China
Being more famous than the Great Wall for a day and closing all factories to create a blue sky
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 4 July 2024
Updated on 4 July 2024
I had one full day left in Beijing: that meant the Great Wall of China. And now I thought the Great Wall of China was a pretty respectable attraction, but by the end of the day, I had been photographed more times than I had taken photos of the wall in between. The air was finally clean. It turned out that the government had ordered all factories in and around Beijing (within a radius of 2 hours by plane!!) to close until early September because a large military parade would be held, and the sky had to be blue, of course. Can you imagine if we closed all the factories in the Netherlands, England, Germany, and France in April because we wanted a clear blue sky for King‘s Day?
After Beijing, it‘s Japan‘s turn, for which I first zoomed to Qingdao for 5 hours on the Chinese high-speed train at 300 km/h. It was bizarre that it stopped in villages I had never heard of until I realized that, I suspect, each of those villages has more inhabitants than the Netherlands. Now, on to Japan, but first, a flashback to North Korea.
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Traveled route: Trans Mongolie Express,Beijing, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Tian'anmen Square, Great Wall of China, Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, Qingdao
× Being more famous than the Great Wall for a day and closing all factories to create a blue sky
next country: Iceland
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China
Did this story inspire you to go to China? Read more on what China has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.
