Bus 919: the bus from Beijing Hell!

Whoever said taking bus 919 to the Great Wall of China from Beijing was easy could seriously use a session with a dictionary to ensure they know the meaning of that word: "EASY".

We ventured out this morning to get to the Wall on perhaps the coldest day that we have been privy to so far (our water bottle froze in less than an hour). At first we decided to take the infamous 919 bus to the site as we could not find a reliable schedule for the suburban 2 (S2). What transpired next was a complete nightmare.

There was major racket going on at the bus station. Even the bus drivers seemed to be in on the scam of getting tourists to ditch the bus and take a private and expensive car to the Badaling Great Wall. The "helpful tourist assistants" would block people from getting on the legitimate bus. Jarret got so frustrated he cursed one of these guys, who cursed back in Chinese of course and we decided to take the train.

It was a true miracle we got tickets for the S2 train as there were no signs pointing the way and the train station was all in Chinese characters. Once on the train, things started looking up. It was an extremely efficient, cheap, and completely under-utilized mode of transport to the Wall. We had the whole first class car to ourselves and two others (for 3 dollars) and in total, there must have been only 20 people on the entire 10-car train. Our advice to all those yet to visit the magnificent Great wall is to take the friggen train, if Badaling is your destination. Do not bother with the buses!

The Wall was BEAUTIFUL and it stretches as far as the eye can see. Even though we felt we should really have seen this wonder of the world in more manageable weather, the freezing winds reduced the crowds of tourists sufficient to allow us to take great pictures. It is one of those places where we would definitly go back to if we find ourselves back in this location.

Tomorrow will be a well-deserved relaxing day for the both of us in order to recover from severe wind-burn and to prepare for our travels to the next Chinese city, Xi`an.