Winter Escape to (Taolin Village Strawberry Farm & Huanghuacheng Great Wall)

It been a long break for my winter holiday and I already become lazy and not as productive as usual. So, in order to drag myself out from warmth of my room, I decided to organize a trip to Toalin Village strawberry farm. This idea actually come from my friend which work from Malaysia embassy at China, he said that it should be worth to visit strawberry farm in winter. So, he provided all the information to go there. Below I share the information about the place that I went to, so if you guys want to go to other places, you guys can check on the link above, it shows multiple locations of strawberry picking. Make sure to call the owner before you guys go there. Basically, they spoke Chinese and not English, so they way I deal with the owner (Mrs. Yu) was by prepare a script through translation from google translate and had a conversation with the owner. Nothing is impossible, just think smart how to deal with problem 😉 

        1. Dingding Caomei Caizhai Yuan 丁丁草莓采摘园

• Picking season: Dec-Jun
• Price: RMB 35, 40, or 50/jin (depends on strawberry variety)
• Getting there: On the Changping line, take Bus 870 from Nanshao subway station. Get off at Taolin Village and walk 300m south, then call one of the owners when you get to the farm entrance.
• Address: Xingshou Town, Changping District 昌平区兴寿镇
• Contact: 136 9317 0992 Ms. Yu, 134 3958 0670 Mr. Yu,

On 31 January, our adventure began. This trip, I went with my friends who are from Indonesia. They are Chinese who live at Indonesia, but they spoke very fluent Malay language. I'm quite impressed because mostly Chinese Malaysian didn't spoke Malay as fluent as they are. The fluency in Malay because in Indonesia, in every occasion, they need to speak in Malay language not like Malaysia because in Malaysia if we choose to work with government, we need to use Malay but if we choose to work at private company, they more prefer English or other languages. Besides, schools in Indonesia, they use Malay language as mediation language and the primary schools is not dividing like in Malaysia which we have different kinds of school for Malay, Chinese and Indian. Enough with the language, let continue with the adventure to Taolin Village strawberry farm. 

We departed from our university at 9 am in the morning. Then, we had breakfast at Dicos before we went to Taolin Village. This Dicos fast food franchise is one of the halal fast food place in China. So, if you are Muslim that comes travel in China, you guys can eat at Dicos without any doubt. First, we took subway from Wudaokou station to transit at Xi'erqi Station at Line 13 before arrive at Beishaowa Station at Changping Line. After that, we took a public bus number 80 to go to Taolin Village. It's 12 stops before we arrived at Taolin Village. The whole course took around 2 hours. Although it took a lot of time to arrive, but it saving a lot of money on transportation fee because I spend only 10 RMB and at the same time I can enjoy taking public transport surrounding by villagers who look weird on us. When we arrived at the Taolin Village, the owner of the farm came to invite us from the bus stop with her electrical bike. Actually the farm is only 300m from the bus stop toward the east, so we walked to the farm.

               

                The entrance of Dingding Caomei Caizhai Yuan

At the Dingding Strawberry farm, we were been given an opportunity to taste three different qualities of strawberry before we start picking. The strawberries taste were really good, sweet and juicy, not like I usually buy from the market which had sour taste. Therefore, we decided to pick the best strawberry they had, which the price is 50 RMB per jin. Jin in Chinese mean 1/2 kg. Our strawberries picking activity started, and at the same time we can ate as many as we can because it's free unless you want to take away the strawberry. Around one hour, we spent time picking the strawberries, now it time to go back. The time is still early, and suddenly, my Indonesian friend Kelvin Ho, comes with great idea which we should have a visit to Lake Side View Great Wall or in other name is Water Great Wall located at Huanghuacheng because it's kinda near to the Taolin Village. By using Baidu as an assistant for the route to the Lakeside View Great Wall, we had to take a public number 80 and later on we had to change to bus number 22 to reach there. It's quite far actually not as promised in Baidu, but it worth to see the view of Chinese village along the way to the Great Wall.

         

   

We arrived at Huanghuacheng around 2 PM, then we bought the entrance ticket which cost 45 RMB per person in order to get in. We didn't get half price caused we are graduate student. Actually, this is my second time to visit here. Huanghuacheng Water Great Wall is quite an interesting place to visit as compared to other sides of Great Wall because it is the only lakeside Great Wall in Beijing and some  of the Great wall part is submerged under the water which was probably caused by the dam. This gave a different perspective on the Great Wall from the lakeside and we can see the lake was froze due to the cold winter temperature. This part supposedly hasn't been restored but it is such a megalithic structure and still it is so worth seeing. Here are some interesting facts of Huanghuacheng Water Great Wall:

 😀When summer arrives in full bloom, the entire village below is a washed in a sea of yellow                   wild flowers ('yellow flower' is 'huanghua' in Chinese). Hence the village name Huanghuacheng         (Huanghua City in English), and by turn the Great Wall section acquires its name.

   

😀The construction commenced in 1404, two years before the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644)                     moved  its capital to Beijing, and continued for 188 years.

😀Embracing the clear Haoming Lake, this section is 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers) in length and               partly submerged.

                 

Actually, the cold winter make this place dead and we were the only ones to be seen, because this place used to be lively during summer due to the water spots, boat tour, kayak and others but the lake was froze so nothing can been done. Besides, due to the strong wind plus cold weather make me shivering since I didn't prepare myself to go there and I just wearing 2 layer of clothes without jacket and a long boot which not suitable for hiking. The initial path was easy because we just following a well provided trodden footpath. There is one good spot to see the view of submerged water great wall from the top but the way to go there is very challenging. But due to our strong determination, we able to hike this challenging steep of great wall which not well preserved to one good spot to see the sunset view. The view from the top was really extraordinary and unforgettable, it's really worth to hike with jean and boot. As word of advice, make sure to brings your sneakers or hiking boots before come to this place.

The sunset view from Huanghuacheng Great Wall

                                            

Submerged part of Huanghuacheng Great Wall

Before sunlight disappears, we start the step to go down from the one the great wall peak that we climb. The way down was more difficult then the way up because it's slippery and our vision somehow limited due to sunset. After we reach the bottom part of great wall we walked as fast we can because we need to catch up our last public bus no. 80 at 6.30 PM. Luckily, the last bus still there and we were the last passengers to be seen. At that time, we all really hungry because we just had breakfast and only ate strawberries along the way to the great wall. But this bus didn't go straight to any subway station. So, we need to change to another public bus no. 916 fast. I just think that day was on our luck because we just in time to catch every last bus. If not, only God knows what our fate was. Just kidding, we can take Didi or taxi but it will cost more. So this bus go straight to the subway station. By taking subway, we safely arrived at our university at 11 PM. This trip was really exhausted, totally we walked more than 33 000 steps but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of new knowledge from my Indonesian friends. Indeed, Ad Hoc activity is way enjoyable than the ones we plan. I will need 1 week rest before I have another trip. Right now I kinda hate stairs and you guys know what the reason was. Total cost I spend for this trip was less than 120 RMB, cheap is it because I save a lot of money from transportation fees by the reason of I just use public bus and subway through the whole journey.

                 

😴😴😴😴😴😴