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! 😃