Day 21 - 11 July
Well here we are at last. As far as I know, we berthed just after 4.00am, so when we surfaced about 6.00 we were all tied up. Unfortunately there was little to see from our side of the ship, other than numerous ship's of all shapes and sizes appearing out out the mist/fog/smog (take your pick). My money is on the latter, as there was a smell or taste in the air, so we didn't have breakfast on the balcony.
Our reporting time was 7.30 and there were no issues this time and in no time we were off the ship and going through Immigration, which was a breeze. Once again we were travelling with Marilyn & Ray. We are going into Beijing to see the Summer Palace & Lama Temple although we'd have loved to have gone to the Forbidden City but it is closed on Mondays! Plus we already have a tour to the Great Wall tomorrow.
We are berthed at Tianjin Cruise Ship Terminal, which apart from anything else is over an hour from Tianjin and 3 hours from Beijing. Well, what a surprise, the terminal is huge and very spacious and modern and the drive for the first part was through the new industrial, residential area. The infrastructure is impressive, with 6 lane roads built in all directions (some were barricaded off, as the area had not yet been developed apart from roading). In other parts there were multistoried office blocks and new apartments up to 25 stories.
All the way into Beijing we were hugely impressed with the cleanliness of the roadside (all the roads were being washed by machines and also by hand in places). The other thing noticeable were all the trees & gardens. All the way, the central berms on the motorways had gardens and well trimmed hedging - a lot of work required to maintain these. Yes, there were some massive industrial areas, but the buildings were mostly new and huge. Housing areas (& there were plenty) were generally smaller apartment blocks, but also 4 or 5 storied buildings and also many "up and downs", which was amazing. Not the same intensification as we saw in Seoul.
Tianjin has really been recently developed and the area around the port I referred to earlier is mainly on recently reclaimed land (over the last 5 years) and it is a special Free Trade area. We sped along and at the same time noticed yet more areas being developed, both for industry, but also for aquaculture. Further out, about an hour from the ship, the land was very much used for aquaculture, with ponds being managed by individual farmers in more primitive conditions. Of course where ever there was land, this was producing crops or vegetables - as well as yet more trees!
The roading all the way is also impressive, with literally hundreds of new roads, sorry, motorways heading off in all directions and bridges spiralling overhead. This went on and on. The roads are all toll roads, so we stopped a number of times to pay our toll in cash!. A couple of other observations, the motorways mainly had a 120 kph limit, but the good thing was that each lane (4 lanes mainly) had a minimum speed as well, to keep traffic flowing. The motorways were devoid of Police BUT every kilometre there was a Police camera, flashing red & blue, on the median which records any transgressions. These cameras are also present at all tollbooths and I later noted also on minor roads. As if this is not enough, we also came across a Police Checkpoint, where they were checking everyone coming into Beijing. I am sure that indirectly we are recorded in their database!
Although we did not get into the centre of Beijing, we went through and around ring roads #6, 5, 4 & 3. Still lovely gardens along the berms and medians - lots of rosebeds, so plenty of work required to keep them pristine. We were surprised now few people were about. I mean there were plenty of people, but for a city of over 25 million, it was less crowded than Auckland. AND the people were better dressed, clean and happy. The cars we saw were mainly Audi's & WV's along with a smattering of usual Japanese cars. Dealerships for Jaguars & Rovers abounded but surprisingly all the taxis were Hyundai Elantra's!
The Summer Palace was great, but crowded even on a Monday. The board at the entrance showed that there were over 42,800 visitors in the grounds (@ 11.00). The Palace itself is more of a summer retreat for the Emporer, set in 290 hectares of land and water. It has the largest man made lake and while we walked a little way along the shore, under shade trees, we actually had a boat ride back to our starting point. Now did I say it was crowded? 45,000 mainly Chinese family members is an average and our small group of some 100 attracted some interest, particularly amongst the children.
It was then time to go to lunch, which was a fair drive away. When we arrived (all 4 buses) we were seated in a luxurious Chinese Restaurant and served a delicious meal, along with beer, sprite, coke, green tea, water... A 200% improvement on the Korean experience. Everyone was very happy (& that's saying something).
It was then on to the Lama Temple. As an aside, I heard a woman at breakfast say that she had thought she was going to see wooly animals!! No animals, but the lamasery was built in 1694 and became a Tibetan temple in 1744. It is set in the the 2nd ring road area, so is very built up. It also contains the largest wooden Buddah made from a single tree, standing at 28 metres. Very impressive, but with some 20 plus buildings/temples burning insence and getting late in the day, we retreated to the bus - as did most others.
By 5.00pm, it seemed like a good idea to head back to the ship.......... yes, there was a lot of traffic. The drivers are generally polite and of course might is right, so it was only just over an hour to clear the city and retrace our steps on the motorway home. Forgot to mention that the weather was hot and generally clear (by definition ) in Beijing but smog/fog/mist descended closer to home. We eventually made it back to the ship just after 8.00, which was just as well, as the Authorities had imposed a 9.00pm curfew. A throughly enjoyable day, even if it was a full 12 hour trip. Tomorrow is another day, with a 6.30 Muster.
Day 22 - 12 July
The Wall. OK, this is silly, up at 4.45! Breakfast in the HC (it lived up to its HZ name however). As someone commented, we all crept out of our staterooms to avoid disturbing others, only to find that the whole darned ship was up there for breakfast at 5.15!! On a positive note I'll say no more.
Because we'd done immigration yesterday, it was all too simple to settle down on our bus for yet another 3 hour journey to visit the Wall at Huangyaguan, which is north of Beijing. The difference this time is that we turned off the main motorway after about an hour and headed north. This meant that we got to see far more of the rural aspects, which were very interesting. As we progreessd, there was less housing, although it was clear that many of the old buildings were being demolished to make way for either new apartments, or retained for other purposes.
Eventually we turned off yet again onto a "B" or possibly a "C" road and took to the hills. The road was very windy and narrow, but that didn't stop our driver overtaking everything in front while driving on the wrong side of the road. I should mention that we were part of a convoy of about 24 buses - 800 of us went to the Wall that day. The sights up there were so different to our drive to Beijing, as this is part of the rural heartland which is stuck in a time-warp. Ancient tractors of all shapes and sizes, peasant farmers and farmers markets abounded. I did have to wonder whether the extensive tree planting in this area was also to screen the less desirable areas from the public road. Long dirt roads, over a kilometre appeared to lead to more basic buildings and once again there was a general lack of population about - apart from the markets. The small villages/towns we drove through were filled with all variety of shops, including restaurants, dress shops, mechanical repairs (very popular), clothing factories with dozens of machinists and I am sure that in the back streets there were all sorts of other activities going on - all in far rural China.
We arrived at the Wall and it was both a blessing & a curse that the weather was overcast (mist, fog, smog whatever), so it was pleasant to climb the wall but not too good for photos. We did remarkably well if I say so myself as we achieved (almost) the top of the restored section - from thereon I gather that it was loose stone and quite dangerous. Of course we had a time to be back, so worked out that it wasn't really possible to do much more. The thing is that in some places the steps were small and then sections where they were huge. Everyone was soaked in perspiration by the time we got back to the bus. Also, some spits of rain on the way down, thankfully not enough to make the steps dangerous. A great experience and so pleased that we can mark off another "wonder of the world".
Back to a local restaurant about half an hour away. The lunch was OK but no where near the feast of yesterday. After lunch it was a reverse trip of the morning journey and once again our driver wanted to prove that racing cars were his preferred vehicle. We came across an accident on the motorway & they had put out just one red cone to warn of this - not like NZ where the whole motorway would have been closed! The same applied to the workers and gardeners working on the median - no trucks, flashing lights etc. just working away ignoring traffic.
We made it back to the ship about 4.30 and although it was open sitting for dinner, we went down at the usual time. I must admit however that it was bed straight afterwards.
Day 23 - 13 July
Ouch, what happened to my legs! Certainly used some muscles yesterday and I am feeling it today. To make matters worse, they stole an hour off us overnight as well. Suffice to say that it has been a quiet day at sea. Tomorrow is also a sea day, so should be fully fit for Busan on Friday,
Day 24 - 14 July
Another sea day and woke up to sun streaming into the stateroom. After breakfast it was back to pounding the deck. We are heading south east around the bottom of Korea and there is quite a side-swell, making the ship move a bit - the first time in a long time. Just on lunchtime we made an unscheduled stop at Jeju Island (where we had been scheduled to visit last Sunday), as we had yet another medical evacuation. This was completed at sea by inflatable and Police boats in attendance. We could see why we were unable to berth here and are carrying on to Busan as there were 2 cruise ships in port and 2 more waiting to berth - very popular place obviously. Sad that so many have had to leave the ship on this cruise, apart from the other evacuation out of Sydney, a few got off in HK (one unfortunately had died just before we got in) and we are aware of at least another couple being disembarked tomorrow in Busan.
Tonight is Formal once again, but with another early start tomorrow, Busan, Korea. But that'll be another story.
Photos:
View from cabin
New development area by port
Roading
2 photos of Summer Palace
Beijing city area
Lunch (yum)
Gardens
Lama Temple
Central median garden
Outer Beijing
3 at the Wall
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