I just got back from Beijing @ 1am this morning...and boy, are my arms tired.......This was one whirlwind amazing five-day trip. It was filled with gorgeous bueaty, new friends, and disgusting racism. You will understand once I tell ya. Each day, I wrote down things to type up when got home. I have three entries for Oct 1st - 3rd, but I was just too busy and tired to write anything on the 4th and 5th. So, I will be remembering some of it as it goes along. Be prepared, though. There is a lot to read and over 400 pictures to look thru. I also have about 2 hours of video that won't be posted online due to space & downloading issues. I may try to make a DVD. Grab some popcorn, some beverages, your best Neil Diamond album on repeat mode, and try your best to understand my twisted sense of humour...because Beijing was a Heaven & Hell experience. Much like the rest of my China Experience has been, but there was a 80% Heaven percentage to Beijing compared to the 80% Hell percentage i have been dealing with daily. Here goes:
October 1st: Trip to Guangzhou Airport and Lawfull Racism
So I headed to the Flower Hotel about 11am just to make sure I dont miss the bus. I get to the hotel, and who do I see? Lynn with two of her friends. They were trying to get tickets to go somewhere for the holiday. The bus then showed up at 1120am. So, I thru my junk under the bus and hopped on. Went to the back of the bus because that's where white people sit...well, i sit there because its got the most leg room.
So there I am sitting on the bus that will head from Zhongshan to the airport in Guangzhou. All the chinese, parents and children, were staring at me, giggling and talking to each other. "Look! Oh my goodness!! A gweilo!"...etc..etc...etc. I guess I'm the added bonus monkey on the trip. I was thinking, "It kinda sucks that I won't have anyone on the tour that speaks english and that Sean and Suzannah will be on another one"...when just at that moment two girls showed up right as we were about to start shoving off. I noticed as they walked down the aisle that they weren't chinese, they weren't speaking chinese, but they didn't look the common Japanese stereotype. I couldn't hear enough of their conversation to figure out what language it was. It wasn't Chinese, I knew that, but I couldnt tell if it was Koren or Japanese at first. Usually the way I tell the languages apart is that Korean, to me, sounds like a cross between Japanese and Chinese. After that sat down next to me, I figured out that it was Japanese. Turns out that they speak very good english. However, like most non-native english speakers, I speak too fast for them, so I had to make sure I slow down. And they both have been studying Mandarin for one year, so I had my own personal interpreters. SWEET! Better not piss this girls off. Yumi Aoki and Rumi Kita are their names. Throughout the trip we got to know each other pretty well. Hung out alot and took lots of fotos. Turns out that they are Japanese teachers that teach at a local highschool/university. They have been living in Normata Apartments for the past year...thats the same apartment complex as Sean and Mark. So, when I told Suzannah about this, she was so happy. "YES! MORE GIRLS FOR THE GROUP!"
The tour guide started talking to us in Mandarin and she was able to say some things to Rumi and Yumi and thats how she found out that I speak a little Cantonese. So, she started talking. And I just sat there shakin my head...I responded, "Ngoh mmmsec-tang. Ngoh sec-tang yat dee." Everyone proceeded to laugh. I don't laugh at your butchering of the English language...jerkheads. So, our bus ride to Guangzhou was pretty uneventful. Nothing special happened. I started to get to know Yumi and Rumi. Talked a bit. Got to the airport and took a couple fotos. Grabbed a bite to eat. Yumi got stopped by the bag checkers because for some reason she had a pair of scissors in her bag. Hopped on the airplane and headed off. The food was ok. Airplane food.
They had these little TV sets in the backs of the seats so you could watch one of the 7 channels they had to offer. One channel was cartoons - The Monkey King series and Tom & Jerry (Chinese like the crappy Tom n Jerry cartoons for some odd reason - crappy refers to the later versions done in the 60s n 70s not the original). One channel had a chinese movie, so did another. Another channel had "The Prince & Me" a wretched romantic comedy with Julia Stiles and some guy named Turd Ferguson. I will not talk more about it, you have to either see it or read the plot...its crap. They had a history channel so I was able to learn more about Empress Dowager...the psycho lady that basically pissed off all chinese reformists and gave them more reason to take out the Ching Dynasty. It was really interesting. So the plane landed and we hopped on the bus to take us to dinner. They had a stage at this place and there were chinese to dance for us as well as this dude played an awesome song on a piece of grass. Very impressive. Food was great. There were two other Japanese on the tour as well, but they only spoke Japanese, so Yumi and Rumi acted as interpretters for them too. So, we were the foreigner table along with three chinese, a mom, dad, and daugther - who is really into magic...not the card game...and has a splash of blue hair and a skull necklace...awesome! Fight the power sister! She is one of Sean's students.
So, after dinner we headed off to the hotel. I was thinking to myself. "Hmm...well, so far...things have been good. I wonder if this trip will be a positive one or something else may screw it up, like not being able to stay in the hotel. We'll just see..." And I must have ESP or some sort of prophetic power, because as we all began entering, the soldier on guard...yeah, you read it right...the soldier on guard stopped me from entering. And started speaking to me in Beijing-Talk. I coulda taken this guy out easily, but i didnt. The follow is pretty much what i wrote when I finally got a hotel. To let you know, some things have been omitted and some things have been paraphrased:
"It's a shame that all this beauty is wasted on the chinese. [For the majority], they are the worst people I have ever dealt with. Far more worse than the worst of Americans, French, Canadians, Italians, Japanese, and Germans that I have met. I SPIT ON THE GRAVES OF ALL THOSE THAT CAUSE ME DRAMA! I have been in Beijing since 6pm. It started out OK. Once we got to the hotel, all Hell started to break loose...I swear, the last straw has begun to drop.
We pull up to this 5-star hotel which looks like a government building, due to all the security. And sure enough, it is. Me, Yumi, and Rumi were about to enter the revolving door when the "f---mook" guarding the door stopped us. He was saying something to me. Yumi said that all she could make out of what he was blabber was that I was a foreigner and that I couldn't come it. This is where I began to get really pissed.
The tour guides began runing around talking to managers and the guard. They allowed Rumi, Yumi, and I to enter the building but we had to sit in the lobby. These chinese ashholes weren't gonna allow us to stay. WTF! It's Beijing during their biggest tourist season andI am being turned away because I am white!?!??! I can't believe the gall of these pricks! Yumi, Rumi, the elder japanese couple, and I sat in chairs for about 30-45 minutes while the managers and tourguides exchanged words and telephone calls. The Beijing guide would come over from time to time and tell Yumi something and Yumi would interpret.
I realized that they were gonna turn us away because we were foreigners. But then the guide told Yumi to tell everyone not to speak Japanese and then she pointed at me and said something. That's when I realized what was about to happen. The Japanese were going to be allowed to stay, while I, the American, was going to be kicked out, insulted, and disgraced.
OK. Not to toot my own horn here and say Americans are the best...but the last time I checked, its the Japanese that the Chinese Governmen/People still hate, not the Americans. Why would the chinese want to mess up their relations anymore with the US when its their biggest trade partner. So, I talk to Stephen, the guy i spoke with about purchasing the trip, a couple times and he apologized and I told him that I want a refund. I told him how much I was disgraced and stuff, and he said we will talk about it when I get back. Oh, they are soooo gonna hear it from me. So Stephen tells me I can't stay there and that they are looking for another 5-star hotel to put me up since I paid for 5-star and he's apologizing.
The Japanese were allowed to stay, because they looked more chinese then me...obviously. I was kinda upset...briefly...about the fact that Rumi and Yumi did stay. I mean, I know we had only met that afternoon, but I had made the decision that if they got booted and i got to stay, that I wouldn't have stayed. I would go with them. But, they didnt make that decision. I dont' blame them for it, but i thought it would have been a nice gesture. But I can understand why they stayed, it doesnt bother me anymore, just at that time it did.
So, the managers and the guard escorted...and I mean, escorted...like officially escorted me and the tour guides to the street and waived down a taxi. I spit at their feet and gave them the finger. The tour guides then took me to Beijing Railway Hotel. This is a hotel that's a "5-star" so they claim. The Lobby is absolutely gorgeous, but the rooms do not deserve that rating. This room has crappy construction, it is small, the wall paper is torn, there are stains on the metal, many cracked tiles and grout in the bathroom. [they also have horrible food, this was found out the next day].
So, i finally get into this room and try to call Aubri...which doesnt work. She has something wierd going on with her fone# and it pissed me off. Also, the fone number of Lily, Amy's friend, is missing a digit, so I have no way of contacting her. So, I am all alone in Beijing and I don't know how I am gonna contact my friends since they really aren't on my tour. At this point, I am on the verge of tears. I really really really want to leave this God forsaken country. Japan sounds like a good option. I mean, at least they have Shorinji Kempo. If this is how I am treated in the capital of China, the rest of china can't be any different. The south and the north treat me terribly. What is a gweilo to do.
So, I get this call from Oscar Zhang, the head English Tour guide at the company. He asks me to come downstairs into the lobby. I get downstairs and there sits my two tour guides from Xiaolan and Beijing, some girl, Oscar, another woman who is the head of management and she speaks good english, and i think the head of the company was sitting next too me...oh and he was wearing a purple velour jumpsuit. I wonder if he came straight from a breakdancing class.
They asked me how I felt, and I told them exactly how I felt. I told them off and told them that I want a refund and that I will deal with that in Xiaolan when I get back. They proceed to tell me the cause of the trouble after that. The government sent out an edict to all its state run/private hotels banning all foreigners for the week. Why do you ask? Well, because exactly 55 years ago, a group of chinese decided to take over the country. And this week was the 55th aniversary. [the explanation is more graphic]. They claimed that they received this edict while we were at dinner and couldn't call the tour guide in time to change it. [yeah, right. thats complete bull, because I have just done some research since i got back home and found out that foreigners aren't allowed in government run hotels unless they have special permission]
I had them call Mountain so I could somehow let someone I know what is going on. Just in case something worse happens. I also told him, and made it obvious to the people around me, that I would need his help to get a refund. After talking to them, I talked with the English Tour guide and told him how much trouble i have had with the agency already up to this point. I wanted to express my full feelings, but i think what I had to say was too hateful and intense to put into words and make it understandable to them. But I do know I was disgraced, humiliated, and a victim of racial hate. The tour people said, "It's the government, not the people." I used to believe this statement until tonite. i feel so alone and humiliated. Wars have been started over less and the chinese don't deserve the beautry of what I have seen so far. How can a culture be in such disarray, but their art is so gorgeous. I hope this country burns for its crimes against common courtesy.
October 2nd 2004, 2nd Day in Beijing.
Well, this day didn't start off the best. I woke up at 6am to get ready for leaving at 7am. That didnt bother me. But the breakfast did. I wanted to throw it up. It tasted like English food. No taste and just crap. Only one item was good. That was this peice of bread that was sort of greasy. It wasn't great, but it was the only good thing. Not the kind of thing you expect from a 5-star hotel (well, this is actually a 3-star hotel..more on that later) So, the bus met me at the entrance of the building and I entered while scowling at the tour guides. Off we went to this park. I thought we were going to Tiannanmen Square first thing, but apparently we went backwards on the schedual. We headed to the Temple of Heaven and the associated park. All morning I was looking for Sean and Suzannah, thinking they were doing the same thing as us.
The bus pulled up and we exited. Apparently alot of other tour groups were doing our same tour. Strange how they schedual everything at the same time around here. So, we stood at the entrance for about 15 minutes while the tour guide got stuff squared away. Then we were taken into the park where I saw some bizarre things. Like a group of old people learning ballroom waltz. That's right, ballroom waltz lessons...in a park. Go figure. We followed the group and I realized right off the bat that I would never be able to understand anything she said, which was good in a way. She was gather the group in one area and talk about one thing for an extended amount of time and i used that time to scamper off and explore. Which ROCKED! So, one of the first areas of the park we stopped was right before the entrance to the Temple of Heaven Area. This is where the Seven Heaven Stones are, the people practicing taiji, and the gift shop selling Teletubbies. Why were they selling Teletubbies? You got me. So, while the tour guide was discussing the Seven Stones for a matter of minutes, a scampered across the way to where some old people were doing some Qi Gong and this old lady was playing hackysack by herself. So, I offered my presence and began playing with her. Then her friend showed up and we had a little group going. I was watching my tour group while doing this so I could see when they began to leave. I got about a good 7 minutes play time with the locals. I ran back when i saw them shove off. We headed into the Temple of Heaven area. This was really kool. There isn't much to say, though, I mean, I went exploring all over the place with Yumi and Rumi. The fotos say all there was to think and feel while we were there. However, in this area, I went to the gift shop looking for DV Tapes for my video camera and they wanted about 125 yuan, which is a total rip. I didn't need my camera yet, so i didnt get it. Then we headed to a different area with more temples and stuff to see.
The six dragon tree. This was a gnarly old tree who's trunk was all...gnarled...and it made it look as though six dragons were sprouting out of the ground making up the tree. So, these freaks took this as a sign that this tree was spiritual and people tried to feel the Qi emanating from the tree. The would hold their hands up and close their eyes and look like they were in a cult. And the tour guide said something that it brings good fortune, so all the tour group proceeded to worship this tree.
There was another area that we were just chilling in for about five minutes before entering another set of temples. There were these really cute little girls wearing these empress/rich people headresses that you will see in the foto section. They were so cute. I tried to take a foto of one girl, and she began crying. I was able to find another girl though. On we went to another temple area.
That's when we arrived at the Point Closest to Heaven. We walked around this area and tried to stand on the point closest to Heaven. I said tried, because this is where I discovered just how rude and pushy the chinese really are. So much pushing and shoving. I had a foto of me on the point, but i was pushed out of the way of the camera and the shot was ruined. Classy.
Then before we left I took a foto with Yumi and Rumi holding the fingers in the Victory pose. Check out the foto section. We then headed for the buses. Another kool thing about these temples is that the stairs leading up to them have these things on the side of the stairs that are slanted slopes. And they are marble, yet, they are really smooth from people walking on them over the years, so they are very slippery. So the kids of the group were playing with these. Sliding down them and jumping on them. And since I am a big kid, I did it as well. It was pretty kool. It was like snowboarding. Thats what I felt like I was doing it. Around this time, i started to bond with the kids in the tour. They all started to play with me.
From there we headed to a garden area. This was the garden area and home of Soong Ching Ling, Sun Yat Sen's widow. After his death in 1925? i think 1925...she did lots of stuff for china. She was following thru with his plans and then became allied with the Communist Party and sometime in the 50s, the Party set up this house for her and area where she was able to promote good relations and make headway with new organizations to help children. There was this whole museum there. It was pretty amazing to see all of what she did. A very determined and strong woman. Good role model. The garden area was beautiful. See the fotos. From there, I noticed that the Xiaolan tour guide was...following me, or keeping an eye on me. Making sure that I dont get into trouble. And so she kept trying to herd me to the bus, but I kept running off to take fotos of the area. Its ok though, 75% of the group was still in the museum. What's up Xiaolan Tour Guide? You trying to seperate me from my tour group piers? I dont think so. So I slapped her.
No, I didn't slap her. It was a joke. Like the spitting at the feet of the Communist guard and manager of the hotel that kicked me out from the night before. Come on, I aint that stupid. Don't read everything so seriously.
Then we headed off to lunch. Which was really good. And on the way there, we drove by a Comic Book Store which advertised, TRANSFORMERS. So, I got all excited and took a foto.
Lunch was good. I think one of the waiters made a mistake, because the waitress was screaming at him in front of everyone. I was like, "Tone it down, lady."
During this time I was thinking, "How am I gonna find Suzannah and Sean. They are seeing the same sites, but I dont know at what times. I guess i got to keep my eyes open." After lunch we hopped on a bus and headed towards the center of the city. And of course, middle of the day in Beijing during vacation week, we got in a traffic jam. We were stopping and going for a while. We came to near the northern entrance of the Forbidden City. As I sat there staring out the window, I was thinking, "Just my luck on this trip, we will be driving along on the bus and I will be looking out the window and I will see Sean and Suzannah walk by. And of course, i will be stuck in this bus and not be able to alert them or give them this letterhead from my hotel that I brought along with me to give them the fone number." About five minutes later while I was bored in this hot bus, I see Sean and Suzannah stroll on by on the sidewalk. I jumped and yelled. I ran up to the front of the bus and interupted the tour guide telling her I need to get off the bus. I NEED TO GET OFF THE BUS. We had been stuck in the left hand turn lane for about 20 minutes and there was still a ways to go. I was tellling them to hurry and let me off. But they wouldnt have it. So I went to the back of the bus told Yumi and Rumi. Then they went up and told the tour guide that my friends have no way to contact me in Beijing and that I had to give them the info. So they decided to let me out. They told me to be ready the next day at 7AM and I was like, "You're stuck in traffic, i will be right back."
By this time, I figured Sean and Suzannah would be way up by the entrance, or prolly entered the city. So I started to run as fast as I can down the street, running by all these tourists and chinese and thru cars stuck in traffic. It was like a movie. I was just hauling. I went past where our bus was trying to turn left, right at the entrance area of the Forbidden City and I couldnt see my friends, so I kept running on. I was jumping over benches and stuff. I got a couple car honks and strange looks. "There's a laowei running in the streets!!! AAAAAH CALL THE COPS!!!!" So I got to the next intersection and no sign of them. "DAMN! I lost them. S.O.B.!" So, now, I had to run back and catch the bus before it turned left and disappeared. So, there I started running back as fast as I could. When I got to the left turn intersection the bus was turning left and I could see people in the windows pointing to the left and the kids were jumping up and down, so I cut thru traffic and headed that way. I was lucky her becuase the bus wasn't going anywhere, it was another traffic jam, no need to worrry. So I began to head to the bus, but that's when I say Sean and Suzannah standing against the wall waiting for their bus. I felt so relieved. I was still running thru the packed crowd and I just jumped up out of all these midget chinese people and yelled out their names. Suzannah said, "Oh hey, its Phil." nonchalantly, and then it clicked and realized what was going on and they were both surprised to see me.
I told them how I saw them from the bus and ran everywhere. I gave them the letter head and told them to call me. I told them I got kicked out of the hotel and that the first nite was terrible. And then like that I ran to the bus, but people were getting out. We were heading to the Goo Gun gardens across the street. LOL. I was like...oh. All that for nothing. Well, I got some good exercise and woke up a little. My lungs were burning. I introduced Sean and Suzannah to Yumi and Rumi and talked with them a bit more. (Later on, Suzannah said that the whole experience of me running and yelling their name was surreal. What were the odds of that happening.) I think at this point the tour people really thought I was crazy. So we headed into Goo Gun.
Goo Gun, the largest garden in the world. Its across the street from the north entrance of the Forbidden City. We didnt get to hang out much in there. I would have liked to. Very pretty. I got some good shots of where I went though. Everyone in the tour group grab some meat on a stick. It was good. I had random chinese people ask to take a foto with me. Since I am a monkey and all, they want their foto taken with a foreigner. Since I was warned about this, I wasnt surprised or too offended. It was fun. I also took a foto with two of the kids from the tour group. I picked them up and put them on either side of myself. Pretty kool foto.
All the while we were visiting these areas, i would check the stands and find out prices on DV Tapes. I would offer no more than 30 and that would make the people irrate. I laughed at them. Then the tour group would be leaving and I would have to go, but then the people at the stands would start throwing numbers out to get me to stay and buy their product. Like they were desperate. Thats the best way to haggle, get a group to say you are leaving and act like you need to go, people will go crazy and offer you at a fraction of the cost. LOL. I was told that the DV Tapes cost in stores about 25 yuan, but I couldnt find any stores with that price. Ugh. So i was worried because my battery on my Canon Digital camera was running out and we were about to enter the Forbidden City / Palace. So I was searching everywhere for a tape. Nowhere.
We entered the entrance and looked at all the stands. Nothing. While the group was taking a potty break, I spotted a guy with a video camera video taping our group for the past 20 minutes. I went over and asked if he had any extra tapes I would pay for. Thats when "Papa", the guy who serves us food at the resturants, just gave me one from his backpack. I was like, "Oh yeah! You got a camera too." Sweet. Lucky me. My digital still had some juice left and I was conserving it. I started to use my Video camera as well. i looked like a total tourist.
I was amazed by everything in Forbidden City. Everything was so pretty and its really intense to see all this stuff after you have seen it in movies and junk like that. And to have heard its history. But what also made the experience was dealing with chinese. The severity of the pushing, shoving, and rudeness was absolutely appaling. How do these people exist like this? I had so many shoulders shove into me and knocked around, of course I was about to escape most of it, but the other members in teh tour group were getting knocked everywhere. And no apologies. It was odd. All these chinese tourists were rude and pushy. However, the chinese in my tour group weren't, they were well behaved. I was surprised by this. It may be because they had foreigners on the tour and they wanted to be in their best behaviour...maybe. Or maybe they were just kool. Also, there is not much to talk about here, but you need to see the fotos to understand everything ...and see the video.
So at times there was time we were waiting around, i would beat up on the kids..or the kids would try to beat up on me and I would retaliate. So, i played around with them. Picking them up and throwing them into walls. Stuff like that. The parents loved it! I took a couple fotos with them on a wall. Nice shot. Then as we waited to exit the City, the kids were trying to use gong fu on me, so I was like, "IT'S ON NOW!" I took off my bag, and cameras, and sweatshirt, gave them to Yumi and Rumi, and went psycho on these kids. I started beating up on them with my Mantis style and thru in some Dragon, then proceeded to my Monkey Style and this made them going running and I would chase them. And that CameraDude videotaped the whole thing....but totally cut it out of the VCD he made for the group the next nite. I was livid. So i hung him from his toes on a clothes line.
After we left the City, we headed to the bus and met two Americans searching for Tiannanmen Square. We offered them to go with us, because we were headed there, but we were taking our bus. They declined but they did walk with us for about 10 minutes.
We finally got to Tiannanmen Square. This was also kinda kool. You have seen fotos and everything, and video...from 15 years ago, so you try and fit it all into perspective and the locations of everything. We walked around and I was told to watch my stuff. "Don't worry, yo! I knows whats up." We took a group foto and then walked to the area where we could see the daily Flag lowering. The go thru this huge ceremony in raising it and lowering it. I got it on video. But the hard part was getting to where we could see it. It was uber-packed. People everywhere pushing and shoving. We were on the edge next to a bunch of propaganda for the chinese space program. Then we watched the flag. It was so crowded that everyone behind me for about 6 feet were watching the ceremony on my LCD screen. I was able to raise my camera above everyone else...because the chinese are short.
After this we headed to this giant shopping mall. It was about a 30 minute walk to the mall. We got there about 7pm. We had 1.5 hours to eat and shop. Yumi, Rumi, and I walked around looked at stuff and ate pizza. I visited a Sony shop and tried to get a DV Tape but it was 60 yuan. Screw that. Went to a kodak store, but thye didnt have any. We walked alot. Then headed back to the bus. The bus then took us back to the hotels. I was dropped off first.
I asked the bell-hop where I could get fotos transfered to a CD-R locally. Since the people at the front desk spoke very little english, I had to show them and perform for them what I wanted. They got the hint very quickly and about 100 yards from the hotel entrance, there was a kodak shop that would do it for 10 yaun. Great!
I went back to the hotel and finally got a message that Sean and Suzannah called. They were in Room 402 at this other hotel. So, I called and said room 402. I was connected to some chinese couple. I apologized and called again. I said room 402 and they connected me again to the same couple. UGH! WTF! Room 402. So I went to the front desk to see who took the message. While I was there, Sean called and I talked to him at the front desk. Sean said that they were in room 402. He doesnt know why the hotel was doing that. They are crazy. And everytime I called them again, I would get into arguements that room 402 didnt have chinese people in it but foreigners. I only got Sean once...i got the chinese poeple about 4 times. UGH!
I also tried to call Aubri, but it didnt work.
So, Sean and I talked for a bit. We discussed where we could go meet up at. It was a Saturday nite in Beijing and we wanted to go to a club. He mentioned that there was a club talked about in his travel book called, "N.A.S.A.". Go figure. So, I got the intersection and everything and all the area landmarks I could get over the fone. We said that if we didnt meet up by a certain time, then to scrap the plans and head home. I went to the front desk lady and asked her where she could point this out on a map. She gave me a big map of Beijing, in chinese no less, and circled the hotel, Sean & Suzannah's hotel, Tiannanmen, and this club area. A "famous club" apparently. She had no idea what I was talking about so I tried to show her what I was talking about by mimicing what you do at a dance club: pay the door man, dance to bad music...etc. She was looking at me like I was a retard...and at that point, I prolly looked like one. So I got all this information from her and hailed a cab. This is when I realized cabbies in Beijing know nothing.
I showed him where I wanted to go and he did nothing but scratch his head. To make a seriously long story short, we never found it. We were in the area, but no club. First off, the driver didn't understand the location. He was driving everywhere and asking other drivers. i believe we stopped five times so he could converse with other cabbies. So, after about 40 minutes of driving around I told him to take me home. Luckily he didnt' charge me anything. I was very grateful for that. I got back to my room and went to bed. Around 130am, i think, Sean called me and said they couldn't find the place either and that they actually got lost for a short time. I was in a sleep haze so I was just agreeing and saying nonsense. But we planned to get together the next nite.
October 3rd 2004, third day in Beijing
This day was really kool. I woke up at 630am and skipped breakfast. Today was the day we were heading to the Great Wall. My camera is completely charged up and so is my video camera. So i hop on the bus and we head off. It was a total of about 1.5 hours to get there, but I was sleeping most of the way. It is kinda hard to fall asleep when the tour guide likes to talk alot and the speaker is next to your head. In that mode when you are half asleep/half awake, my mind was doing its own translations for the things she was saying in Mandarin. At first I thought, "Holly crap! I can understand this!" I was all excited. It didn't make any sense though. But since I was tired, it did make sense. And it turns out that I wasn't interpreting the chinese correctly, I mean, I doubt the tour guide was saying, "He-Man Bubble Bath and Tampons like google bears after they crap rainbows. Our miscretin johnny not have a good happy banana boat joke jumpy..." etc.etc. This is what I was hearing in my head while trying to fall asleep. Then I fell asleep.
I woke up again as the bus was going the opposite way on the highway due to a traffic jam. Talk about rude awakenings. The route to the great wall was jammed due to an accident I think, so we went around the back way. It was pretty cool because there were no other buses the way we went and we were driving thru real towns. We then came to where I think the wall starts in Beijing. It was great to see. Very amazing. We pulled up and parked and I ran out and got some fotos, video, water, and breakfast. So, we walked around and told we would have a total of 2 hours at the wall. "WHAT!?!?!? 2 hours!? That isn't enuff to take in this structure of extrodinary magnitude?!" Oh well, I made the best of it I think. Rumi, Yumi, and I book up the wall as quickly as we could. Just kept going and going. Stopped by and too a foto with a Terracotta warrior. Check out that foto, he's got my sunglasses on. We continued our ascent. I was taking pictures constantly. There was this kool pagoda/temple on the ridge that I kept looking at. I wanted to go there. We kept climbing. We got to a point where Rumi just couldn't go on. She isn't a very active girl normally so it was tuff on her, but Yumi was a sports kid so we pressed on. We were climbing up all the outposts. The stairs in the outposts were much more steeper and narrower than on the wall. Kinda freaky. check out the fotos.
At one outpost that had a big flat top, I decided I needed to do Taiji on the Great Wall of China. So, i didnt care, but in front of 3 Party Soldiers and about 6 tourists I began doing the form. Yumi grabbed my video camera and started taping me. It rules. There were these two cute kids I was trying to talk to while doing the form but they were afraid of me. Yumi was talking to them a bit. I think some of the people commented that I looked good. But i dunno. They were prolly thinking, "Who is this gweilo disrespecting our heritage..." Thing is I was respecting it more than the chinese ever could. giggle. I know that.
After that we climbed a bit more then it was coming on to about 30 minutes left. We decided to run down the steps. Just kidding. we would have died. We started walking down. Man, on the way up, it wasn't that crowded, i mean there were people, lots of people, but you could manuever around them. On the way down is was much more crowded becaues all the people that had gotten there in the last two hours were trying to get up. There was a traffic jam of people trying to get up the wall as I was going down. I was thankful that we got there earlier. Happy Day.
We met up with Rumi and a couple others from the tour group and continued the descent. We grabbed some uber-spicy meat on a stick and hopped on the bus.
While on the bus heading to a Jade Shop, I showed the kids the Taiji I was doing and they were amazed. They told their parents and their parents laughed. Impressed, maybe. Thats when we pulled up to the Jade shop. Now. The Jade shop. First off, I thought it was kool. There were these sculptures of a chinese sailing ship, a dragon, a buddha, some grapes. It was really kool. I was very impressed. But then I saw the machine that made them. I was let down. It woulda been so cool for those to be carved by hand. They proceeded to lecture the group on how to tell real jade from fake jade. Real jade makes a high "ping" sound when you hit it on something. So, since I had no clue what they were talking about at the time, I went off exploring. There was this Buddha statuette that had a hand print pad for you to place your hand on. It would telll you your fortune by reading the lines in your hand. Its eyes were glowing and it was freaky. So i didn't do it. But i took fotos. Then I headed back to meet up with the group who were heading into the Jade shop. I stopped to take a foto of Rumi and Yumi and that's when I saw something.
That something made me want to throw up, tell an attendent, and take fotos. There was this kid, prolly 6 or 7 years old, pissing on the wall behind the door and his father tapping his back telling him to hurry up. I was livid! "THERE IS A KID PISSING ON THE WALL...INDOORS! WTF!" How can you be that sick, insensitive, stupid, or un-housebroken! I don't care the differences between Chinese and American culture...YOU DON'T PISS ON WALLS INDOORS! That's just wrong! Right there I knew I could never fully like this culture. And the father was allowing this to take place. So, I ran and grabbed a worker but unfortunately the father and son took off by the time I got back with an employee. At first they had no idea what I was talking about...so....I had to mimic it for them. So, I mimiced the removal of pants and urinating on the wall. They understood at the same time when i showed them the mess that was made. The look on the ladies face was like..."not again". WHAT! This happens alot?! How about you people start learning manners.
We hung out at the Jade shop some more. I was bored. Its just more expensive crap that you don't need taking up space. Wasteful. I mean, everywhere I go, I keep my eyes open for something that I would give as presents, but nothing there made me think of something i could give to friends or family. Junk shop.
After the Junk shop...I mean Jade shop. We headed out to lunch....which was next door. Now this was pretty shocking as well. It was at this place that holds 3000 people called "The Friendship Hall" which totally does not fit...it should have been called, "The Narrow-minded Arrogant Hall" because thats what the people were like trying to get in there. I was disgusted. While waiting in the area before getting into the hall, it was like being at a concert. It was like being at stage front of a concert...it was like being at stage front of a concert with a mosh-pit. These bastards were pushing and shoving each other all over the place just so they could get in to eat. No order whatsoever. There were so many people in this building that it was unbelievably hot. The one good thing about this was the cute little kids that I was catching the attention of. They were playing "Now you see me, now you don't" with me and I took a foto of some of them. Super cute. I also took some fotos of the waiting area. amazing.
We get into the hall ourselves to eat. We sit down and the wait staff is rushing us big time. Finish and leave. The wait staff saw that one of our dishes was 3/4 of the way done and she began to take it when Rumi said she wasn't done and the waitress tried to stop taking the plate and in doing so spilled it all over the table. This led us to laugh and then take a foto of me covering my mouth as food is spilled everywhere. Very funny. Around this time the kids were all talking to me because i was the white monkey. :-) So I was talking back to them and Rumi when to take a foto of me with the kids, so I grabbed one of their heads and made it look as though I was biting into it. If you notice behind me, the mother of the kid is laughing her head off. I guess she is happy that a gweilo is about to eat her son's brain. Good times.
Then we headed out of "The Narrow-Minded Arrogant Hall" and headed to the buses. We travelled off to the Ming-Tombs. This was bittersweet. The set up of everything outdoors for the Ming Tombs was gorgeous. The english translations of all the warnings were super funny because they made no sense. But then when we got to the actual tombs, it was a major let down. It was just a bunch of concrete. Nothing special. But outdoors was cool. We took a bunch of funny fotos n stuff. Some interesting fotos that we took were me "kissing" the mouth of a giant turtle, stradling the pigs head, acting out as the monkey king in a tree - this one got laughs from some chinese present. We headed back to the buses where the tour guide talked about the apple orchard. They had these little apples that you eat. I tried one and it gave me an upset stomach for about 20 minutes. Since I wasnt to fond of the apples I started to use them in other ways. I began pelting the kids with the apples. And the kids began throwing them back and we were chasing each other. Lots of fun.
I aslo haggled for a DV Tape. It started at 80 but I talked her down to 35. She wouldn't go past 35 and all the women on the tour were trying to get me to not do it, but i needed the tape and I didnt see if for cheaper anywhere. So, the woman was really persistent about 35 and she was making me laugh so i was like, thanks for the enjoyment and gave her the extra 5 kwai. It was worth it.
Once we found the bus, which was about a 10 minute ordeal we headed out to dinner at this performance resturant. On the way there, I noticed a huge dragon head carved out of a cliff. No one else noticed it. I caught it out of the corner of my eye. Guess it isnt a tourist attraction. No one was there. The food was good at the resturant. They had a guy dressed as Mao Zhedong. Apparently he was doing a dead on impression of the guy. I dunno what he sounded like so it didnt do much for me. After dinner ended, I ran a took a foto of this giant monkey statue down the street. Then hopped on the bus.
On the way home they showed the VCD of the day before at the Forbidden City. Of course the guy cut the best footage of me beating up on the kids. I am sure everyone would ahve loved to see that.
I got back to the hotel and checked my email at the business office. I had an email from Aubri asking me why i havent gotten a hold of her yet, so I emailed her back and told her. No response. Then I headed to my room. Got a call from Sean and Suzannah. I was gonna head over there. Went downstairs to the Business Center, made them re-open it, becuase they closed it too early. Got some information and printed it up. Then they tried to get me to pay 50 yuan for printing out 2 pages. I said "Hell no!" I ain't paying 50 yuan for 2 pages of print out info. The price for use of the center was 1yuan a minute for internet. So i gave her a total of 15 yuan. I ain't paying more. She agreed after I raised a big stink. Hey...I think I am getting the hang of this haggling thing. I then headed off to the hotel and the driver knew where to go. I was following the map to make sure he was going the right way. Sweet. He knew what was up. Going home was a different story. The driver got lost while trying to find my hotel. Pathetic.
Well, i was at Suzannah and Sean's and we just stayed in and drank some 50 yuan Bei-Ju that i bought for the bottle that day at a candy store while we played 20 questions and just relaxed. We then went out walking around Beijing at about 1am. It was enjoyable. Just chilling. "I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE LOOKED, SUZANNAH!" Inside joke. I then headed home.
October 4th, 2004 - Fourth day in Beijing.
Well, this morning was different. I literally woke up at 6:58 AM. Two minutes before the bus was supposed to show up. So I freaked. I threw on some clean clothes and brushed my teeth and threw my camera and stuff together. I ran to the elevator and got to the bottom of the floor. I ran into the dinning area and grabbed a couple pieces of bread and dumplings. The dumplings were awful. Then I went outside expecting to see the bus waiting. Well, they weren't waiting, they were just pulling up. So, it was all good. Got on the bus and we headed to some place that I didnt know what it was. When we got there, it was super crowded and it took us about 10 minutes to get in. When we did get in, the place was gorgeous. It turns out that this is the park and recreation area of the Summer Palace and where the prince's house was, when he was barricaded in and starved to death by his mother - Empress Dowager. home of the Summer Palace. That aside...along with the 150,000 peasants forced to create the man-made lake and build everything, the place was pretty gorgeous. It is said to be a place of retreat for the heart...or a place where your heart is at peace...i can't remember the phrase. I guess if there were no other people around spoiling the place and if you never knew about the 150,000 peasants, then yeah, my heart would be at peace. But that would mean my heart isn't at peace...hmm...i guess that is a whole other journal entry. ;-)
So, we were walking around this area. We were taken to one building, had things told to us, and then taken to another. This went on alot. The view was gorgeous, the lake, the buildings, the flowers, the landscaping. There was this big pond with a bridge over it that I climbed down the rocks down to the surface of the pond to take some pictures. We also took a bunch of pictures by the lake. Very pretty. Rumi, Yumi, and I climbed this rock mound and took some "martial stance" pictures. Pretty much they were trying to do Shorinji Kempo stances I showed them. "Hey, you're Japanese, you should know this! Just like how all Chinese should know gong fu." There was this old dude doing taiji in front of this rock mound prior to our foto shot. For some reason, whenever we take fotos, we attract chinese audiences. They just stare at us...look at the people doing something different...
We took some more funny pictures. There is one of Rumi "breaking" a window on one of the pathways. The group walked around looking at more buildings and listening to the tour guide while I went off and caused trouble by running down the alleys, kicking old ladies, stealing candy from small children, and acting like a hoodlum. I graffitied, "Da Moon Rules #1" across the summer palace doors.
We had some free time while outside the entrance to the Summer Palace. I wanted to go see it, but we didnt have enuff time or money. I was kinda sad that we couldn't actually go to the palace, but I am sure that would have taken another hour and we had just spent about 2 hours walking around the grounds. During this free time we had outside, i took some fotos of the Palace, chased women, and beat up children. Then Rumi and Yumi tried to throw me over the fence into the water...but since they are small and weak, they couldn't even lift my legs. Funny girls. Then we got lost. We couldn't find the group. So after about 10 minutes of searching, Yumi had called the tour guide, and she came and found us. We then met up with them and headed out. As we were leaving, we traversed these cool bridges which I took fotos of. We seemed to exit into an alley way though. And then we walked thru a slummy area to underneath an overpass where we realized that a few of the group went missing in that huge human gridlock at the exit of the Summer Palace Grounds.
The bus was not too far from the overpass, and it was kool under there. This is where I got to beat up on more of the kids and where they all showed that they had bonded with me. Up until then, there were two...older...boys. Basically, they were "too cool" to hang out with gweilo. But after they realized that I was totally hardcore, they fell into my trap. And got their butts beaten! They were all talking and playing with me. I was picking them at throwing them at each other. The parents could do nothing but laugh. I was like, "Sweet! These parents will let me beat up their kids! AWESOME! I should be getting paid for this!" OOOOOOH!!! Job opportunity for when I get back to the states. "Child Beating Services" I will make a fortune. See the fotos of us under the bridge in the foto section. Its the ones with the group of kids and one is wearing my sunglasses.
After this we headed to lunch. It was an early lunch. It was just a bit before 11am. We were gonna beat the rush. It was fine with me, all I had was a piece of fried chicken at the palace grounds and some bread that morning. Lunch was pretty good. Everyday, for lunch and dinner, we have been getting mostly the same thing. I dont have a problem, its all slightly different. But still really good. I love fried chinese vegetables with minced garlic....drool. After that good meal, I need to use the restroom. However, it was down the street. A public toilet in slummy china...this aint gonna be good.
And it wasn't. It was smelly and dirty. And crowded. No doors whatsoever. I'm gonna hold it. So I did.
We jumped on the bus and headed out.
Now, we headed out to a procelain shop. Great. Another junk shop. Ugh. These stupid shops were beginning to irritate me. I mean, I am in Beijing. I want to see Beijing. Why are we going to see this stuff. I mean, I feel bad because I called this crap. Its not...this stuff is impressive. It is. I never knew the intensity of perfection these people deal with. All they do is work on the same things. You have to be totally anal retentive to enjoy this. Lots of precision work on small things. What impressed me about this place was that it was all done by hand. No machines, like the Jade shop. The only problem was...all they worked on was vases. I mean, how many vases do you need? There was an art area that I did like though, too bad all the pictures and statues were over 15000 yuan. Very expensive. But gorgeous. BUT NO CAMERAS! There was a small duplication of the Nine Dragon Wall (look for the actual pictures in the Day 5 gallery of the real wall and the Stitches Album). Would be cool too have...Mom, Dad? Could you send more money :-).
So, i was looking for gifts in this area, but i didnt find anything that shouted out anyone i knew. Ugh. And since I dont have much chinese money yet, I can't get the cool gifts. Sorry people. So i bought some ice cream and kicked people in their ankles. Not really. Just Rumi and Yumi...and the kids. Then we headed out.
We were headed to the Foreign Palace Ruins. Check out the fotos. We had to take this little overside golf cart to get there. It was about a 10 minute drive. Each of the carts held about 20 people. While waiting for these carts, i saw Sean and Suzannah down the street. They were waiting for one so I ran and chatted with them for a bit. There was some kool stuff there as well. Lots of...you guessed it...ruins. I was lucky, the sun was out the whole time I was in Beijing, so all the fotos look really good. The area was very pretty. I was walking around alot just looking at the ruins. These palaces were built for foreign guests i think in the 1800s and the models of them showed that they were huge and gorgeous. Victorian or Elizabethian style, i think - i have no clue. But during the mid-1800s, the British, backed by American and French interests destroyed the palaces during a raid in Beijing. I think this was in retaliation to the fact that China tried to expel foreign interests and the interests retaliated and burned a bunch of stuff including the original summer palace. I think this was the time that the British also got a hold of Hong Kong. This was of course, long before the Boxer Rebellion...crazy ninjas.
We took some fotos there and chased the kids around the maze that we happened upon. There is this kool maze, check out the fotos. At the center is this big marble pavilion. Very nice. We traveled the maze and cheated by hopping on the walls. After this was done, we headed out down the street to go to some Chinese acrobatic show. I was excited because I thought it was gonna be full out acrobatics like in that Circus O'lay...or whatever. Nope, it was just ok. It actually wasn't very good. I mean, I had already seen half of it done during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Zhongshan Gardens, only that was much better. Here, it just wasnt as good. The one kool thing was this little kid did a bunch of handstand balancing trix with bricks. Very impressive. That was first.
Then, what made me shake my head and laugh was a "Shaolin Monk" demonstartion. All the chinese int he audience were amazed when they said Shaolin. Too bad these guys were frauds, their uniforms didn't even match the Shaolin uniform. They didnt even know really any gong fu either. My staff work far exceedes theirs. They were just using the image of Shaolin to make their show seem more impressive. They bent a dual sided spear with their throats, while, hard to do, is only a parlor trick that doesnt require any martial training. They took a big broadsword with a dull edge and placed it on a guys stomach then hit it with a hammer. And what do you know. It didnt cut him...hmmm...perhaps its because it was placed on his body to begin with.... What else, oh ,the guy bent a peice of metal by hitting it on his head...ooooh. I have done that....I am sure it just takes practice to make it not hurt.
There was also a girl that did the barrel on the foot trick. It was good, just sloppy. It just was not impressive. So we left and the chinese in the tour group asked what I thought and I said, "bu hou" (no good) They were all like, really? I told them that I saw better and that the Shaolin demonstration was wretched. They giggled.
Thats when I saw one of the mothers wearing a Snoofy shirt. Not a Snoopy shirt, a Snoofy shirt. So I took a picture. I saw Sean and Suzannah walk by so i ran over and chatted with them. We talked a bit then we had to split up again.
We got in line and boarded another cart. Headed back towards the buses. Once we got there, we had time for a foto op. Another martial art stance foto that Yumi and Rumi and I wanted. This time chinese gong fu stances. At first it was just the three of us and the kids, then the parents joined in and it was a big hulllabaloo. Nice fotos though. Both are in the gallery. I messed up my Mantis stance though. I had my knee too far forward on one.
Then we headed back to the city for another Chinese Pharmacy. I found out later that these Pharmacy stops, Jade and Porcelain shop stops are government mandates for any Beijing Tour. Trying to get the tourists to spend money. Very tricky. Yumi, Rumi, and I skipped out on the show. Then headed across the street. After playing with a dog and performing wrist locks on them, we headed back to the bus where I got to beat up on the kids that had skipped out of the show. Rumi took a foto of me with the kids. She later printed it up for me and offered it to me as a gift. AAAAWWWW. Then we headed to dinner.
We got there and apparently they were super busy and the service was terrible. I didnt care, i wasnt' too hungry...until the food showed up. IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD! They had this Sweet n Sour Fried Fish that was just soo good. Oh...it was like eatiing healthy candy. There was also Sweet n Sour Fried Shrimp that I couldnt stop eating. Yummy. Food is sooo good here. We then headed down to the buses. This is where I found out that the bus driver was Muslim...it was very awkward too. He found out from the tour guide that I was American. This was how it went...
"Oh, Mei-Go Ren (American) ! Mei-Go Ren? (pointing finger at me)"
- Shi (means yes, i responded smiling), Mei-Go Ren.
he was pointing at himself "Muslim...Muslim"
- (I didnt quite understand at first cause i couldn't understand what he was saying.)
"Muslim" (pointing at himself...this time I understood, nodding my head)
-Shi (but the he topped it off and made it super uncomfortable by doing this...)
"Musilim...Iraq...EH EH EH EH EH EH EH (holding his hands in the shape of a machine gun and making the sound effect of a machine gun) Muslim...Wo shi Muslim!" ( jerk his thumb at himself, looking proud and looking at me as though accusing me of the war)
-I thought, "....great....this is really awkward...too bad the Iraq war isn't a religious war, Retard!" what i said was this...."ooooooooh, shi. Iraq war...bu hou, han bu hou" (means bad)
(this seemed to make him happy and he laughed and slapped his hand on my back)
So, after that awkward conversation, i was ready to get back on the bus and head home. I got back to the hotel and checked my email. Aubri had responded and told me exactly how to call her. So i did. I got a hold of her and we planned to meet at 1030 at Tiannanmen Square. I spent about 40 minutes trying to call Sean and Suzannah trying to tell them where too meet us. At 10pm right before I was about to leave, I got thru to them. They had just gotten home from walking and shopping. I told them where to go, and they were like, we are crashing. Well, they should come out because they would have gotten to party like we were supposed to.
I hopped in the cab and told the driver Tiannanmen and he knew where to go. I was like sweet. So, we headed out and I was in jitters. I was happy, "This guy isnt' gonna try and screw me over!" HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Wishful thinking. I could see the south end of the square where I wanted to go and it was the easiest to get too...just a straight shot down the road. But for some reason, this turd decided to take me the back way. He got in the left turn lane and I was staring at the pay monitor. He turned left and got stuck in traffic so I started yelling at him and pointing in the way I wanted to go "That way...Tiannanmen" I know where I am going dude! He responded in broken english, "This way, faster."
NO IT ISN"T THIS WAY! Of course, he got stuck in traffic and had to turn around. I was like I am getting out. I aint letting you steal anymore of my money i will get out and walk. We are there anyway. I plopped my 16 yuan on the dash and hopped out while he was still moving. DON'T MESS WITH ME, SUCKA!?!?
I walked over to the Spaceship propaganda from the day i first visited the square. I waited around about 10 minutes and Aubri showed up. She was easy to spot. A 6 foot tall white woman with short hair. LOL. We got along well. Walked around and hopped on the subway to grab a taxi to the bar street. Caoyung district. This is where I took a picture of the giant mug of beer. We headed to the bar area on foot from the corner. It was down a dark alley..ala the first Batman movie. I was waiting for Jack Napier to pop out of the dark and say, "Ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?" But intsead, a drugged up Nigerian saw us walking by and exited his..."drugstore"...and started to stagger toward us and mumble to us, "Hey man, you need something. I got something. You want something, man..Dude...yo. You need this. I got...." - No, Chiva Monkey, we don't need your nose candy, go back to your hole. We continued on our way. There was this cute girl in a fur coat who I said, "Hello" to, and right afterwards, i realized my mistake. The kid was pan handling for her mother. That's such a crime and its really sad. The kid is super cute and will never know anything better. Terrible. We got to Aubri's favourite bar..and for a Monday nite, it was the only one with anything going on. So we went there. HAPPY HOUSE! See the fotos in the gallery.
We chatted and hung out for hours. And danced. You know, I never thought I would be so happy to hear Snoop Dog or DMX. I was able to dance to American music. That felt great. And of course, I was doing it totally Philly-style and totally making fun of everyone in the place that was dancing like that seriously. Ha ha ha. I finally got home around 5am. Yeah, we had that much fun.
I then woke up at 6am to get ready for the last day in Beijing.
October 5th, 2004 - Fifth Day in Beijing
Got up after 1 hour of sleep and got ready. It was a nice power nap. I was able to pack up all my stuff and get my suitcase ready because we were heading to the airport after site-seeing. I was able to have breakfast. Nothing special. Got on the bus and we headed out. Neither Yumi, Rumi, nor I knew where we were going. We went to, what I call, The Stone Gardens. It was really neat. Lots of oddly shaped stones and all over the place. And a coupld of the buildings in the place were of a different style. They had more blue in them and looked as though they were made with thin rods of bamboo. We took a bunch of fun fotos here. I took some nice shots of things as well. Check them out. The Stone Garden tour guide was funny. She was wearing this traditional red chinese outfit. But she was holding a bullhorn and shouting things into it. Very odd. So I took a foto.
There were some very beautiful things in there. Another pretty pond. A floating pavilion on the water. The morning sun was shining down thru the trees casting rays. It was a very pleasant site. I walked around alot because the Stone Garden tour guide talked for what felt like 30 minutes in the same spot. I went off with the kids, Yumi and Rumi and took funny fotos. And then I came back to witness a little 3 year old chinese girl pissing in the pathway...right where everyone was walking. DAMN YOU! I wanted to kick that kid while she had her pants around her ankles. Take that. "You know, I know she isn't potty trained yet, Lady, I know the chinese have them cause I have seen them at the store but have you ever heard of diapers?" UGH! ***Just as a note, these little irritations dont really upset me, I view it as more like accidentally eating a piece of ginger while eating superb birthday cake. Its...more surprising than upsetting.
We then went of a cup of tea at another acrobatic show. I took some video, but again, i was let down. There was one cool thing that went on...but right now I forget.
We then went to see the Nine Dragon Wall. This was awesome. Very pretty. i got some great shots. I took a stitch shot and its in the Stitch Album. It took the creators I think 30 years to complete. Or something like that. At this time we had some free time and there were these guys practicing Chen Style Taiji in the corner. So I went over and hung with them for about 10 minutes. We were talking both in Chinese and English. I explained that I had been studying for 4 years, named off the stuff, and they responded and talked with me for awhile. IT was fun. Too bad I didnt havemore time to spend with them. Who knows, I may have been in the presence of greatness and not even have known who they were.
Then Yumi, Rumi, and I found an awesome foto op! They were offering people to dress up as the emporer and empress for 10 yuan a piece if you take your own foto. So we did. We had a huge chinese audience for this. Watching a gweilo dressed as the emporer with two japanese empresses. They were loving it. They are kool fotos though. Totally worth it. Better than souvenirs. As we walked back to the exit, I was videotaping some old ladies playing with that red ribbon and spinning it around to music. Then I noticed two old couples were swing dancing to music. I WAS SO EXSTATIC! I started to lower my camera to go join them but then the music stopped and they started to waltz. Phooey. The Waltz blows.
After this we went to a Buddhiist temple which was pretty amazing. It was this huge area with about 50 smaller temples and one giant one. I went sightseeing on my own because the tour guide, i could not understand. They also had this Tibetan Buddhist museum with tons of statuettes of Buddhas, Arhats, and Boddhisattvas. Very nice. The giant temple held a 6 story tall bronze buddha. This thing was huge. Very humbling. A tear came to my eye. I dunno if it was the size or the immensity of it or if it was the inscensce.
After this we headed to the Imperial College. The school where all the dynasties taught their imperial people. Very kool. We walked around the lecture hall and looked at all the museum artifcats n stuff. Very sweet. We then headed out.
Somewhere in here, we had lunch. No, by this time, I was falling asleep on the bus constantly and I got hot. And of course, I would drool. I knew I was gonna get sick. The littliest kid was already not feeling well and I know he is gonna give me something...and he did. He got Yumi, Rumi, and I sick. I mean, not in Beijing, but we got sick once we got back to Xiaolan.
We then headed back to Tiannanmen Square for a Feng Shui demonstration. Yeah, that's right..Feng Shui. By this time, I was tired and grumpy. The tour in their was boring as hell since I didnt understand it. I went outside and fell asleep. Luckily i was with the Japanese people so I wasnt alone. They didnt understand either.
Then after that we headed to the airport. We got there and had some KFC before boarding the plane. Nothing super special happened here except for the Beijing Tour Guide offereing me two roast ducks as a gift for their mistake the first nite i was there. I reluctantly took the ducks after she forced them onto me. I told her that this doens't mean I am gonna forget about getting a refund. (at the moment I am plotting my revenge).
We boarded the plane and I got stuck in business class, luckily. The inflight movie was a movie about a whore with a golden-heart..or something like that. It was quite depressing, but apparently it was a famous new hit. I can't see why. Oh well. We got back to Guangzhou and hopped on the bus and tried sleep during the bumpiest busride back to Xiaolan. We got back around 1AM or so. My throat was really raspy. I could feel the cold come on. UGH. Beijing rocked. Sorry it took so long to finsih posting this and that its really long. There was a lot that I needed to write. Enjoy the rest of my misadventures. Make sure you check out th