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| Great Wall |
This is the second time we climbed the Great Wall. Hers was during school excursion while mine was during overseas meeting. We started early with a "booked" car, and I was excited to use my DSLR to capture the great wall this time round. Or more correct to say that I was climbing the Wall with my wife the first time.
Weather was good. Initially, my wife shared with me she thought we could take cable car up or only reach a certain point of the Wall would do. However, we not only climbed section by section and we also reached the point - Peak of Mutianyu Great Wall.
I like to trek with my wife. And this includes climbing the wall. I wanted to explore the villages nearby too but I was too ambitious. We took almost half a day to go up and down (we took cable down). This time we did put in much effort as we have not been exercising regularly. In fact, the most tiring part of the entire trek was the starting journey to the first gate of the Great Wall!!!
Not sure if it is silly. I felt the urge to complete all other Great Wall tour if I could next time. Will the Great Wall be so distinctive? I chose this Great Wall as my colleague and guidebook reommended it as the best scenic Great Wall. Another thought rose for me to come again during different seasons.
I am a person who dun mind going back to the same place. I believe that there are always different feel, different stories to tell, different experiene each time. Which country have you visited more than once, and you will like to go back again?
Due to the Japan Earthquake, we had a change in itineray to Beijing instead. We didnt really plan to go Beijing as JJ and me had been there before. For me, I vaguely remembered the place I stayed, the Great Wall and the museum, and of cos the Beijing duck.
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| Sakura@Beijing |
I wanted to see Sakura and I remembered my bro-in-law said before he had a few of the Sakura trees back in his London hostel. I decided to try my luck to search for Sakura sites in Beijing since the trees also exist and thriving in even faraway countries.
To my joy, there was one such site in Beijing and the park seemed to be very big. A particular advisory caught my attention - "Sakura Flower's Petal rain" (Direct translation). In my imagination, I thought it would be as romantic as what we had seen in Japan. So, decided to give JJ a surprise while I slotted in the visit in our itinerary.
The park was easy to find. There were stalls selling goodies and drinks - but different from those stalls in Japan in terms of varieties. We chanced upon many flowering trees but we focused and headed towards the Sakura site. We found them. I was happy to be able to see Sakura despite the fact that we were not in Japan. However, the feeling of seeing Sakura in Beijing seemed different. We didnt picnic there. Not becos of the crowd, nor the mini "sand storm". We just had some tibits packed in JJ's bag and scurried off due to "stormy clouds".
In a way, I can appreciate why there are still so many people going over to Japan to enjoy the Sakura season. The feel is different. Initially I wanted to "spice up" the Beijing itinerary, but the visit made me want to visit Japan again in time to come. It is difficult to replace or substitute two different itineraries if the nature and character of the two different countries vary. I tried to collect a few flowers but they didnt manage to survive the journey back to our hotel via packed trains. Yes, I tried to mirror what I had done in Japan to this trip.
Each destination is different. Each place has its uniqueness for discovery.
