Scaling the world's most famous wall in China
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post/Beijing
The young Chinese tour guide lifted his hands into the air and clapped as hard as he could.
"No shopping, please. Later, later, you can shop," he shouted in fluent Indonesian to a group of tourists he was leading to the Great Wall.
The 50-odd Indonesian tourists had just disembarked from their bus, but the ubiquitous souvenir shops at the foot of the wall were too much of a temptation for them. They did not bother to think that shopping before climbing the wall would leave them with the prospect of carrying all those souvenirs up the wall and back down.
As Indonesian tourists travel to China in larger numbers, Chinese tour guides have no doubt realized their penchant for shopping. This scene at the Ju Yong Guan Pass, about 60 kilometers from Beijing, is no doubt a typical one every time Indonesian tourists arrive.
More than 150,000 Indonesians visit China annually, compared to the 60,000 Chinese tourists who travel to Indonesia.
The Great Wall is among the most popular tourist sites in all of China. It stretches nearly 7,000 kilometers from east to west, so tourists can access the wall at difference locations. The wall was built almost 2,000 years ago, and the ravages of man and nature have left only about 30 percent of the wall in good condition.
The wall was erected as a fortress to prevent enemies from entering the territory of the ancient dynasties. Inside the wall are sturdy-looking stairs made from stone.
The Ju Yong Guan Pass is about an hour's drive from Beijing. Winter was just beginning but it was already several degrees below zero. Understandably, the number of visitors to the wall drops along with the temperature, only to surge back in the summer.
Interestingly, the number of domestic tourists exceed foreign tourists at this pass. This was also the case at other tourist spots like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing. With a population of 1.3 billion people, China has the largest number of domestic tourists in the world.
Another good spot to visit the Great Wall is Simatai, about 110 kilometers north-east of Beijing. Due to its distance and lack of transportation, this part of the wall has not turned into a popular tourist destination, so it is still possible to get a glimpse of the wall as it originally was.
China is endowed with numerous tourist attractions, including mountains, rivers, springs and rare plants and animals. There are dozens of tourist destinations across the country. Apart from the Great Wall there is the Yangtze River, the terra-cotta warriors in Shaanxii province, the Zhouzhuang water township in Kunshan city, the Silk Road historical route through Xining in Qianghai province, the Mogao caves near the city of Dunhuang in the Gobi desert, old town Lijiang in Yunnan province, the Li River in Guangxi province, the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Potala Palace in Tibet.
The World Tourism Organization predicts that by 2020 China will be the number one tourist destination in the world and fourth in terms of the number of tourists traveling abroad.
Beijing itself has a wealth of tourist spots.
"You need one month to get to know Beijing well," said a Beijing resident. That was no empty boast, as the city has more than 30 tourist resorts in its vicinity.
Beijing is a unique city. It is traditionally a bicycle city thanks to its mostly flat topography. Since China reformed its economy in 1978, more and more cars have been replacing bicycles. However, the Beijing authorities -- and they should be commended for this -- still allow bikes to travel along the wide city streets in special lanes, but motorcycles are banned.
"Motorcycles are dangerous. They consume the same amount of gas but carry only one person," a resident said when asked why the government banned them. Motorcycles are also banned in other large Chinese cities. The few that are allowed on the streets require special permits and may not carry passengers.
There are now about one million bicycles in Beijing. Unlike in Jakarta, the bicycles in Beijing have not succumbed to the onslaught of cars. It seems that they still have a future in this sprawling city, which is about 25 times the size of Jakarta. It is intriguing to see how bikes could get along with cars in Jakarta.
For a newcomer to Beijing, crossing a street can be frightening. But as soon as one learns how to negotiate the crossings, everything is all right. Like in other places, the traffic has unwritten rules.
Conspicuously absent during a trip to China are children. It is rare to encounter children in public places, except on holidays. China has implemented a one-child policy since the 1970s.
Chinese people also tend to talk louder than most Indonesians. We often came across two people seemingly involved in a heated argument, but they were just chatting.
The above and below articles are the final ones in a series of nine, based on a visit to China by six Indonesian journalists. It was sponsored by the Chinese foreign affairs ministry.