China in 72 hours

Getting a visa for China abroad is practically impossible. However, under certain criteria, you have the opportunity to obtain a visa for 72 hours for one of the metropolises. We met these criteria and spent our stopover on the way home in the Chinese capital. Okay, you can't travel all of China in three days, but we got a nice impression of Beijing: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Olympic grounds (yes dear Berlin, you can really implement major projects, even in the scheduled time), the booming business districts with their high-rise buildings and many skyscrapers under construction. And when you're here, of course you also go to the Great Wall, which was really impressive! Unfortunately, we couldn't visit Mao because he was busy with his beauty treatments. And the 9 million bicycles that are somehow always associated with Beijing are no longer there... old, rickety, rusty and forgotten, they line the streets of the Hutongs (old Chinese residential neighborhoods) and remind us of past Chinese times.

It was a really nice short trip, once again a mixture of classic and modern. Well, we were a bit saturated with temples, shrines, imperial palaces and historical Asian architecture, but it was exciting to see such an emerging and continuously growing city next to the traditional remnants of a past civilization.

And surprisingly, Beijing was much cleaner than expected, the air better than in other Asian cities, and the public transportation worked on the road and rail. We didn't see any traffic chaos, but we did see many electric cars and motorcycles. At least here in the capital, the people were very modern and open-minded, and you didn't necessarily see more state power in public than elsewhere.

As a conclusion to our Asia trip, we also went to the Great Wall of China. It's indescribable to imagine that construction of this thousands of kilometers long structure began 2,000 years ago. Of course, you're not alone there either. But if you walk far enough, you'll encounter fewer and fewer people. Poorly prepared and wearing flip-flops, we hiked along the wall, defying obstacles and weather, hanging behind all Asians, and even made it far enough to get to know the "lonely wall". A nice conclusion before heading back to Berlin through Baku at night.