BEIJING BACKPACKING TRIP #4
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I wish Salam to everyone,
We have come to second day of our vacation in Beijing. Onward with the journey!
We took Subway Line 2 and got off at Xizhimen Subway Station (西直门, leaving the station using Exit A and followed the direction signs until reaching an escalator that took us up to the ground. Tickets for S2 Trains were sold from the ticket counter on the ground level of the main building of Beijing North Railway Station.
The train ride was very exciting. Beijing all the way to Badaling, we really enjoyed the total view of the Guan Valley Scenic Area, pass by Juyongguan Great Wall.
It's interesting to know Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway line was already hundred-years-old.
BADALING GREAT WALL
We finally got off at Badaling Train Station (八达岭) which was the third train stop, before that, the train made 2 stops that were Qinghuayuan Train Station (清华园) and Nankou Train Station (南口).
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| Badaling Great Wall Railway Station |
After getting off the train at Badaling Station, we walked along the “216 sheng dao road” (216省道) followed the signage on the roadside as our guide. We headed towards Badaling Great Wall. Distance was about 650m and we reached the ticketing counter of the North Cableway. This would be our carriage of choice getting up the Great Wall. We took the cableway to get ascended to one of the watchtowers on the mountain peak.
The cable car will enable us to quickly reaching the peak of Badaling great wall; enjoy the Majestic feeling of the magnificent Great Wall.
The Great wall in Badaling has 43 watchtowers, of which 16 have been restored for public visits. There were two cableways, one leading south to the South 4th watchtower and one leading north to the North 8th watchtower. Addition to these visitors can also ride the pulley slidecar to reach the North 4th watchtower. The sliding car was something like a few units of Alpine Coaster cars, all hooked-up together.
How far to walk from the Train Station to the cableway terminal? Distance from the Train Station to the South Cableway terminal was about 300 meters Cable Car (南线缆车站 八达岭). Distance to the North Cableway was about 650 meters. North cable station.(北线缆车站). Cablecar was also called Suodao (索道) in Chinese.
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| Cable Car Station |
The pulley slidecar terminal (滑车) was located near the Badaling Bear Paradise (八达岭熊乐园) located in front of Bus 877 station.
That means there were 3 types of ride to bring visitors to directly to the towers.
Visitors can of course, choose to walk up to the watchtowers.
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| Great Wall Of China |
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| North Eight Watchtower in the Backdrop |
The barbican is an over-built outpost or gateway, or watchtower situated over the Great Wall used for defensive purposes.
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| In front of The Barbican of North 8th Watchtower |
We spent two hours on the North 8th watchtower and the surrounding vicinity. The cableway took us back down to ground station. We then took Free shuttle bus.(免费摆渡车) Free shuttle service was available which near the parking lot in front of the hill where north cableways ground station was located. The shuttlebus dropped us off in front of Greatwall Tiandi (長城天地) where we can take bus no. 919 (919 公交站) .
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| Waiting Bus at 919 Gongjiao Bus Stop |
The earlier plan was to take bus 919, not sure what actually happen, but this bus 880 turned-up and I just sort of asking the driver if the bus was heading to Xiguan Huandao Bus Stop and he said yes. We boarded Bus no. 880 at the back and reiterated our destination to the ticket person standing right next to the door. We paid her the bus fare and were on our way to Xiguan Huandao Bus Stop (昌平西关环岛) Changping District of Beijing.
Be sure to hang on to the tickets, as ticket checks were fairly frequent.
We didn’t have proper lunch, just some pieces of bread, some "Gogood Muesli Bars" and mineral water that we bought in the Niujie supermarket we went yesterday.
Got off the bus and waited for bus no. 357 at Ming Huang La Xiang Gong bus stop (明皇蜡像宫). This bus stop was very near to Xiguan Huandao bus stop (昌平西关环岛). We need to go to another bus stop to board another bus that will take us to The Ming Tombs.
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| Waiting Bus no 314 at Changping Dongguan Bus Stop |
We took bus no. 357 to Changpingdongguan bus stop (昌平东关) located along Fu Xue Lu (昌平区府学路). We got off this bus and changed to bus no. 314 at the bus station across the street. We were on our way to Changling Tomb.
CHANG LING MING TOMB
Emperor Yongle was buried in the Changling Tomb, the largest mausoleum of the thirteen emperor tombs can be found in Changping District.
It was in the 15th century Nanjing was the capital of China that was until, Emperor Yongle relocated the imperial capital to Beijing within the years of his rule.
The tomb has beautiful garden and buildings as the Chinese belief that the dead will rise again. Therefore the Emperor was buried with jewelries and other valuables for his use for the life after death.
It was written in Sulalatus Salatin (Sejarah Melayu) in the 15th century there was a delegation from Malacca lead by Tun Perpatih Putih. They came to China to strengthen the ties between the two empires.
In the old days, people will be beheaded if they were to lift up their eyes to the great Chinese Emperor. It reminded me of a clever way of Tun Perpatih Putih that got away with looking the face of the Chinese Emperor's.
Within this tomb complex, the Hall of Eminent Favour was the main building; it has an exhibition hall that displayed the history of Yongle, the voyage of Admiral Zhenghe (Laksamana Chengho) and other interesting articles. We spent a few hours here.
Whoever wants to go to Badaling from Ming Tomb can take bus no. 879. Before coming to Beijing, I have already made a searching on this bus timetable, which didn’t seem to be right pertaining the time taken for travelling direct from Changling to Badaling, this was the reason we didn’t take this bus in the first place. (Instead from Badaling we went to Changping Town first, then continued by another bus to Changling)
Before coming to Beijing we had made reference to no less than 20 travel blogs. The place of interest opening hours, mode of transportation to get there, time taken for the journey, transportation timetable and also prepared alternative plans. All these must first be well planned before making the actual journey.
We took bus no. 872 from Changling to get to Beijing City Centre (长陵 --> 德胜门)
Arrived at Deshengmen Qiao bus stop where we got off and walked along the roadside of Deshengmen Xi Dajie towards Jishuitan Subway station.
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| Deshengmen Qiao Bus Stop in Beijing City Center |
We boarded Beijing subway line 2 at Jishuitan Station and got off at Qianmen Station.
ZHENGYANGMEN GATEHOUSE
Zhengyangmen Gatehouse (traditional Chinese Zhengyangmen 正陽門) is located along Qianmen W Street 前门西大街 not far from Qianmen Subway Station. The construction of the gatehouse was unique; design of a gatehouse’s roof was divided into three storeys. The building had something like multi-tiered umbrellas; that were the eaves. The first storey had upturned eaves on its four sides, and each of the four corners also had four small upturned eaves. The second storey was similar to the first, except that on its four upturned eaves were four triangular ridgepoles (a ridgepole was the horizontal timber located highest in a roof against which the upper ends of the rafters were fixed). Like the second, the third had four triangular ridgepoles. The ridgepoles were four more triangular ridgepoles, and on each of them stood four level ridgepoles. Pagoda shape except it’s rectangular.
QIANMEN
Qianmen Street Jiē Biǎn that was actually an ancient archway located at the entrance of Qianmen Street facing Zhengyangmen Gatehouse. You can’t miss it.
It was already dark when we arrived at Qianmen. Qianmen Street was one of Beijing's shopping street that attracted many people, the place reminded me of that stretch of street along Kuala Lumpur Central Market, Dataran Merdeka and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman on Saturday evening back home, lots of people and very happening.
Once we arrived at Qianmen Street the first thing we looked for was something to eat, if we could find Yue Sheng Zhai Restaurant (月盛斋) would be nice.
Before coming to Beijing I often read travel blogs and one of it was the one written by Naramas Aman. Her blog mentioned often visiting restaurants owned by Huizu ethnic. Many thanks to Naramas Aman for her excellent description of Beijing in regards to, the do and don’t, and the what, where and how.
Yue Sheng Zhai Restaurant was closed on that day which left us with no choice - we had to look for other nearby restaurant.
YI TIAO LONG RESTAURANT
We had our dinner at Yi Tiao Long Restaurant (壹条龍飯庄) located at Qianmen Street. We had beef soup and vegetable dish - Jicama Dish (Sengkuang Goreng) 炒沙葛丝 and two bowls of rice.
This restaurant’s history goes back to the eighteenth century, back then it was known with a different name. The restaurant’s name changing to Yi Tiao Long Restaurant had an interesting story. Yi Tian Long, translated as "the dragon" was an exclusive address for an occasion where a master and a servant had a meal in this restaurant with empty wallet, that the next day an eunuch from the palace came to pay the money to the restaurant owner, and only then the restaurant owner realized that the master was indeed the Emperor himself. The restaurant’s name remained until today.
Typical dishes for Xinjiang restaurants such as Beef Soup, Beef Meatballs, Spiced Lamb Roast, Spiced Beef Sauce, Spiced Lamb, Spiced Beef, Spicy Beef Tendon, Boiled Lamb Meat, just to name a few.
I'd really appreciate it if you'd checkout my next post and find out great time we had on following day! please click
Summer Palace
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