Great Wall of China (2007-2008)

As my teaching job was in Tianjin, which was only an hour away from Beijing by bullet train (now shortened to half an hour), we paid the capital a number of visits over the course of the year. Justifiably too, as there was much to see.

I always had it in my head the Great Wall was just a very tall wall next to Beijing. It wasn't until I went to visit 'it' the first time that I realised it is indeed very tall, but being 'next to' the capital still meant a 3 hour bus ride north of the centre! Of course, as the most important defence system back in the day, it can't just be a city wall surrounding the immediate perimeter - how foolish of me.

You can't just visit 'it' either. The name is actually slightly misleading; the 'Great Wall' isn't just one long wall stretching from the east coast of China all the way to the Silk Road in the west, but rather it contains many sections, some of which are completely broken beyond repair.

As you can see below, I went to two different sections of the Great Wall, north of Beijing, during my year in China. Towards the end of the year I also saw another section much further west, near the Silk Road - but that's for another post later :)

The Simatai (司馬台) section

The parts that are open to the public have been extensively repaired by the government. Not quite the same Great Wall that was first built by Emperor Qin, but it was nonetheless exciting to be walking on this 8th wonder of the world :)


A much more remote, less touristy section, which was also less repaired

Sadly I can't remember the name of this section, or how we got there :(

Teacher Training in Shanghai (2007)

My itchy feet started back in 2007 when serendipity landed me in a teaching job in China. There I met many fantastic people, some of whom have become my life-long friends. Needless to say we had a great time over the year, and I managed to travel to over 40 places! 

So I'll start at the beginning - Shanghai, where we spent our first 2 weeks taking a crash course on how to teach.

It wasn't the first time I'd been to Shanghai, and I've been back there since 2007. Maybe I'm biased, having grown up in Hong Kong, but my impression of Shanghai has always been on the uninspiring side. For me it's just a huge metropolis, split between lots of expensive foreign brands, and pockets of derelict buildings from the Mao era. The genuinely historic sites are way off the beaten track (if they exist at all), whilst the famous ancient relics could only be visited if you paid a high price and were prepared to get sardined with local tourists.

Nonetheless, our first 2 weeks in China were novel and fun. Here are a few highlights :)

Zhujiajiao (朱家角) water village, on the outskirts of Shanghai

A typical way for people to carry goods

The Bund at night

Some of our cohort on the Bund