to be labour for building the greatwall. Husband had actually died and buried inside the wall. When she found out, she cried for 3 days and nights 'till heaven was touched by her and hence, the section of the greatwall that her husband was in collapsed. So that she could claim her husband body for burial. So this place was actually her residence and they build a temple and small museum inside dedicated to her. By the time we finished it was about time to go to the train station and so we went straight there.
Having known that we did not have seat inside the train, we actually had prepared ourselves for the worst. But it turned out that we found the train canteen and just pay the Rmb25 to sit there. The good thing was there was no one around at that section of the train except us. So it felt kinda exclusive :p Luckily, this train was faster that the one we came with. The train was a bit late though, it started at 15.16. We reached Beijing safe and sound at about 19.00.

And so this journey has ended.