When China build anything, they will build it long, build it high, build it big, big it tall, build it great, build it powerful. A great and admirable country and its people. I love China.
@@user-de9ki7of7j The tradition of having a strong central government has been in China for over two thousands of years. It is embedded in China's blood, and it's what made China China.
The walls were built to stop or lessen the frequency of seasonal raids by nomadic tribes into northern China, who would ride in, pillage, take belongings and leave. It worked very well in that regard.
We loved the drone shots on the wall as well! We were really happy with how they turned out. We like spicy food. Although the Chongqing hotpot was a level of spice we are not really used to haha.
hey guys , great video agin , ive been watchign a good few of the china trips and alooking forward to hopefully visit this country next year and yous seem to hit the spots im planning to go and take some awsome photos hopefully , anyway keep up the great work ,
Hi Martin! China is incredible, there is so much to do 😊 you're in for a great adventure! And we're glad our videos are useful in planning your own trip 👌🏻
When I went, we travelled to the Hebei section and that was so quiet, which we were really pleased about. Your trip looked awesome and I love the camerawork.
Thanks for watching Nicole. It's kind of surreal to see a comment appear from you! We've been watching your video and instastories for years now. Thanks a lot for leaving a comment, you made our day ;)
Thank you for reminding me how beautiful Jinshanling section is. I went there last year at end of the October for sunset (different season, not so green but with autumn colours) and it was incredible! Went also to the Huanghuacheng section which is built by the water, so also pretty impressive and not so difficult to get from Beijing. Can't wait go back to China there is so much to discover, hopefully the Covid thing will pass quickly..
Chinese started building the walls in 4th century BC. The scene is so impressive and beautiful. I'll plan a trip to Beijing one day with my family, but I need to save first
The Great wall exists even before Qin Dynasty. Qin Dynasty just connected those walls built by several northern Kingdoms to defend the invasion from the nomadic nations. Most part of existing Great Wall we are visiting nowadays is actually built by Ming Dynaty . Have a nice trip !
Yes, it is a correct account of the wall being built even before the Qin first united China. And the great Ming extended many other areas around Beijing to strengthen the barrier but an act of treason by WuSangui let in the Qing.
Beijing was not on my bucket list( but other places in China) i will now add it up for sure! You really made me wanna go there...I'm loving this China serie...loved the Mongolia 🇲🇳😍 serie also! Epic travels one might say Bisous Sabrina 🇬🇧
Yes we definitely didn't expect china to be so beautiful! Where are you guys heading in Central America? We started off in Mexico in January then headed to Guatemala and Honduras.
@@NaickKim Yes can't wait to see Asia, It seems a world away from anywhere we have been before. We have 1 more week left in Italy then we travel to Mexico via LA then Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, we're spending between a month and 6 weeks in each country so haven't planned any further than that yet! All very exciting, any must know tips are welcome of course! :)
@@Hungry_Voyager sounds like an awesome itinerary! We spent 10 weeks in Mexico and 5 in Guatemala. We wrote a blog post with our best tips & recommendations for each of those countries on Flyertalk forum. For Mexico: www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1965506-10-weeks-mexico-itinerary-top-tips-budget.html#post31312694 For Guate: www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1973955-guatemala-5-weeks-adventure.html#post31280394 If you have any questions, feel free to fire away! So cool you're going to Costa Rica too, we heard it's amazing 😍👌🏻
I’m so jealous that u guys can travel all around China in so many cities. I always wanted to do that ever since I left China when I was 15. I only get to go to Guangzhou for a bit of home visit every couple of years, but Never got enough time to travel around. Thanks for all the information you included in this channel, so valuable to me. The Great Wall, it’s stunning, and great background music!
Thank you for your kind words Mo! You should take a bit of time to discover some more places. You can easily reach other places with the bullet train from Guangzhou. Guilin is just a few hours. Where do you live now?
Naick & Kim Hey guys. I’m living in Australia now. Life is good and chill in Australia. But too good and too chill if u know what I mean. I travelled around in Australia every now and then, but rarely get excited, maybe because I get used to being in Australia too long and most places are similar. Still a good country to travel if you haven’t been here. Are you guys gonna visit the mountains with transparent glass bridge/walk path? Maybe I missed it. Definitely try to go if you can, that’s the very in-thing in China recently. Have fun in the rest of you’re trip!
You mean Zhangjiajie? Yes we went there! But we did not do the glass bridge bc it was pretty expensive and some people said other parts of the park are better. The Avatar mountains of the park were pretty cool, what a highlight for us 🤩
Glad you enjoyed your trip to China. Watch several your videos I think you did a pretty good job in planning and researching, and that definitely makes your trip a lot more smooth and comfortable. I also watched some other vloggers sometimes when you have to rush to the train station or stuck at some place, that would definitely affect your mood. 10:58 And btw the plastic wrapping in some restaurant usually means they sent their dishes to cleaning companies and kinda preferred by many local customers as a proof of sterilized. And About the environment China has one of the biggest plastic recycle industry chain in the world and used to take care of the recycling for not only China but also lots of other developed countries. But after the garbage import ban that happened few years ago, I saw a news saying right now a majority percentage of all domestic plastic wastes can be recycled and manufactured into new products, even some companies have to start contacting landfills to dig up old garbage to keep their factory running, which is an amazing news. Love your videos, please keep it up and looking forward to watch your next journey.
Thanks for watching. We did indeed spend quite a bit of time planning and researching. But we're not very good at time management, so we did have to rush a bit in the stations sometimes haha. Thanks for all the info. We're currently in Taiwan, very interesting place ❤❤
Great compilation of videos .. I am just doing some research on the trans Siberian railway and came across your channel .. myself and my wife done 10 weeks in China years ago .. is Xian too far to travel to ?? Well worth the trip to the terracotta army.. Most importantly Enjoy
We're in Xian right now! Just visited the Terracotta army today, super impressive isn't it 🤯 when would you be doing the Trans-Siberian? 😊 if you have any questions, feel free to ask away! We also wrote a post on Flyertalk forum on the Trans-Siberian: www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1983475&goto=newpost
Omg! How not to be impressed with the Great Wall! That section you visited looks so beautiful and well preserved. Looks like the wall never ends. Truly an amazing marvel! And what a sight to behold with your fantastic video capture of the place. Imagine they could build such a wall then! Donald the Twitter Duck is struggling to even begin to build the Great Wall of Mexico! Hahaha....Even the Great Wall could not keep out the barbarians. The Duck must be hallucinating to keep out the hordes he says is invading his country hehehe. Keep up the good work guys and continue to grow your channel. One day your channel will take off for sure. If youtube is not proscribed in China, imagine millions of Chinese subs!
Thank you so much! We were so impressed with this section of the wall! Someone yesterday told us that the emperor who built the wall is the same man who had the terracotta warriors built. He must have been big on crazy projects haha. Thanks for watching! :)
@@PhilsDroneZone haha ok, well if there's anything great that comes to mind in terms of beautiful and not-so-touristy nature spots, feel free to let us know ;)
Hi John, that is awesome to hear, thank you! We took the shuttle bus from Beijing Dongzhimen wai station to Jinshanling. It runs from 8:00 am daily (April to October)
The full list is on the description of our latest video. Our camera is the Canon 80D. We have 3 lenses: Canon 10-18 mm wide angle lens (main vlog lens), Canon 50 mm f1.8 lens (which we use to shoot most of our b roll) and Sigma 24 mm f1.4 lens (our favourite lens! excellent in low light and just incredible image quality). Drone is a DJI Mavic Air. Stabilizer is the Zhiyun Crane Plus :) we love our set up :)
We found the quality has improved drastically since we started shooting everything in manual mode instead of automatic mode though. That's only been a fairly recent change but it has made a really big difference for us!
Definitely visit Jinshanling if you are thinking of going to the great wall of China!! I don't see how it can get any better than this visiting any of the other sections :) loved this day so much!!
What a lovely informative blog ,Naick /Kim ,few questions : -How far is this section of GW from Beijing? - What distance did you walk on the GW ? - Entry ticket price
It's about 2.5 hours from Beijing. You can take the bus as indicated in the video from Beijing. We walked about 7-8km I think. Not sure Admission was 65CNY. More info: www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/jinshanling.htm
Hi. I love your videos! You are such a cute couple. I am traveling to Beijing next week. I would love to visit the section of the Great Wall in your vlog. It’s beautiful. Could you share info on how you traveled from Beijing to that section of wall? The info would be helpful. Thanks.
Hi Barbara, thank you so much 😊 you can find all info on getting there on this site: www.beijingwalking.com/jinshanling-bus/. Great choice going to Jinshanling, it's absolutely stunning! Enjoy your trip 🤗🌏
Yes, really beautiful lanscape. I've visited Badaling, liked it very much, but I think Jinshanling is even better. By the way there are not so much crowds on Badaling if you manage to climb high on the mountain. As for me, China is a country that really worth travelling, so many exotic things to see.
Yes so far we have loved China too! The variety of places you can visit here is just staggering. We have about 3 more weeks here probably, going to explore as much as we can 😊 Naick also visited Badaling 6 years ago when he was in Beijing for work. It was in November and there weren't that many people then either because it was low season. Thanks for watching 😉🙏🏻
@@user-bt9zl8bg6k we have 5 weeks here in total, and about 3 more left right now. We may stay a little longer, we're not sure yet. But we love it here and are already thinking of coming back again 😊 when I think of leaving I already miss the food, even though we're not even close to leaving yet 😅🤷🏻♀️
One of the great feats of the wall is the mathematics involved to build it on those snaking contours. Popular to misconception is that the wall didn't work - or course it didn't, it failed 3x in its 2,000 year history, but that glosses over the fact it protected China from the vast cavalries of the steppe peoples, such as the Mongols, for millennia. However whenever the wall fell, usually at the mountain passes, they tended to be when the dynasty was stagnating, rife with decline and corruption and the guards could be bribed. This was how the Mongols, the Jurchens and the Manchurians came to rule China, almost 'invited' in as the last dynasty fractured into civil war and warlord eras. It's interesting the wall came about because China- although having vast armies, armadas and military tech (such as gunpowder) didn't have effective cavalries. The soil in the empire lacked potassium, which meant horses were significantly weakened. Thus the walls had to be built.
Great info! Thanks for sharing. Do you know where I can find some info on the maths involved? Sounds interesting. As a scientist I'm always interested. It's true that if it only fails 3 times in 2000 years it isn't necessary a failure. We didn't know that about the horses and the potassium. What's very interesting is that China was ruled by various cultures throughout the ages, but still has a very distinct own culture.
Naick & Kim Chinese culture is a very mixed one because of integrations with northern nomads and other ethnicities. The architecture style in Tang Dynasty over a thousand years ago is very different than those you saw in Beijing. Back then, Chinese did not have chairs and tables and ate sushi. Japan got to preserve more of that ancient China as it was like a copy of Tang Dynasty and was not really invaded by foreign powers. Beijing is abundant with Mongolian and Manchurian culture. The architecture style around Shanghai area which has less that kind of influence is black roof and white wall like in Suzhou. Also Mandarin is like Northern nomads pronunciations of Chinese. A thousand years ago, people were speaking more like Cantonese that has more tones. I guess northern ethnicities could not handle that.lol
Naick & Kim Building a Great Wall was the most cost effective way to guard against Northern nomads back then. Because they did not settle, you had to go all around the vast grasslands and could not find them. Then when you were exhausted, they suddenly appeared and defeated you. Like flash mob, they would loot villages and when you got there, they disappeared again. And yes, horses were a big problem for China while nomads had abundant grasslands and war horses. One reason why Mongolian cavalry could conquer half of the world back then.
Naick & Kim I think Chinese characters have a lot of credit that helped the culture to pass down. People all seemed to like them. Once they started to use Chinese characters and do calligraphies, they integrated themselves into Chinese. Ironically Manchurian ruled China for so long but it is probably the only ethnic group in China who lost its own language. No Manchurian can speak Manchurian now. The Chinese language does not depend on pronunciation to communicate. It probably has a nature to integrate people who are still using all kinds of dialects in nowadays China. I don’t understand what people are talking about in their dialects in surrounding cities, but it does not prevent us all being Chinese. China was also culturally more advanced than the northern nomads back then, so they wanted to learn Chinese culture and got themselves integrated eventually.
I went to that great wall for photography for two times. you could see the stars and the Milky way in the night there. the suset and sunrise are very impressive.I think it is the safest great wall, I could walk there alone in dark, only stars above me.
It is a gray area. We did some research online and most posts seem to point in the direction that it is allowed. Although when we were flying, some random tourist said it was not allowed. We did not see anything in the contrary of it being allowed.
actually we like calling the wall curving along the mountains Chinese dragon instead of snake. glad the tour deserve your expectation. try to have more fun. have been to Wuyi Mountain in Fujian yet?
@@NaickKimit is! I believe cute person like you will definitely love it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t_ilMO3rgXI.html search "武夷山" and you will find more!
Gong bao chicken actually have different flavors, depending on whether it’s made in the northern China, in which it is more of sour and sweet, or southern China, where it is hot and spicy.
There are three famous great walls in Beijing. BaDaLing Great Wall, MuTianYu Great Wall. But we only go to the most dangerous JianKou Great Wall. It was a wonderful day when you were on the Great Wall👍👍👍👍👍
@@NaickKim ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BpEWKBB6lYw.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4K8kelBYYNM.html Every year people get killed and injured climbing the JianKou Great Wall, so it's very dangerous. If you want to go there, be extra careful. The JianKou Great Wall is in HuaiRou township of Beijing.
Glad I found your channel! Seems like you Belgians all have that friendly disposition like the tennis great Kim Clijsters. Not sure if Jordan is in you future plans for travel, but a mate of mine had his drone confiscated at the border from Israel.
That's great! Where are you planning on going in China? You can find detailed information right here: www.beijingwalking.com/jinshanling-bus/ It is very easy to find the bus station and very convenient.
Welcome to China! I hope you enjoyed your stay, I do apologies for some ill-mannered people that you might probably meet but still, the majority of Chinese are kind!
Hahaha thanks and that's quite alright 😉 your fellow Chinese were very nice to us during our stay there, we did not have any bad experiences and really enjoyed China 🇨🇳👌🏻
Pretty stiff the next day! It just kept going up and down, up and down. And sometimes there was a part that was pretty straight and then it went down 3m again and back up. But I'd say it was worth it. Did you also visit the Jinshanling section?
Naick & Kim Yes we went to that part of the wall... I loved it!!! Almost empty and sooo beautiful!!! We went with a tour cos we didn’t have time but it was more a transportation option. The tour guide just walked with us and gave us all the time in the world until was time to go back. So each one walked in their own time, just what I wanted.
@@NaickKim No I don't, but I can imagine what a drone does, just like the magnificent video you have made, I can also imagine that the drone is hiding somewhere in your backpak :)
People often mistake that the Chinese Walls are completely defensive, however, with the newest archaeological evidence found in (Outer) Mongolia, there are Walls that were actually far more north than today's, used as a forefront attempting to keep xiongnu even thousand miles away from current walls.
Would recommend Nanjing and Hangzhou in Southern China for sure - especially the Nanjing Massacre memorial and Sun Yatsen Mausoleum which are incredible. If you’re in Shanghai make sure you check out the Shanghai History Museum - it’s brand new and housed in the former Shanghai Race Club building but very underrated.
wow Hangzhou especially looks so beautiful! thank you for the recommendation, we'll see if we can fit it into our plans :) will depend on whether or not we make it to Shanghai - that is also still on the list but we're not sure if our budget can take another major city (especially one where there's such an amazing food scene as we've heard there is in Shanghai) haha, Beijing put a bit of a dent in our budget ;) is Shanghai comparable to Beijing in terms of prices? thank you for your very useful input!!
Thank you for watching our video - we appreciate that you're here! Have you visited the Great Wall of China? If so, where did you go? Also, if you have any tips for other great places to go in China, we would love to hear your input so please share below!! Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on the rest of our China trip! See you in the next one? Buh-bye!!
Yes, I have visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. That part is nice too, without too much crowd and it is a bit closer to get to from Beijing (the one you visited is better, I think). Despite all the hardships of traveling in China, these historical sights really make it worthwhile!
Just imagine China built thousands kilometers wall to avoid being robbed. Correction, Qin dynasty was not the first United China. It was after many years separations, Qin dynasty finally United whole China. Before the separations, there were central government already, he did give lands to different kings yet they theoretically are under the central government control. Qin dynasty changed this method of management after reunite China.
@@babypandajixiao9935 glad you enjoy it! we do quite a bit of research on every place we visit since we usually don't go with a tour guide. It gives us a better feel for where we are and we enjoy sharing it :)
Hi Ryan, no we didn't have any problems. It is not allowed in Beijing and did not fly there. You do have to register online and print a QR code and attach it to your drone.
@@NaickKim I saw her initual fingers replacement and I commented, but when she started to actually use, it's almost the same way as yours, that's why you are a couple, lol
Welcome you to visiting my hometown Xi’an , which is 1of 4 ancient city in China, and you will see Terra cotta warriors .The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.