My Beijing Trip part2 - Visit to Great Wall Of China

There are rumors that,  this man-made structure can be seen from Moon.

This is one of the wonders of the World.

 "The Great Wall of China. "

My second day in Beijing, on Sunday morning 6 O'cock, I started my journey to my Destination ..... Great wall of China.

"Badaling" is the famous tourist spot in the entire Great wall, from where you can enjoy the best view possible.

There were several busses (bus no. 919) available to "Badaling". I boarded one and started my journey.

The journey was pleasant. The bus travelled through villages,mountains and forests.

And finally I reached the destination.



At the entrance



And, thats the scene I saw inside. The great wall.

I met few olympians there.
As the Olympics closing ceremony was on the next day, many players visited this place on that day.



Georgia Gould - Biking champion - USA





Closest view of the stones that the wall made of.



We have to be bit careful while walking. It was so slippary in few slopy areas. like this. 

These are the spots used by the soldiers to take positions while attacking enemies.

After walking for about 2hours inside, I reached the highest spot there.

I felt great by sighting this master piece.

We will be tired by walking and climbing those gaint steps. Good test of our physical fitness levels. :)

The wall is surrounded by a deep forest. And they took a good care of the forest in spite of the huge number of tourists everyday. I didnt find any plastic bottles or other waste around there. :)

Nellore District Cricket Association's logo has reached finally Great wall of china. :)

Here, I have to tell you few things about me.

I have played cricket at zonal level and I represented my district Nellore at many occasions/tounaments. During this stage, I had very little time for my studies and I dropped from '80/100 student'  to average '60/100' student.

I faced challenges, stress. At one stage, my academic career was in danger.  I was from a middle class family and I had no option but to study and get a job. But I neglected studies and tried reaching greater hights by playing cricket and risked my life. By the time I realize this, it was almost late.

But, I recovered.

Did my MCA. Cracked few off-campus interviews facing some huge competition and got a job.

And now, I am here on Great wall of China as part of my job. Personally, it is a great victory for my self. :)

Yes, it is not easy in India for a middle class student to take up a sport as profession. If you fail, you are gone. you have no backup.

I did not achieve anything in cricket apart from few paper cuttings. I saved them in this link. https://sites.google.com/site/hazarathreddy/papercuttings

But, my personlaity and attitude changed because of cricket. I will share all of those in a different post.

And,

coming back to my trip experience.

It was a great trip overall. Had fantastic time on the Great wall. I complete this post with my another memorable experience.

I came out from the wall and I went for shopping.

I have purchased a painted cup there and I forgot my camera there and left the place. :)

I reached the Bus-stand nearby and I was about to leave.

A small boy was running towards the bus searching for me. He came to me and gave my camera back.

I was in shock & surprise & happy. Without that camera, all my experience would have been lost.

The below is the photo that I took with the shop's owner when I puchased that mug . He was the person sent the small boy with my camera.  :)

My Great wall tour ended up with mixure of many different feelings.

My next post is going to be about my Olympics experience (using fake ID cards) and food habbits & lifestyle in china and few more interesting incidents.

catch you soon. take care.

My Beijing Trip - part1

Stepping into the Olympic Village ( USING FAKE VIP ID CARDS ) ...... Roaming in the Olympic Atmosphere along with the different people from the entire world ..... Watching the Olympics Closing Ceremony Fireworks from the feet of the BirdNest Stadium ......A small business man chasing me to give my camera back, when I forgot it at his shop ....


I left Beijing with many touching memories like this after a 3 days trip. Just unforgettable ..

My Beijing Trip started with a surprise from China Railway. I bought a cheapest available Train Ticket to Beijing, only to find a bed with neatly washed Bedsheets and Pillows.

Almost like a descent Hotel.

I reached Beijing by 10AM Saturday. It was a festival atmosphere. Security arrangements were at the extreme level. Every public entrance has Metal Detectors and security guards. If we carry Water Bottle with us, Security guards used to ask us to drink water once. To make sure it is not Liquid Bomb or something ....



I could find 'English speaking Volunteers' everywhere to help the tourists. Their attitude towards tourists was good.


The city was so slean. I could see many workers always busy in cleaning the surroundings. A piece of paper which was thrown on road was disappeared almost in a couple of minits. So, you can imagine ...



After I reached Hotel, had bath and started my jouney into the Beijing City ..


My plan was to visit the "Forbidden City" on Saturday, "Great wall of China & Olympics" on Sunday. .not planned anything for Monday ...

I have noted down all the Bus numbers & Local Train routes with the help of Hotel receptionist.


So ... I started towards my first destination ....... "Forbidden City" ......




A palace city which was built from the year 1407 to 1420 by million workers.

By the time I reached this place, Football star "Pele" was inside. As usual, unfortunately, I came to know this after he left that place.






Find more details about forbidden city in this link http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/forbidden.htm .




Infact, I came to know practically...why that place was called Forbidden City, and not Forbidden Palace.

It was a group of palaces & houses. Its a big village.


So, tired of roaming inside.

Guess...what are these big coppor vessels ...


Obviously ..they are filled with water.

Not for drinking ... to use when fire accidents occur inside the palace (in those days). ..safety measure ..


In our office, we find Fire fighting equipment .. ryt ..
as same as that...

somewhere inside the palace..

The history of the Coppor vessels was written on a board there.















All of my photos looks like they were taken at a single palace.

There were many palaces in the Forbidden city with the same building design. there were many buildings inside that palace.






I met a Canada 100 metres Olympics Athlete there ....

I met some indians too....they are from nellore ... my native :)

My next post will be about my trip to Great wall of China .... see you soon.... Bye for now.

Olympics Fever

Some of my frends asked me - "Hey... Were you present in the Stadium ...during Olympics Opening Ceremony?"

Infact, the direct price of the opening ceremony ticket was 70000 rupees to 450000 rupees.

I am happy to be in China during Olympics Time.

I am extremely happy to know that India got 1st Gold medal when I am here. So, whenever ppl discuss about India's first Gold medal, I can say I was in China at that time.


I was trying to be in Beijing during Olympics. But because of the expensive ticket price & accommodation ..I was stepping back.. But I kept on trying trying through my online frends and local people & my colleagues here ..

Finally, I got it. I could book a train ticket and a Hotel in Beijing for this weekend. So, I am leaving tomorrow evening to Beijing.

I have mixture of feeling with excitement and happiness. Inspite of my low salary, I am able to visit Beijing.

Because, I love sports. Olympics is the peak point in Sports.

Anyway, I will be visiting Great wall of China, one of 8 wonders in the world. But, nothing can dominate the feeling of stepping into the Olympic city.

Even the Statue Of Liberty, Nayagara falls, ..... nothing.

Trains in China

There is no Online ticket booking for Trains in China. Its unbelievable, but true.

We can book tickets only 4 days before. we can't book earlier than this.

I planned for Beijing Trip. I had to go to the Railway Station to book the Tickets.

One more thing is ... Shanghai to Beijing ticket can be booked only in Shaghai. And Beijing to Shanghai ticket should be booked in Beijing.


But the underGround Metro trains in Shanghai are thebest. The automatic ticket vending machine and everywhere the city Map makes the journey easier and comfortable.

Cricket in China

Chinese people's favourite game is Table Tennis. They call it as "Ping pong ball". The Table tennis playes are treated as heroes here.

The Chinese Basket ball player "Yao Ming" who plays in NBA is very popular personality in China. We can find his posters almost everywhere in the city.

"Chinese people doesnt know about Cricket." - This was my opinion before coming here.

The fact is ....There is a Club Cricket Championship going on here (20-20 style). Almost 10 league teams are there. They participate in a 20-20 League Championship trophy every year.

So, slowly Cricket is coming up here.

South and North Indian Food In Shanghai

As I mentioned already, Chinese ppl know Dosa and Parota already. We can find several small carts selling Dosa & Parota. Not sure how they came to know.

There are very few indian restaurants in Shanghai.

There is a Punjabi Dhaba here. We will be surprised to listen the latest Hindi songs in this restaurant. You can speak Hindi and find few Indians here. Surprisingly, people from Germany & England regularly come here for weekend parties.

And also, there is a pakka South Indian restaurant near by my hotel called "Indian Kitchen". Owner can speak very good Tamil, all the south indian dishes are available here, but very expensive.

There is a Gujarati people's house near by my office, where they serve all kinds on Jain food. So, few Jain people in Shanghai come here regularly for their Lunch.

People In Shanghai and Their opinion on India

I wud like to share one incident with you.

Hope u all know that Chinese ppl eat using Chopstics. I learned using Chopstics after coming to China. But I was not so good at using them. Felt extremly difficult to enjoy my food.

But I thought that people may think bad if I use my hands. Oneday, I decided to eat with my hands in the restaurant where I have my Breakfast everyday. I started eating using my hands.

Surprisingly, No one stared at me or nothing like I am doing something different. They just carried on with their work. People are easy going and very friendly.
They know very well about how to welcome a foreigner. Infact, they are very keen to help Indians. In their opinion, India is a very beautiful country & Indians are cool and Intelligent.

Most of the Chinese people are always smiling, active and Healthy. That may be because of their food.

Chinese people call India as "Indu".