Today I took a trip over to the Beijing Underground City. I ended up paying $2 to a pedicab driver to get me there. I didn’t want to, but he kept asking and I didn’t know for sure where it was. It is underground after all! I was close and it was only a minute or so ride. I wish he would have pointed the way instead, but he would have lost out on all the cash.
At the entrance, I paid the fee and a tour guide explained everything in English. Too bad there were no photos allowed inside. He said there were 500km of tunnels built between 1969 and 1979 mostly for protection from nuclear war. He claimed you could get anywhere in the city from this underground network, and even outside the city to the airport and the Great Wall of China. It is hard to tell if all of that is true or not. We only walked through 500m of tunnels. Most were 4 feet wide, one was 8 feet wide.
Later today I was walking through a different part of the city and I saw a door to an Air Raid Shelter. I think that must lead down into the underground city. There might be a thousand entrances scattered around.
Today I also walked through the Ming City Wall Ruins Park, a section of the wall that used to surround the entire city. Of note there was a sign there that said this was the end point of the Grand Canal of China, the longest canal in the world. I didn’t see any water though, only roads! Then I walked by the Ancient Observatory. I also walked by Zhihua Si Temple on the way back home.
For dinner there was four whole crabs on the table. I was given half of one and tried my best to get all the meat out. Not the easiest thing to eat. At one point I tried squeezing one of the legs to crack it open, but it exploded all over my shirt. We also had donkey meat at the table today. I can’t say donkey is the best food ever but it was alright.