Beijing – Day 4

June 25, 2024

Today was one of the most amazing days of my trip. This morning when I woke up, I was in a small city near Beijing on my own.

After waking up, I met two other travelers at my hostel. After some getting to know each other, we were all deciding what to do for the day. Since it was my last day, and I had a train at 5:25pm, I was going to do a quick hike at the Great Wall, come back to shower, and then head off. There was a specific place I wanted to go to because I was told the view there was one of the best. It’s called Jin Shan Ling, the place I was meant to arrive at the first day.

Anyways after telling them my plane, SOMEHOW we ended up going on the hike altogether. I was really excited to have company. The mans name is David and the girls name is Saskia. Beautiful name. After agreeing to leave by 9:30, I went to get ready. This was also legit one of my worst nightmares. The agreed upon time was 9:20-9:30, but the Germans were ready by 9:00. I was still getting ready while they were WAITING on me and I apologized for not being as punctual as a German would be. It’s a cultural difference, they understood.

When we got there it was a really steep hike at first, but we had nice conversation and the views were amazing. It was a bit eerie because there were recordings playing through the speakers. Anyhow we walked some more and were making a plan on how to get back before the train. Luckily there was a map we could figure our route on. By the time we decided what to do, there was a lady who noticed us and chased us down to give us the complete map from her hotel. She gave us a suggestion on what to do and that we should even stay here for the sunset. I accepted the map and thanked her but it was unfortunate because Saskia and I would miss the sunset due to the train.

After more walking and consideration, Saskia and I were talking. The day was going on so well that we both decided to ditch the train for the sunset, and worried about the train ride later.

As our walk continued, we met a man with a drone. As we passed by he invited us to take a photo with him, and one thing led to another and we all ended up following him back to his hotel for lunch.

Since I was able to translate (very poorly) I guess it was my job to order the food. Not knowing how big the portions were, I ordered around 8 different dishes. BIG MISTAKE– or so I thought. We ended up eating pretty much all of it, had a couple of beers, and were so stuffed we could’ve fallen asleep right there.

It’s also important to note that the older man was a police officer, so he got us special discounts and helped a lot when it came to bargaining for prices. He became very protective of us and it felt like we were his little ducklings and he was a momma duck. It was very wholesome. He also helped us find a driver that would take us back to Beijing for 400 RMB! A really good deal considering it was 2.5 hours away. The driver was also who ran the hotel and he was equally as amazing. All of us talked while eating and it was such a great experience in general.

After our lovely lunch (that took about 2 hours) we were ready to go back up the wall. We got some ice cream, snacks, and some drinks and went off on our sunset hike. It was SO FUN. We were taking photos and drone videos and the scenery was so beautiful. The older man loved taking drone shot videos of me which all turned out so great.

By the time it was almost sunrise we were at a tower area with a man standing nearby. I didn’t notice him until I was speaking to Shu Shu (unc. the older man), in Chinese. The standing man looks at me, fully Chinese, and said “Eh? You speak Chinese?” to which I gave him the same look and said “Eh? You speak English?” It was soo funny, but my story telling does not do it justice. Anyways turns out he is a tour guide, but it was an amazing and hilarious interaction.

After this we walked a little further down to see the perfect place to watch the sun set. It was beautiful. We also knew we were in the right place because where we were there were at least 5 people with professional photography gear. When we got there, the people with very nice cameras gave my friends and I a professional photoshoot. It was amazing. All 5 people taking photos of us at once. They turned out great, it was such a fairytale moment. I exchange WeChats with everyone to send the photos. It was such an amazing experience all in all.

Then we climbed back down, thankfully a VERY EASY walk, to which the guy who owned the hotel came to pick us up in the back of our scooter truck. Technically we were not allowed to do it, but they said it was okay and it saved us A LOT of walking time.

We then rode back to the hotel, got into our taxi and headed back to the hostel. The driver was VERY kind to wait for us to take showers. After we bathed, I said goodbye to Jie Jie (big sister, the lady who ran the hostel). It was a very sad goodbye, I felt like I really connected with her. She told me I was welcome to come back anytime and I told her this was not our last time meeting.

Anyways long story short we get into the taxi at 10pm. All is well, we go to bed, everything smooth, right? No. DUN DUN DUNN. Around 90 min later the driver ends up stopping at a subway station 40 minutes from our hostels. He said we can take the subway back, and I said that couldn’t be right, the subway would be closed by now. He said no, it closes in 30 minutes, so we got our things and left. To no surprise, I was correct. No wonder the ride was so cheap. No worries though. We did’t panic and fortunately there was another taxi who was willing to take us back to each of our hostels.

After a long day I finally check into the hostel (using Chinese by the way) and I settle down and called it a night. What a great day. Even writing this, I am frustrated because what I have written has not done today’s story justice, but oh well. I will have this to look back on.