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Walls and warriors: Beijing to Xian, exploring North China’s must visits China | Asia Published: July 2018 | Partner content produced on assignment with Lonely Planet & G Adventures All opinions and content remain my own. This post contains affiliate links. ‘Your county never is hot hahaha’ came the mechanical voice of the driver’s translation app. Even in China, with a language barrier, clearly, jokes could undoubtedly still be thrown at us Brits. I punched a response into my phone, Google Translate echoed it back in Mandarin, and we both laughed out loud as the taxi thundered on through the roads of Beijing, unsure if our apps were actually getting the conversation across as intended. I’d stumbled into Beijing airport a few hours earlier and realising I had missed my transfer was adamant I wasn’t going to pay the highly inflated prices the transfer desk was quoting me. A few drivers ignoring me later and this legend of a guy up front ke...

You’ll never guess the last place I went camping… The Great Wall of China! Crowds are something that you just have to deal with in China. Whether they be outside museums and attractions, or inside subway stations, there’s no escaping the masses of people in this country – up to 1.5 billion locals and countless tourists. When I came to China, I knew that I’d have to do a certain amount of crowd-standing and pushing in, and I looked on it as all part of the cultural experience. But one thing that I really didn’t want to have to battle through the crowds for was my trip to the Great Wall of China. It’s somewhere that has always enthralled me; I’ve always been amazed at the spine of the architectural marvel traversing hill after hill ending (or beginning?) with the Jiayuguan Fortress, and I knew that I wanted to experience and admire this crowd-free. I’d seen that (in)famous picture of thousands of tourists crammed into one section of the Great Wall, and I’d heard about how...