My second day in Beijing (apologies for poor chronology) I walked over to Ri Tan Park (inciting my later unfortunate endeavor to Di Tan Park). Unfortunately, the experience doesn't translate into exciting reading but if you're ever in Beijing you should pay it a visit. I spent most of the day there, amongst the shady trees which keep the place cool, reason enough on a 37 degree day, and the loud sounds of insect and birdsong. The park is quite segmented, almost making the place look small, but the paths intersect and the rows of trees, the rocks, bushes and hills give way to more areas so that becoming disorientated in the deceptively small park quite easy. In the centre of it all, a good landmark to help you find your direction if it wasn't perfectly round, the altar to the sun, a two metre high gold platform in a courtyard that must be forty metres in diameter. All of this is surrounded by a large wall. I didn't dare go in as not only was it empty of people, making me think perhaps it wasn't open to the public, but it was in full sun so my survival chances were slim if I did. There are a few hills with steep stone steps leading to pagodaesque structures, there's a tree which is the largest of it's species in Beijing and towards the back (coming from the west entrance) is a large pond with rail-less bridges crossing over where you can rent a rod and fish.
A few days ago I got a one day tour to the Great Wall. It started at 10:30 in the morning and I was the only person to have booked, so I went alone in chauffeur driven car with a personal tour guide. The section of the wall that we visited, after an hour and a half in the car through beautiful countryside, is a quieter spot where more trees grow and less tourists go. My tour guide started early, rattling off her memorized facts well before we arrived. We took a chairlift up the mountain to the base of the wall where there was a bathroom and a place to sit. Tied to a table was a large dog resting possesively close to his water and food. We went up a metal stairway into one of the strategically placed watchtowers and went right. Whilst walking up the cliffy stairs my tour guide told me that they used to burn wolf dung to make signals from the watchtowers, sadly I didn't spot any wolves but I wondered whether the dog I'd seen earlier was part wolf. The walk along the wall is tough and the tourguide skipped out on most of this once her information was exhausted. I walked right and back and left and back observing the view through the heavy mist of the first cool day in Beijing since I had arrived. Once I had returned from exploring we had to leave to catch the toboggan down before it started to rain. Before retiring to the car we stopped to pick up a snack, egg pancake. They spread the batter in a circle on the large hotplate with a kind of trowel, then crack an egg on top and spread that too, topped with chives. It's flipped and what I think was chilli and soy sauce are added. Then a piece of crusty bread(ish) stuff is put on top and it's folded into a parcel. Armed with a serviette, this is the best thing ever.
My next tour, a few days later, visited the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace, all in one day. Again alone! It's strange and kind of disappointing not being able to meet more people, let's hope I'm not trekking across Mongolia alone too. The tour guide was very informative and the entire day was covered by the initial price, including admissions and lunch (yay). It was raining a little all day which made a nice change, though it was still fairly busy. A dragon shaped boat over the lake memorably took me back to the entrance of summer palace, dragon heads along the walls of three cascading courtyards catch the rain and when it's pouring down spurt it out of their mouths in the forbidden city and a massive three tiered roof covers the impressive summer palace. All very impressive.
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