Beijing: Nowhere near Australia

(Location: Beijing, China)

One week after moving to Australia, I had to present at a conference in Beijing. Even though Australia is often classified as part of the Asia Pacific region, let me dispel the myth right now. Australia is nowhere near China. It’s a 14 hour flight from Melbourne to Beijing – so basically the same distance from most of North America. Andy hadn’t been to China before, and we were in a hotel in Melbourne until we found a place to live, so we decided to take advantage of the situation for some exploring.

As with most work trips, the agenda was something like this: breakfast in the hotel lounge, long drive in traffic to work, at least eight hours of meetings and presentations, an evening team outing, and rarely home (eek! not “home” – but “back to the hotel”) before 8pm. Andy kept himself busy with work, finding ways around the great firewall of china, and making a very quick trip to the Forbidden City (quick because the crowds totally freaked him out).

I had the morning off on the last day, so we made our way to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. We left at 7am so we were among the first ones there and had the whole place to ourselves. We took the gondola up, explored for a little under an hour, and then took the “slideway” (toboggans) down. THIS is the way to see the Great Wall.