The first in the travel bucket lists of most people I know would be Paris, or somewhere in Europe. But mine is The Great Wall of China.
When the travel bug hit me more than a decade ago, I vowed to visit The Great Wall. Since grade school, I have always been fascinated with it – the history behind it, the vast area it covers, and the structure itself. Similarly, anything Chinese fascinates me, I feel like I was a Chinese in my previous life. Lol. :)
My friends and I have been talking about going to Beijing for yeeeears, but due to time and money constraints, it was only last May that we were able to go.
There were originally three of us planning to visit Beijing, but only two of us were able to go. We booked a package tour with group tourist visa assistance, so we won’t need to apply for the visa ourselves. Luckily, we stumbled upon a travel agency which offers relatively affordable packages. Their services are hassle-free and the tour was very organized with a nice tour guide. For information, check them out at Royal Kites.
So, we were in Beijing from May 20 to 25, 2018, and the experience was very surreal. We visited the usual tourist attractions – Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Beijing Zoo, Olympics Stadium, Forbidden City and of course, The Great Wall.
I’m just so fortunate to have been blessed with the resources to visit Beijing. Until now, I still have to pinch myself to believe that I have set foot on at least a section of The Great Wall, albeit the highly restored one, and it’ll probably take me a few years again to recover from this wonderful experience. I now vow to visit another section of The Great Wall, in another city or province of China.
And now, here are some of the photos highlighting our trip. I won’t put any description of each place, as Google and Wikipedia are better sources :). I just want to be able to share our experience, and somehow, let the readers feel the awe and wonder I have felt seeing these places I have long dreamed about.
Aaaand, also, here’s a video clip of our trip - link here
Enjoy!
