Great Wall, Great Dinner

August 27

Didn't get too much done this day.

Maomerabilia

The morning got off to a slow start, and mostly we walked around Liu Li Chang Jie checking out the tourist trap souvenir shops. We had a moderately successful bartering experience (got the price down a little, at least) involving a copy of Mao's Little Red Book.

Temple of Heaven

The afternoon was spent arranging a trip to the Great Wall, and visiting the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was awesome, and the buildings on the temple grounds are constructed so that you can produce an echo from just about any part of any one of them. But one of the best parts of it was entirely unexpected. In this place called the Long Hall (it's a hall, and it's long) we ran across a series of clusters of people. The center of each of these clusters consisted of a small group of musicians and a single, terribly animated conductor. And everyone was singing their hearts out. The songs sounded like old nationalistic tunes that they might have learned in school, and the performances were just amazing. You have to understand that these were spontaneously formed groups of people. Maybe the conductor and the musicians were accompanied by a small group of singers, but apart from that it seemed that passersby just walked up to the crowd, got handed a piece of sheet music, and joined in. And this group of strangers managed to create melody and harmony, with the full range of deep bass to glass-shattering soprano (hearing a soprano in Chinese music from up close is an experience in itself).

The day after that was a bit of a farce.

Running around like chickens with heads cut off

On our way out of the Temple of Heaven, a taxi driver offered to take us back to the subway station, and quoted a price that could have been either 15 or 50. We didn't want anything to do with a taxi driver who wasn't going to go by his meter, so we walked away. Then another guy quoted us 14 or 40. I checked with hand gestures that he meant 14, and he nodded his head. That sounded like about the right amount, so we got in. Turns out he meant 40. We were taken aback, and managed to get him down to 30. So we lost yet another haggling battle, but at least we weren't entirely routed.

We then rushed our way to the Lama Temple and Temple of Confucious, arriving at each just after closing time. At least we got to see the walls of these complexes, which were of course quite tall and entirely concealed the beautiful, ancient buildings housed within.

We then rushed our way out to the grounds of the Old Summer Palace, quite a ways out from the city center. The Old Summer Palace used to be for the Emperor, until Europeans burned it down and made their own palace on the grounds, which was destroyed in turn. China preserved the ruins as a message to future generations about China's past humiliation, and apparently school children take trips there to write patriotic messages on the remains of the European buildings. Sounds pretty good. Well, we made it to the gates before the place closed, but, 1) they were doing some sort of landscaping on the grounds such that a) the usually scenic lakes had been entirely drained, and in their stead b) walls of sheet metal had been put up so you couldn't see anything from the paths; in addition 2) the ruins of the Old Summer Palace itself were contained behind yet another gate, and we missed the closing time for that. So, it turned out that we paid good money to see some ugly sheet metal and not much else.

Eating a duck with its head cut off, and cut in half, and served with gizzard

Next was dinner at Quanjude, and Peking duck to end all Peking duck, by which I mean we ate an entire duck between the two of us. The dish was different from the Peking duck we got back in Vancouver in a couple of ways. In Vancouver, Peking duck is served with just the skin of the duck, but at Quanjude it was served with meat and skin, but no styrofoam chips. Also we were served the duck's gizzard (which tasted fine) and head (which might have tasted fine, but we didn't try it--in our defense, we couldn't have eaten much of anything after going through the duck proper).

Mao must be turning over in his climate-controlled display case

There is a clear division of labour among the female staff at Quanjude. The prettiest, impossibly skinny girls, probably about 23 and under, wear red dresses with long slits up the sides and serve as hostesses, ushering guests into the waiting area, giving them numbers, and taking them to the dining area. The next most attractive women get yellow jackets and are your servers. Then come the older women--30 and above--who have ugly orange vests and clean up after you. Three distinct and clearly identifiable classes. So much for communism.

August 28

This day was GREAT. Get it?

First contact with tour groups

There are three main sections of the Wall accessible from Beijing (in decreasing order of level of convenience and touristiness ): Badaling, Mutianyu, and Simatai. Although we'd like to stear clear of tour groups, we caved in on this occasion, because we weren't sure we could manage the trip to the Great Wall ourselves. We'd originally booked a tour to Simatai, but then we got a call suggesting that we cancel. The road there was under construction, it was claimed, and would add 2 hours to our trip to the Great Wall. If we switched to Mutianyu, we would save that time and get 240 yuan back as a refund.

It sounded suspicious, and our suspicion increased when the tour guide informed us that we were supposed to give her the 240 yuan. After a bit of arguing... well, let's call it clarification, and a call back to the tour group office, it turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. She gave us the money (out of her own pocket--I hope her boss wasn't trying to scam her in turn), and all was well with the world. Indeed, we didn't get scammed once today!

The tour group included a Pakistani dude, a Spanish dude, an Australian woman working as a geologist in Outer Mongolia, and a Canadian couple living in Ethiopia with their two adopted Ethiopian daughters. (Quote from one of the daughters: "Boo, Satan!" Shades of I Heart Huckabees. Narrowly avoided conversation: "We took two Ethiopian orphans into our home!" "Yes, but how did Ethiopia happen, ma'am?" etc.)

We don't need no northern invasion/We don't need no Mongol Hordes

Fabulous. There were quite a few people there, but the number of tourists was low enough that you could occasionally get a look at the Wall, sans people, in the more difficult sections. Unfortunately the air was really hazy, but when the wind kicked up it cleared up a bit and we were able to get some stunning views of the more distant parts of the wall which are closed to tourists. The experience was also somewhat marred by the people trying to sell stuff to Kate (but never me--looking Chinese can have its advantages), and the time limit imposed by the tour group (I managed to make it to all 14 watchtowers open to the public at Mutianyu, but I nearly passed out in the process).

To top it all off, you can ride down from the Wall on this "toboggan" run. It was a great way to end the trip, although the Canadian mom in our tour group said she saw another tourist stopped halfway down bleeding from the face.

Hakka Hakka burning love

Later that evening we had dinner at Lao Hanzi, a chaotic restaurant serving Hakka cuisine. The service was... difficult. There was a hierarchy of staff similar to that at Quanjude, but it was never explained to us, and they didn't make it particularly easy for us to puzzle out on our own. We eventually figured it out (and passed our wisdom on to another table of foreigners which neighboured ours in the apparent Caucasian Corner), and after that our food came with welcome promptness. We ordered way too much food, and I ate so much I thought I might reenact that scene from Meaning of Life.

Lao Hanzi is one of many restaurants and bars located along Lake Houhai, and we were able to fit in some nighttime sightseeing after dinner--Kate took some shots across the lake that she'll probably stitch into something like a 10 picture panorama. Quite lovely. This area is a really popular meeting place, especially for couples, it would seem, and after dinner we ran into a large group of couples ballroom dancing (tango, I think) in a clearing between the lake and the nearest boulevard. Just dancing, in public, to music coming from some guy's stereo system.

Comments

If anyone's been leaving comments, thanks, but we can't actually read them right now since we can't access the blogspot domain for some strange, truly unfathomable reason. (I'm not sure if that last link is relevant to anything, since BBC news isn't accessible, either.)

Shoulda been called "Forbidding"

Scams

Scams are everywhere. So far we've been scammed twice--that's an average of once per day, but third day's a charm! We've been working on building up our resistance to the hard sells that pop up just about everywhere around the city where an entrance fee isn't required (and sometimes where it is). At some points we were very nearly surrounded by people trying to sell us stuff. Post cards to the right of us, pedicab tours to the left of us, trinket sellers in front of us, insisted and blustered. The worst so far involved a young girl running alongside Kate pestering her for money in Mandarin and English. A vile, mercenary beast, she was, and yet really quite cute.

Some people also tried to take away our empty drink bottles. Actually, that wasn't a scam at all. Thanks, guys!

Pollution

Let me put it this way: around about noon, I looked up and caught sight of the sun peeking out from behind the smog. "So that's where it's been hiding", I thought to myself.

Maintenance

Half of the city seems to be in the process of either construction, destruction, or repair. It's really quite remarkable.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square and the monolithic communist buildings (Mao's Memorial, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum) that surround it are really quite large. Apparently this was done to make the individual feel small, and I would call that particular plan a success.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was one of our main reasons for coming to Beijing, and I have to say that it was worth it. You could look into the large main buildings (but not physically enter) to see the ancient artifacts (thrones, statues, giant brass balls for crushing with) housed within, but really it was more or less the same sort of stuff that you would encouter in a place like Kyoto in Japan. What really makes the Forbidden City special is the fact that it's a city which is in its entirety a work of art. At one point we made our way around one of the main buildings, and gazed down upon a sea of yellow rooftops, with the towers of Jingshan Park in the background, and I think I may have actually gasped.

The entire complex is arranged more or less symmetrically, bisected by the Imperial Way, a central marble-paved line decorated with carvings along the stairways. Naturally, this was reserved for the Emperor, who probably never actually set foot on the thing since he got carried everywhere he went. (This line of symmetry extends north and south of the Forbidden City as far as the eye can see. I'm not sure how far it actually goes, but we explored about 5 kilometers of it, from Facing the Sun Gate to the Drum Tower. Wow.)

Of course, off of the Imperial Way, the Forbidden City becomes a bit less logical and a bit more difficult to navigate. Labyrinthine is the word. We were about 50 feet from the northern exit, when we got distracted by one interesting building off to the side, and then another one further off to the side, after which we became well and truly lost. We got to see some sights off the main tourist track while tracing out a rather largish loop around the northwestern corner of the complex. At least, I think that's where we were.

Also, there's a Starbucks in the Forbidden City.

Hutong

Like the Forbidden City, the hutong districts are very old, but I don't think the Emperor spent much time here. These places are narrow, cramped, and now very decrepit. We took a pedicab tour around the area, got some nice candid pictures, went into a huge tent-covered market frequented by the locals, got to look inside the home of some dude who made enough money off of tourists to send his son to university in Halifax, saw a former residence of Deng Xiao Ping (I think--my Mandarin could be better than it is, by which I mean to say it could actually exist), and the former residence of Sun Yat Sen's wife. We also got to participate in a simply mind-boggling Beijing traffic jam involving 2 cars, a dozen bikes, 2 pedicabs, 3 street vendor stalls, innumerable pedestrians, and 4 capillary-sized lanes, one of which was non-functional. An elderly couple selling meat off of the top of a cart acted as the de facto traffic cops.

The Hutong tour was very relaxing, our guide was really nice, and we ended up paying about twice of what we should have. In the end we didn't mind too much, in part because this portion of the day didn't involve us walking.

Walking

Our hotel is in walking distance of the main attractions, which is quite nice. Unfortunately, while walking is free, it can be very tiring. Tiananmen Square is large. The Forbidden City is large. There are also some nice parks around, featuring scenic lakes, which are really rather large.

Taxis

Not only do taxis allow you to get places without walking, they also have automated numerical displays which tell you how much to pay without scamming you. An ideal combination.

* * *

I may or may not think of stuff to add to the above later--we took in a lot today, and it's only our first day of tourism in China.

Incidentally, sometime between this post and my last, we took a trip to Hiroshima and Nara with Naomi, and I quit my job. I guess I'm not the world's most reliable blogger.

Arrival in China

China is not like Japan. In Japan, you can go anywhere without worrying about people trying to scam you. People always say hello and welcome and babble on to you in their shops regardless of whether or not you are Japanese. The advertised price is always what you pay, there is no extra tax, and no tipping.

Not so in China! Tipping, haggling, and no set prices are all part of the bargain. We already experienced this just getting off the plane, when the hotel desk offered to drive us to the hotel for a set price. Wary of taking a taxi and not consulting our guidebook, we accepted. Later, consulting the guidebook, we found out we paid too much. The hotel desk clerk also tried to get us to book tours through her but we declined.

Revised Vacation

So Tibet is officially out. We are pretty much finalized now; it'll be 4 nights in Beijing, fly to Xian for 3 nights, a flight to Chongqing for a 3 night river cruise down the Yangzi from Chongqing to Wuhan (still shaky on the cruise details) and then train to Nanjing for 2 nights and train to Shanghai for 2 nights. In total it's a 2 week trip.

Tibet

Looks like Tibet is out. Apparently it's the 40th anniversary and the place is packed, there are absolutely no hotel rooms anywhere. :(

Got some other things in the works instead, possible Chengdu, the Three Gorges, and Nanjing instead.

Vacation!

We've spent the last few days travelling around Japan with Toby's sister Naomi. On the first day, we spent many long hours travelling on the Shinkansen. We couldn't take the fastest train, the Nozomi Super Express, because Naomi's Japan Rail Pass doesn't cover it. However, the other trains aren't much slower. That pass is really worth it, she's covered for all travel on JR local trains, the Shinkansen, and even the ferry we took from Hiroshima to Miyajima. Anyways, the first day was spent travelling and we didn't arrive at the hostel until after 10. Unfortunately, youth hostels seem to have these curfew rules - you must check in before 10pm and you must check out before 10 am. So we were a little late but the room was quite nice. On Day 2, we spent the morning sightseeing in Iwakuni (we've been there before, you can see the bridge at my deviantart page). Then we went to Miyajima. We managed to take a ropeway in both places and especially in Miyajima, had spectacular views. We also got to walk out to the Tori in the water in Miyajima, due to an exceptionally low tide. Day 3 was spent in Hiroshima. We had to get up at 5am in order to make it to the Hiroshima Peace Park before 8am, where the annual ceremony is held. The crowds were enormous, it was extremely hot even at 8am, and security was tight. However, it was a wonderful experience. A short lady behind Toby cried when he offered to take pictures for her. Doves were released and music from Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai'was played, by what we later found out was an elementary or junior highschool band. The Hiroshima Peace song was sung by a gigantic choir, again comprised of young students. After the ceremony, we went and got some lunch, because it was just so hot and the crowds were huge. A long search for food ended us up at what turned out to be the same place we had eaten at during our last visit. The afternoon was spent at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Memorial Hall. Later that evening we enjoyed Yakiniku and watched colourful paper lanters float down the Motoyasu River - they're lit every year with messages of peace for the bomb victims and the rest of the world. We didn't make it back for the fireworks in Iwakuni, where the hostel was, but the lantern lighting more than made up for that. Day 4 was spent travelling to Nara, with a brief stop in Kyoto to look at the station and buy a tripod. The trip to Nara took quite a lot longer than expected and we arrived just after sunset. The youth hostel in Nara also has a 10pm curfew, which meant that on Day 5 we couldn't get to the Tokaiji Temple, which is a large complex with a giant bronze buddha statue. In Nara in August, the whole place is lit with candles on the ground and it would have been quite nice, but we were still able to get some pictures and see the closer areas. We did get to see everything worth seeing during the day, though, and we had a delicious dinner of shabu shabu. Tomorrow is our last day, and we're planning to have a look at the oldest wooden structure in the world, a temple about 10 minutes from the hostel, and the National Museum of Nara (inexplicably closed on Mondays), after which we will head home. Sorry for so much wordiness. There has been a lot more to tell but I'm sure Toby will fill in where I've forgotten.

Redesign Is Seen for Next Craft, NASA Aides Say - New York Times

Looks smarter so far, a lot more practical.