The Great Wall of China, Badaling, Beijing, China

Hiking at Badaling Great Wall

Very, very early this morning, earlier than the sunrise, we woke and set off for our second trip to the Great Wall! Our plan was to be on the very first subway, allowing us to take the very first commuter train to the closest section of the Great Wall. This area is called Badaling and is renowned as being quite a tourist hotspot as well as an area that has been fully restored (it's probably far better in stature and size than it ever was).

However in a city of 24million + a large influx of tourists on bus's, we weren't alone in our thinking. At the train station we merged like a title wave into a sea of people. When the gates opened it was a mad rush for the train which was waiting 200 meters down the platform.  Here is an excerpt we took when we saw the wave coming up behind us. In the clip Kara says 'Their running for seats!  Go, Go, Go!!'

John is super fast though and his long European legs far out ran everyone, after locating him we had a nice and peaceful ride to Badaling enjoying some tuna sushi for breakfast. At the train station in Badaling almost the entire train boarded buses to be transferred to the cable cars, we weren't sure what was happening, everyone was moving so fast. Like stragglers, we took our time and wandered to the ticket office (for our AUD$7 tickets) that allowed us to walk up the wall. 

Entrance to the Badaling section 

We were very pleased with ourselves by the time we walked up to the entrance of the wall and saw the long line of people waiting to buy their tickets at the second ticket booth! Except they weren't! They were waiting to enter the wall. Doh! We didn't wait long however and soon were through with the option to go left up the South Wall or right to the North Wall. We went South and walked up a very steep section of the wall.

At this stage there was a mass of tourists (all Chinese) standing around in absolute awe! There is an old Chinese saying 'bu dao changcheng fei haohan' or in English 'you're not a real man, if you haven't climbed the Great Wall'! So there they were early this Wednesday morning waiting for their turn to be 'real' men. Funnily enough the cable car sign actually also said ' Your still a man if you take the cable'. 

The jandal breaking jump!

To our disadvantage the Beijing air was fairly poor today and limited our visibility. 

We motored on past all of the slowbies until we reached a nice a quiet section. It was here that Kara's jandal decided it had, had enough and broke! 

The horror! 

In China you wear shoes and you wear socks (even with sandals) but with no other option the broken jandals went in the backpack and Kara walked the remained of the Great Wall barefoot (you can take a kiwi out of New Zealand, but you can't take New Zealand out of the kiwi). There was a lot of pointing and some strange looks for sure! 

Trees under the watch tower

Tourists on the wall

Further afield 

A lonely part of the wall

Kara climbing in the bad air

Resting by a watch tower

Exploring the South side of Badaling

Looking back Northwards

From the top we slowly meandered back down the wall and decided to leave the North side of Badaling with the thousand others venturing up.

All the people! 

Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and it is always great to get out of the city centre however we found this section of the wall much too touristy. The wall has been overly restored and since has been subjected to a substantial amount of graffiti carving into the stone face.

Coming back into Beijing on the train

In the area there seems to be a flurry of new tourist monuments being built into the hillside but we think it would be better if they just left the beautiful trees so people could enjoy a more natural and scenic outlook.



After exiting again, through the crowds waiting to enter, we caught the next train back into Beijing (in a somewhat less diabolical manner) and were home for lunch! A very successful morning! 

Tot siens,
John and Kara

Beijing Life Part 3

Class graduation! 

A very large proportion of our day, week and time in China has been work! So this blog update centres around our current roles as English Teachers in Beijing. We thought it would be a great idea to include some of the highlights and challenges of working in China and hope we might inspire you!

Playing on the computer

Many people who know Kara, realise that her English isn't great. She struggles with spelling... its awsum right? Where does that pesky comma go? Or she might drop words from a sentence because "my brain thinks faster than my mouth can talk"- better still, she has an amazing ability to join all the words in a sentence to form one massive word 'doyawantsomebread?'. Additionally, John's native language is also Afrikaans not English! So challenges were a plenty!

Book time

Therefore working as English Teachers was an opportunity we both jumped at to advance our interpersonal skills, gain experience in a new culture and broaden our skills with children but most importantly to improve our English. In Australia last year, we both started and completed a TEFL course (teaching English as a foreign language).

An exciting three letter word Go fish game! 

As useful as it was, we never ever imagined being a English teacher to young learners would be the most tiring or exhausting thing we have ever done! We teach on average 20-25 class hours per week ranging from one to two hours and most recently three hours during the summer.

John's adjective worksheet

The rest of the day consists of lesson planning and administration. John's work schedule is a little more flexible and allows him to come and go more regularly.

For Kara, weekday evenings usually consist of coming home, eating and sleeping, there isn't much energy left after a full day of jumping around! AND there is lots of jumping, falling and playing. We throw balls, we make letters out of blue tak, we hop to different letter sounds, we pretend to be... dogs, lions, jellyfish......

Teaching students and parents!

Although teaching is tiring and often you need a lot of coffee to get through the big days (Saturday and Sunday we do nine+ academic hours), teaching children is also very rewarding. The children give unconditional love and half way through a lesson it's not uncommon for a small child to stand up, walk over to you and just give you a cuddle or a kiss.




Working with children is different from working with adults because you must build a relationship with the family. You meet the father, mother and grandparents. Although Kara works only with children, John works with children and adults! John needs to cater for and juggle such diverse learning styles and capabilities.

Although teaching is hard work, extremely exhausting and tiresome, we have had an amazing ride thus far! We have learnt so much about how children think, how to teach effectively and have built many precious relationships. We wouldn't have traded this experience for anything!

Tot siens
John and Kara

Picture of Kara by Thomas (4 years)

Foot five!! 

Bejing's City Wall and Hutongs, Beijing, China

Hutong experience

In Beijing there is plenty to do and see! 

We have recently been out to explore a few treasures within the city during the warm summer evenings. 

Beijing is well known for its old Hutong's, which are small old courtyard houses joined in a messy maze-work of windy lane-ways (or alleyways). Traditionally entire families would live together in a courtyard property called a 'siheyuan'. 

John relaxing outside a Hutong shop sign

Groups of families would all live beside one another creating the 'Hutong'. This would form a neighbourhood. The original word hutong was actually Mongolian and means 'water well'.

Hutongs were first designed by Chinese city planners during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and were meant to separate different classes of citizens. Depending on where your hutong was in relation to the Forbidden City would tell stories about who you and your family were.



Also during the Yuan dynasty, Mongols placed great value on water so the family siheyuans were traditionally built around a well. 

Looking down a lane way

Unfortunately many of Beijing's Hutongs were destroyed over time, through wear and tear or destruction for new roads. However the remaining ones are now protected by the government and are considered historical settlements. In some parts of Beijing, there are still large families living in Hutongs but they are also a very large tourist attraction.

Interestingly, no family had their own bathroom. Rather the hutong (or neighbourhood) would share a communal washing and defecting area which is still in effect today. This means there are plenty of public toilets available for everyones use. 

Dinner on the roof top

One of our favorite Hutong's, are the Beihai Park Hutong's (north of the forbidden city). In the Hutong there are lots of small, unique shops, restaurants and bars, it is a great place to come and relax on a roof top and watch the hustle below.  

We have a few more to explore yet but might wait for the tourist season to slow down a little.

We also recently and accidentally stumbled across a remaining section of Beijing's old City Wall. Much of the City Wall was removed long ago for road development as the city grew and also after the collapse of the last dynasty in 1911. However a long southeastern section remains heading northward from Chongwenmen (our current suburb). 

Playing by the ancient Beijing City Wall

The Beijing City Wall at sunset

This section was part of the inner City Wall built between 1400 - 1553 and currently it is 1.5 kilometers in length. After this unique discovery we did some research into the old Beijing City Walls and found there was an inner City Wall and an outer City Wall. Our home sits within the outer City Wall so theoretically if there was a mongol attack we may have been safer... 

Kara playing on the grass by the Beijing City Wall 

Today, there is a wide path that slowly winds its way down the length of the remaining section of the inner Wall. In the evening this part of Beijing is a lively hub for groups of Chinese elders who gather to dance, play cards or sit together while their young grandchildren run around. During the day it is popular with walkers and used for practicing a multitude of different varieties of martial arts. We quite enjoy the sword waving! At the end of the wall there is a large watch tower which you can climb up, for a minimal fee, the wall and check out the view from a height of 15meters! Something which is still on the 'to do list'. 

Tot siens,
John and Kara

A Weekend in Beijing, China

Trying 'cupping' Traditional Chinese Medicine 

Our friends often ask us what we do on our weekends. So this month's blog centres around a 'usual' weekend- not one travelling the greater China but just a normal Beijing weekend.

Our weekends are generally busy but also relaxing. We try not to take them for granted but also use them to relax after a long week teaching.

We have combined some photos from the last few weekends, which for us, fall on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (quieter days in the life of a private English school teacher).

Sometimes we think our weekends are a little boring but then we remember 'hay, we're in China- we certainly weren't doing this a few years ago!'.

Drinks at Atmosphere Bar- Beijing's highest restaurant

Monday evenings are often a wind down from a busy week. Usually, it is a late night with Kara finishing work at 8.30pm and John arriving home shortly after.

So we relax with a visit to the Chinese doctor or catch up with some friends for drinks and/or dinner! We love to head out on a Monday evening to try a different restaurant for dinner. Or if there is an electrical storm (happens more often than you think in Summer!) we cuddle up and watch a movie while the rain drives pellets into our corrugated roof.

Below are some photos we took last week at Beijing's highest restaurant (Atmosphere Bar). It is part of only a very small handful of places you can go in Beijing to see a city outlook.

The view over Beijing

Looking Northward (can you see the tall factories)

On Tuesday and/or Wednesday's, if the weather is fine, we will visit a new park in the city for some outdoor activity. We like to get out exploring new parts of the city as much as we can! Whether it is a park, lake, historical sight or tourist attraction we are knocking them off our list!

Our local coffee joint

Breakfast from seven11

First stop however is always the local bakery for a coffee (mmm... roast hazelnut coffee) and breakfast or the seven11 across the street for some sushi!

Jogging the 10km track at Beijings Olympic Park

Beijing's Olympic Park

We usually will buy lunch downstairs from us at a local restaurant which are below our building (salad and rice, beef noodles or dry egg fried noodles are our favourite!). We also try to make a trip to the supermarket on the weekend to stock up on groceries for the week like eggs and veges.  If our budget allows it we also might venture to an expat food shop that specialise in international food. We might get a little treat of some Australian red wine, cheese or our favourite: olives! Mmmmmm.

Mix salads (eaten with rice)

Watching the subway come in

We find that during our weekend we spend quite a bit of time on public transport (2yuan per ride or AUD20c). Going to and from the parks of course!

One of the advantages of taking our weekend on Tuesdays and Wednesdays is that we miss most of the peak subway traffic!

Sunset over Ciqikou

Depending on the weather (it is VERY hot here!) and the air quality we usually end the weekend with a stroll around our neighbourhood stopping at the 'local' for 'leno ji dan' dumplings or stay in and cooking veges and rice for dinner!

Playing in the rain on the balcony

So our weekends aren't full but we are busy. Our most important thing is to relax and have fun after such tiring weeks. We love and appreciate having the time each week to explore more of China in a no-rush (backpack free) way!

Tot siens,
John and Kara

A trip to the Summer Palace, Beijing, China

Paddle boats on lake Kunming, Summer Palace

It was a beautiful warm and sunny Wednesday when we ventured to Beijing’s Summer Palace. 

The air was clear, a little overcast and perfect for a stroll around one of Beijing’s biggest attractions (720 acres), which is located 15km North West from the centre of Beijing.

Some of our colleagues have ventured there in the spring and had highly recommended it (along with our Beijing guide citing it as in the top five Beijing attractions!)

Around the man-made river there are many shops

So we made the subway journey north with our backpacks over-full with water and sunscreen feeling prepared for the 38 degree day! After arriving and joining the masses for tickets we wandered (map-less) into the Beijing's Summer park. Construction of the Summer Palace began in the year 1121 with the building of the Wang Hill Palace by Emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

John in front of a palace

In later years imperial gardens blossomed and the area was re-named ‘Garden of Clear Ripples’ as the current emperor built a whopping, giant man-made lake (about 520 acres) in the middle of the garden. As you do! All the excavated soil was piled and packed down then named Longevity Hill which is bejeweled with a number of grand buildings (the cloud-dispelling hall, Temple of Buddist virtue, Sea of Wisdom temple and the Tower of Buddist Essence).

A boat venturing off between the water lilies

As we pumped it up the old stone steps of Longevity Hill it got hotter and hotter, the dry heat made it hard to breathe. But we continued, as we were on a mission to find the ancient ruins often talked about. 

The Summer Palace has suffered two major attacks – during the Anglo-French invasion of 1860 and during the Boxer Rebellion (8 allied groups) in the 1900s. The garden was torched and many stone building destroyed. Since the destruction, the palaces have been under restoration. 

Just posing in front of a small tree

After a few hours we started to get quite tired and hungry – but still no ruins! We walked around the big lake, up and down small little paths, stopped for a sausage on a stick and climbed the multitude of unsightly tall bridges before John mentioned he thinks it was in another location- at the OLD Summer Palace!

Pretty between the flowers

After remembering that we actually live in a modern age, the GPS on our phones told us the Old Summer Palace was not far away - another 1.5kilometers to the west. So we exited the park and walked west stopping for a small lunch of local cold (but very spicy) rice noodles. 

Was this an ancient bridge?

We got into the Old Summer Palace park but couldn’t see any ruins! After walking over 12km in the heat and in our jandals we were exhausted, our legs ached our stomachs were grumbling and we had reached the end of our water supply.

Perhaps only through sheer stubbornness (on Kara’s behalf) we continued on, driven by the fact that after looking for these ruins for over 6 hours, surely we must stumble on them sometime soon??

Another 3km later winding around small lakes and over hills we found the ruins, behind a large fenced off area with a women demanding a ticket. Doh! Somehow we had missed the ticket office and had entered the main park unknowingly, without a ticket. 

This would have been a beautiful fountain

After some negotiation and an exchange of money, we entered the special area and explored the ruins of the Old Summer Palace.

Exploring the ancient ruins

The Old Summer Palace known as Yuan Ming Yuan (the gardens of perfect brightness) and its surrounding park cover an area five times the size of the Forbidden City (or eight times the size of the Vatican City). 







The existing ruins and remains of western mansions and 18^th century European palaces, fountains and gardens were built by the Qianlong Emperor. The beautiful buildings were destroyed in 1860 during the second opium war. 

Not much left of these buildings

We didn't stay long, after a few photos our legs cried for fear of the additional 2km walk back to the subway so we slowly and painfully stumbled to the closest subway and headed home. It was a beautiful day and we felt so lucky to be outside enjoying China's fresh air with the other 38,000+ people enjoying the park that day!

Tot siens,
John and Kara

(a little more nature below).

A local butterfly resting its wings. 

Caught just at the right moment

The surrounding park had stunning flowers