20260829 Friday, August 29, 2025 Summer Palace and The Mutianyu Great Wall of China
Kevin, our Travel China Guide, has been exceptionally gifted in figuring out how to see the most important tourist attractions while avoiding standing in lines and avoiding crowds. Yesterday, he knew of a shortcut into the Forbidden City that only cost us $0.25 each but saved us an extra half mile of crowds and at least a half hour of time. Today, he took us to the Summer Palace in the morning, where it was cool and uncrowded, and the Mutianyu Great Wall in the afternoon when it tends to be much less crowded.
The weather today was perfect for touring. There was moderate cloud cover to keep the sun’s heat and UV rays at bay, and the temperatures were in the upper 70’s to lower 80’s with moderate 86% humidity. We saw a few sprinkles on the van’s windshield while we drove through Beijing’s traffic, but we never had to don our rain gear.
It took about 40 minutes to get to the Summer Palace. Our attraction tickets are usually tied to our passports so we only have to scan our passports at most attraction turnstiles to gain entry. Having a strong central government can have its efficiencies.
It is also remarkable how China has moved to a nearly cashless society with AliPay and WeChat Pay nearly everywhere, including with small street vendors. Nearly all vending machines are connected to the payment networks. These payment systems do have some troublesome initial verification requirements for foreigners with 2 factor authentication and even video chat verifications to set up and use, but once you get over those initial hurdles, it is remarkably easy to use.
We are using a NOMAD e-SIM for data, but to receive 2 factor authentication texts, we have to turn on our normal e-SIM. In our case, Ben’s XFinity Mobile displays a Welcome to China message. XFinity apparently provides free texts and calls, but data is $30/MB, which is a monstrous overcharge considering our NOMAD plan gives us 20GB for $27. We just have to make sure our NOMAD e-SIM is designated for mobile data usage.
During our drive to the Summer Palace, Kevin explained a bit about its history, including the tragic bit about how it fell victim to the British in the Opium Wars. The British sacked it, taking all the valuables they could carry (probably now in the British Museum in London) and burned it to the ground. China fell victim to a series of unfortunate circumstances that caused it to be unfairly taken advantage of for nearly a hundred years. Now, China is poised to retake its place among first rank nations, both economically and politically.
The Summer Palace is a beautiful enormous public park with a giant man made lake and hill. There was a wetlands at the site that was converted by raw man power into the lake and hill that is now there.
There is a beautiful temple dedicated to the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was mother to the Emperor, and perhaps one of the most powerful woman to rule a country ever. There is also a landmark marble boat, which is a marble pavilion in the shape of a steamship on the shore of the lake. The symbolism behind it is supposed to convey the stability of the Imperial Empire because it can never be capsized or sunk.
While it is a popular park with plenty of visitors, it was not crowded and we did not have to wait in any lines or deal with pushy people cutting in lines. It was actually a very pleasant and enjoyable visit.
It was more than a 90 minute drive from the Summer Palace to the Mutianyu Great Wall of China site. We did make a brief photo stop at the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube Venues from the 2008 Olympics. The Water Cube is still in use as an aquatic center, but the Bird’s Nest sits unused since the Olympics because it is simply too big with 60,000 seats for anything other than a Taylor Swift concert.
Beijing traffic is not only heavy, but also pretty much an anarchy, with people cutting without regard to safety, and the electric scooters, which are more motorcycles than e-bikes, endanger pedestrians and vehicle traffic alike as they weave all over the place despite the presence of dedicated bicycle lanes and pedestrian sidewalks.
Those scooters fall into a current loophole in Chinese traffic laws so no laws apply to them. Our driver has demonstrated remarkable nerve and skill to get us around Beijing. Any sane person would be insane to even consider driving themselves in Beijing.
We had lunch in a cluster of restaurants in a mall area for the Mutianyu Great Wall. Most of the group ate at a “Western Style” all you can eat buffet for ¥100, or $15USD. Ben and Janet chose to go the nearby Burger King for Whopper meal deals for only ¥56 or $7.85 USD each.
We used our passports to gain admission, which Travel China Guide had arranged in advance. Even though there is a cable gondola that takes people to the top of the ridge where tower 14 is, it’s still quite a long hike up the hill to get to the cable gondola station. There were so-called wheel chair ramps in some places, but they were at a 15º slope, which was far steeper than the ADA would allow. It would be a wild ride in a wheel chair. But we’re sure the vendors appreciate being able to get their carts with wares for sale up the hills on those ramps.
In 2006, when we did the Great Wall of China, we did a different site, near tower 1. That was packed shoulder to shoulder and very uncomfortable to visit. Today’s visit couldn’t be more different. There were no lines to que up in to get in the Gondolas, or to get up to the actual wall from the Gondola landing. There were a decent number of people but you could easily swing a jump rope around you at any point and not hit anyone. The temperature at the top of the wall was also noticeably cooler, perhaps by as much as 10ºF, and there was a nice cooling breeze, so we did not feel at all uncomfortable. The sky was cloudy but the views were still beautiful.
The boys wanted to do some really strenuous hiking, so they went from tower 14 to tower 20, with the slope reaching over 45º between tower 18 and 20. Then they went from there to tower 6, where they took an alpine sled ride down. Some of them were disappointed that they ran into slow people ahead of them which kept them from really experiencing the maximum speed potential.
It was a long 2 hour ride to get back to the hotel through terrible Beijing Traffic, although in general, it did not actually slow to actual stop and go like it does in Seattle traffic. It was just slow but steady.
It is remarkable how many electric vehicles are now on Beijing’s roads. They outnumber gas powered vehicles 2 to 1. And electric scooters have replaced the Tuk-Tuk like 3 wheeled utility vehicles. Beijing’s air quality has dramatically improved since 2006. The sky actually looks blue when the clouds part, instead of brown.
But indoor air quality is an issue because the majority of Chinese adults smoke cigarettes, and they smoke them EVERYWHERE- in elevators, in toilet stalls, in stores, and on subway trains. We were fortunate that the Mercure Hotel has actual non-smoking rooms. The rooms and hallway don’t smell like smoke, although the elevators and elevator lobbies do. We had actual matches and ash trays in our Liaoning Hotel rooms, on the wedding banquet tables, along with a tray of actual cigarettes. We look forward to getting back to the US mostly to get away from the constant stink of cigarette smoke.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a big dress rehearsal for the September 3 military parade, so it is hard to know what we’ll encounter. Kevin plans on taking us to see the Pandas at the zoo, and visit a Hutong, or traditional single story residential block. These Hutongs have become an endangered species as real estate is too valuable for single story residential use. These are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which is probably the only reason they still exist today.
