After spending a few days walking around in the heat and crowds of Beijing, I was ready to get out of the city. On my fourth day, I caught an early morning bus with a tour group to visit The Great Wall of China. I decided to go to a more deserted section of the Wall, about three hours outside Beijing, because that day happened to be a national holiday and one of the busiest times of the year for tourists. Most people head to the Mutianyu section (an hour outside of Beijing) so I was hoping that fewer tourists would go to the section I was headed to.

The hike along the wall began at Jinshanling and ended at Simatai, about 10km and 30 watchtowers away. In Jinshanling you can take a cable-car up to the wall but I came to hike so I opted to do the walk up to the wall. On the way I met an American guy from my group and ended up walking together. On the wall we met up with two Dutch girls who walked with us until Simatai. If you're reading this, Erika, I think I met your twin!

I was unprepared for my first view of the Great Wall from on top of the first watchtower. The view was absolutely stunning! The entire reason I came to China was to hike the Great Wall and there I was, on top of one of the greatest monuments in the world. I couldn't believe it! Everywhere you looked was the perfect postcard. The wall was restored at Jinshanling but the further along I went it began to crumble and I saw it in its natural state. The watchtowers are on top of peaks so the wall drops down only to soar into the air again. It was too amazing to describe, so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

At the end of the hike in Simatai there's a zipline called the "Flying Fox" that goes right over the reservoir. I stopped to watch a few people go and after a few minutes a girl nearby, who was also watching, looked at me and said "What do you say, let's do it?" I hadn't planned on it but when I realized it was only $6, I couldn't pass it up! (also, I figured this was a quicker way to the bottom). So I strapped into a harness with my big pack on my back and flew down the reservoir on the Flying Fox. It was exhilarating, and the perfect way to end the day! At the bottom a boat took us to the village where my bus was waiting to take us back to Beijing. On the ride back I fell asleep, happy and content, after one of the best days of my life.

Check out my album for more pictures of The Great Wall of China.

From Hong Kong I took a 24-hour sleeper train to Beijing. I spent a lot of the trip talking to an English and Armenian couple I met who were sharing the same cabin as me which helped pass the time. I also managed to sleep 11-hours, almost half the trip, in the comfortable, narrow bed. When I arrived, I stepped out of the massive Beijing West train station into a sea of people crowding the front of the station. I caught a bus to my hostel in central Beijing but accidentally got off one stop too early and spent the following half an hour wandering the streets around the Forbidden City before I finally found the hostel. Once I arrived I dropped my bags off, took a shower, and spent the next five days exploring Beijing.

Beijing is, well... Big. There were a few things that struck me about the city - the first being the sheer number of people. There are 17 million people in the city and no matter where you go, you can't escape the crowds! Another thing was constant police and security presence everywhere you went. I've never seen so many police and army personnel randomly standing around before.. but then again Beijing is the capital city of Communist China and all. Before you're allowed to get on a subway train, you have to put your bags through a metal detector at each station! To enter Tian'anmen Square you have to pass through another metal detector and get patted down, discouraging public demonstrations of civil unrest.. most likely due to the infamous protest of '89. Not to mention the random policeman positioned wherever you looked (even in empty alleyways) and the security cameras "hidden" inside all the street lamps throughout the city. You could just feel the oppression. The last thing I noticed (and it's hard not to) was the pollution and all-pervading smell of car exhaust and construction. When I think of Beijing I think of that smell. There's a constant haze above the city (making the sun a dim red even on a cloudless day) from the millions of cars being driven everyday.

I spent the first few days exploring the area around my hostel, which was conveniently located right next to the Forbidden City. I spent a good three hours there, wandering the massive pavilions, temples, gardens and streets. It was an amazing castle to visit, rich with history, full of Chinese culture.. and flag-touting tourist groups. In front of the Forbidden City is the massive Tian'anmen Square with Mao's Mausoleum in the center. It's the largest open square in the world and takes at least 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other. On either side of the Square is the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum, making the Square the literal center of Beijing and political China. The other few days I spent visiting the other sites of the city, including one day of renting a bicycle and randomly riding down the hutongs (old, haphazard urban streets) until I got to the Temple of Heaven, I watched people practicing Tai Chi and Wushu in the park, visited a night food-market and ate delicious dumplings, noodles and seafood-on-a-stick, went to the Silk Market to haggle with salespeople over the price of fake-brand named clothes, paid a visit to the Ancient Observatory to see the old astronomical instruments, ate Peking duck with a Brazilian I met at the hostel, journeyed to the Beijing Zoo to see the Panda's (I personally don't like zoos but I had to see the Panda's!), rode the trains to the Olympic Center to see the Bird's Nest Stadium and Aqua Cube from the 2008 Summer Olympics, walked around a few lake parks in the middle of the city and, of course, did the one thing I came to Beijing in the first place for - visited the Great Wall of China.

One thing I should mention about staying in Beijing (and traveling around China in general) is that everything is really, really cheap! Riding the subway to anywhere in the city costs 1 yuan (or 20 cents), 5 nights at my hostel cost $70, meals anywhere from $1 and up (depending on where you go), and a 1.5L bottle of water is 75 cents, just to give you an idea. I brought a lot more money than I thought and actually had trouble spending my money so I got a massage, bought souvenirs, and opted for a domestic flight back to Hong Kong instead of a train. Anywho, after spending five days in Beijing in the scorching hot weather visiting all the sites amongst the crowds of people, I was ready to move on. It's a great city to visit, but I think the only reason I would go back would be to see the Great Wall again. I'd definitely recommend a visit to Beijing at least once, just be prepared for it!

Check out my album for more pictures of Beijing.

I started off my Golden Week in one of the biggest and greatest cities in the world: Hong Kong. I arrived at night and caught my first glimpse of the city from the airport shuttle. It's a busy city, bursting with high-rises apartments, an endless horizon of skyscrapers, double-decker buses navigating the narrow streets, endless displays of neon signs, high-class shopping malls selling expensive brand names next to numerous 7-11s, stores open until all hours of the night, restaurants with amazing cuisine lining the streets, and busy sidewalks bursting with people from all over the world - Hong Kong is an amazing city.

I stayed five nights at the Mirador Mansion in the Tsim Sha Tsui district, famed by backpackers for some of the cheapest accommodation in Hong Kong. My first exciting few days were spent taking in the sights and sounds and randomly wandering the city. Victoria Peak is where you go to see infamous city skyline but it was rainy and humid when I went and couldn't see anything but the clouds I was in. I wandered over to Shirley street, a shopping district with the longest escalator system in the world, went to a few museums (including the Space museum that the nerd in me insisted on going to), took in the sprawling night market on Temple street, ate delicious Dim Sum and Chinese food, wandered Kowloon park, took a peek at the numerous shopping malls, walked up and down bustling Nathan Road and rode the extensive subway system to the outer edges of the city. At night I went down to the pier and watched the infamous light show where most of the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island are lit up in tune with music.

What made me fall in love with Hong Kong wasn't the city itself but the outlying islands that are only a short ferry-ride away. Two islands I went to - Landau and Lamma islands - was like going to a completely different world. The islands are still relatively untouched with tiny fishing villages (and great seafood, I might add), tree-covered mountains and deserted beaches. On Landau Island I took a cablecar ropeway up to a place called Ngong Ping village which has a Buddhist monastery and a huge Buddha statue on top of a mountain. There were a few trails leading off from the main path so I decided to follow one and ended up at the top of Landau peak two hours later. After a few days in downtown Hong Kong, it felt great to get back out into nature again. I originally planned on taking the ropeway back down but I decided to continue on hiking down the other side of the mountain with a Swedish guy I met on the peak. We walked down to the highway where we caught a bus to a small fishing village and soaked in the scenery there for a bit, then I caught a ferry back to central Hong Kong. I fell asleep just as the ferry left the sleepy fishing village and woke up as it arrived at the downtown pier crowded with people and busy traffic. The contrast is incredible!

Lamma Island was another amazing island I went to by hopping on a random ferry. It was like a tropical island, full of palm trees and beaches instead of tree-covered mountains like Landau Island. I walked for two hours along the hiking path from one fishing village to another in the scorching 30 degree weather and saw amazing views of the beaches and harbors. It's the perfect place to get away from the city!

There are countless other little beaches, islands and other places you can go (including Macau!) but unfortunately I didn't have enough time on this trip. Hong Kong left a lasting impression on me and I'll definitely have to go back again one day, maybe with a little more time and money.

Check out my album for more pictures of Hong Kong.

So I've just returned from my two week trip in China on Sunday night and had to wake up for work early the next morning. It was an amazing trip and I'll probably spend the next few days recovering from it and catching up on sleep. I want to write up some posts about the places I've been but, while I get myself organized and back into the swing of things, here are some of the pictures that I put up on Facebook.

Hong Kong | Beijing | Great Wall of China | Xi'an | Huashan

I've already received comments that some of the pictures are amazing - and most of the props goes to my new camera - but if some of these photos or places inspire you to get out and travel to see them for yourselves, that would make me happy. Some of these photos just can't capture the experience of being there and feeling it for yourself. The Great Wall and Huashan are two places in the world that I will never forget, and which words or pictures just cannot describe. I've always wanted to go to the Great Wall but didn't take the idea seriously until a few months ago. I juggled my time and money and somehow I was able to go there and make it happen. For anyone else wanting to travel, it's not that difficult, it just takes a little bit of commitment. Get out and see the world!