Ride Round The World

Early start at the wall, where it’s minus fifteen degrees. So early, that I have to wake up the cable car operator.

I ride in the exact same carriage as Michele Obama. Not at the same time, obviously.

First glimpse of the wall. Not really. The first glimpse is all the usual tourist souvenir crap.

First one there, so it’s peaceful. For a while, at least.

Gets steeper and rougher higher up:

Especially once you climb over the barrier where you’re meant to stop, and carry on into the zone where you might receive a:

I don’t often take selfies…

… but:

so it’s justified.

These photos are bad because it was minus 10 with wind chill to minus 15. The moat is frozen. Hands stay in pockets, only briefly emerging to operate the camera…

The Forbidden City is:

Getting in requires navigating some security checks and finding where to buy a ticket in a vast area of crazy confusion and manic overcrowding and frankly I’m amazed I got anywhere near.

When your hands are painfully frozen, the best thing in the forbidden city is this radiator I discovered just inside a door I probably wasn’t meant to go through:

Outside the forbidden city, there’s another way to warm up: