China - Beijing : Great Wall of China + Nanshan ski resort

Beijing - December 2014

Bf and I were very psyched with today's itinerary and were looking forward since day 1 we booked the tour package! The most highlight of the trip: Great Wall of China and Nanshan ski resort!

That day was the most fun and most frustrating day of the trip. 

Great Wall of China 万里长城

My first one of the eight wonders in the world! Let's get started with a little history of how it came about.

The Great Wall of China was built as early as 7th century BC (I don't even know that's how long ago) and further constructed in 220–206 BC by Qin Shihuang, the First Emperor of China who is very infamous about him burning all the books.

The Great Wall was built mainly to protect the Chinese empire from northern invaders and the total length was estimated around 8,850km. I came across one article mentioning one guy took around 9 months to complete.

Initally, I thought I was quite well prepared - brought mask, sunglasses, gloves and three layers. I was wrong. I was freezing to death even in indoor. 

I was very furious when I heard there was only 45 minutes free and easy time for us to explore the Great Wall and report back to the restaurant for lunch. Come on, I spent so long bus journey from town to outskirt just to see this Great Wall and only going to give me less than an hour to explore and take pictures? This is damn ridiculous. 

Perhaps this doesn't earn him any commission. Two hours at silk factory -.-" We practically wasting our precious travelling time. I still remember very vividly that he was so thick skin that he asked one of my tour mate to help support the sales. Not one time but several times. I am not going to expose his nickname but it is a very small size of horse.

million dollars view

During the olden days, they did not have any construction machinery. They built it using their bare hands with sweats and blood. People said that underneath the Great Wall hid countless of corpses who either died of over exhausted or lack of proper nutrition.

A must have "I am here" picture.

Anyway, December is a quiet season as the weather is too cold for people to go anywhere. Imagine this place packing with people during peak season.

My black face when we were rushing down to the restaurant. Of course, we were late. Obviously, 45 minutes was not enough at all.

See you again, Great Wall of China.

We had to say good bye to Great Wall and rushed off to our next destination - Nanshan ski resort where we expected to reach in an hour~ 

This is my closest chance to see and touch snow.

We reached there around 3pm and the mountains back view with gentle sun was exceptional beautiful as if like a painting.

It was quite slippery when I stepped on the hardened snow for the first time.

I was thinking if we need to hire an instructor as the time given us was only 2 hour. We ended up hiring an instructor as skiing can be very dangerous if you do not know how to brake or get up when you fall down. The female instructor was very passionate telling us what equipment to take, where to pay the fee and even offered to help me to take my ski board.

After a few attempts of learning how to move with ski board and to brake on a slightly descended ground level, the instructor led us to the higher hill. 

The conveyor belt for the beginners lol

Ski tow is for the more pro people. 

Bf went first because I was scared. 

The instructor first directed him to hold his ski pole horizontally to strike a balance then position both his legs facing inwards making a V shape as braking mechanism so not to increase his speed while going down the hill. The technique is to bend his legs and lean backwards like sitting down - this is to prevent to fall with face down. Most importantly is to use the same strength on both legs so you will go straight instead of going in zigzag. If you wish to increase your speed, position your ski board parallel to each other. 

I have to admit that bf was doing better than me as I was not able to strike a balance strength on my legs. I have better strength control on my left legs which is damn weird as right leg should be my power leg. If you see the above picture, my V shape was not very nicely positioned. The tip of my ski board kept overlapped each other.

We were totally exhausted after a few attempts of going downhills. We have to control legs strength while skiing downhills and use arm strength on ski pole to push ourselves forwards on a flat ground.

It was near 5.30pm where they were about to close, the female instructor kept rushing us to return their equipment. She kept pushing us to walk faster but obviously we could not as it was very slippery to walk on the snow and the ski board was heavy. She could not take our slowness and decided to help me with the ski board. Her attitude changed totally before and after..

Course fee: ~SGD 50 for 2 hours.