Month: August 2017

The plan for today was to visit the historical icons of China; The Great Wall and The Temple of Heaven. One of the main things that I wanted to look at more during the day was how accessible both sites were as a result of the Paralympic Games.

Anyway, our guide and driver picked us up for our hotel around 0815 and we son exited the hustle and bustle of Beijing and travelled into the mountains northof the city where the Great Wall runs through and stretches for 7800km. At Badaling there is a wheelchair accessible part however, before exploring this, we decided that in order to get an authentic feel we would take the steps bouncing my wheelchair backwards up the steps until we got to this point…

Above this point the gradient of the paving stones was steep so we decided to retreat back down and find the accessible route that I had researched prior which is the opposite side of the road to the ticket office.

There are two ways of reaching the accessible part of the wall, you can either walk up a ramped access or take one of two lifts. For the lifts you need to let them know your coming so they can gain the keys. As a result we went up the ramped access…

The ramps allow you to access a reasonably flat fortification with good views of the wall and surrounding countryside. You can also enter one of the Wall’s accommodation towers, however there is a little step up to that.

After lunch, we headed back to Beijing via the old road to visit The Temple of Heaven in all its glory…

Accessibility wise, there are ramps located all around the site making most of it wheelchair friendly, however, I don’t quite know who came up with this ramp concept…

Albeit quite scary, we managed to reach the top presenting an insight into The Temple of Heaven, it’s intricate external artwork of dragons and Phoenix’ together with the lavish interior.

Overall, the city of Beijing is rather surprisingly wheelchair friendly compared to other countries in terms of the subway and generally getting about. However, you do take your life in your own hands when crossing roads as you have all sorts of vehicles coming towards you, behind you and at the side of you!!

Tomorrow we catch the train to Xian, it is no ordinary train, its a BULLET train! 😃

Today we took the Beijing subway with the vision of attending the majestic looking Olympic Park where the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics were held.

As I said yesterday, I did some prior research finding out what stations are accessible or not. Normally a city would have some kind of accessible map which you can download but no not for Beijing! As a result it it took a couple of You Tube videos as well as zooming 500 % into several images. The line that we wanted to go on (Line 8) is of course the line going to the Olympic Park so it would is a kind of given that it’s accessible. As usual, the lift at Nanluogu Xiang station (which is the terminus of the line) was located down the side passage, I’m sure countries do it on purpose to lead you down dodgy passageways!

The station part for Line 8 was fully accessible plus the modern rolling stock meaning that there is only a little gap between the platform edge and the train similar to the Jubilee line on the London Underground. The trains themselves were spacious (like the new trains on the Circle, Hammersmith and City lines), the wheelchair space consists of a belt that you could pull down and wrap around a wheelchair to secure it during transit…..

We managed to exit the station at the Olympic Green station without a problem to be greeted by the magnificant sight of the Beijing Olympic Tower (which is 246.8 metres). However, the first aim was to walk to the iconic Birds Nest and Water Cube. It was pretty easy to find after exiting the station and climbing up a ramp…..

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The Olympic park is centred around a main boulevard of which the Beijing Olympic Tower, which was our second aim, is situated at the opposite end to the Birds Nest, so it was quite a walk to get to it, however they had a Chinese sounding Celine Dion soundtrack playing so you could have been in Disneyland!

The tower itself only cost £20 each which I thought was good value for money as there were several observation decks (all accessible) which you can visit plus a glass floor….

The plan for tomorrow is to a guided trip outside Beijing to visit The Great Wall of China😃

Well I would of started by saying Hello in Chinese but I don’t think the Chinese alphabet is on this iPad so Hello from Beijing will have to do! I have named this post after several things that have occurred since the last 36 hours and this is why…..

We started at, what I like to call the epicentre of the UK (London Heathrow) where the check in process worked well as usual (why can’t Bristol learn lessons from London…..they get on my nerves!). As we made our way towards the departure lounge as we were flying Business Class, after 2 hours of talking to some random Australians from Sydney (I learned that Australia has camels…fun fact). We made our way towards to the Gate which was situated in one of T5 satellite terminals, which can be accessed either by walking or by a Rapid Transit system, of course this made me ecstatic due to my love for all things trains! Basically, it comprises of a system similar to the DLR in London which is automated. As with the Heathrow Express, the train was level with the platform making it easy to get on and off . It was then time for our lovely 9 hour flight…..

We flew with BA in Business Class and, I don’t know if you know what it’s like but the best way to describe it is that your seats are in a little pod and basically you can turn it into a bed… quite a good idea for long haul flights!

On arrival in Beijing airport, I was amazed at the speed that I was able to get off the plane as the time it took for the baggage handlers to bring up my wheelchair….about 10 mins (sometimes we are waiting for 30 mins even at the biggest airports!).

Unfortunately my charm didn’t seem to work as we queued for security so that took a while until we were spotted by a young police lady on the 72 hour Barrier free line who beckoned us forward….what a nice person. this wasn’t the end of our terminal adventure because, as it turned out we landed at T3E and the exit was of course in the main Terminal leading to another Rapid Transport system ride….how exciting !

Its worth mentioning that I have to take my manual wheelchair because someone thought it would be a good idea to hide a bomb in an electric wheelchair leading to a ban on bringing them into China.

At Beijing airport we were met by the Trailfinders rep who escorted us through a mountain of traffic to reach to Peninsular Hotel, Beijing. Here are some photos of what greeted me in an accessible room.

As accessible rooms go it is the best I’ve stayed in yet with a good connecting room (I thought the wet room at the Hilton Doubletree Heathrow was impressive but this is way better). They actually have a proper shower chair.

The room itself is entirely controlled by touch screens from the lights to opening and closing the curtains! There is plenty of room to manoeuvre a wheelchair.

After a brief nap we spent the rest of the afternoon out and about around the Forbidden Palace, Tiannamen Square and the rest of downtown. As usual I’d done a bit of prior research and noted that, as a result of the 2008 Paralympics, the access of the city has dramatically improved and it’s good to see when we visited the Forbidden Palace …

Saying that, on our way back to the hotel we had to cross a 6 lane road with no accessible crossings apart from at Tinnamen Square. It was fine going down a ramp to the underpass but the other side was significantly steeper and resorted to an aided walk up the steps with mum and a helpful Chinese cyclist pushing the wheelchair up the ramp. I guess the lesson learnt was to ensure you get on the right side early enough before you head out of town!

On our return to the hotel we we’re greeted with this lovely cake and champagne as it was my 25th birthday yesterday, don’t know who it is from yet but we have a suspicion! (Actually we just found out that Damian at Trailfinders dropped some hints to the hotel)

The plan for tomorrow is to go to the Olympic park whilst attempting to navigate the accessible metro stations (which I’ve planned by watching a few you tube videos of the guys that have an obsession with elevators!). The park also has a few observation decks up a tower which should be thrilling.

Finally, I have found out that Twitter and Instagram can’t be accessed here but Facebook can so I will upload all the photos onto Twitter when I get back. 😄