With the Girls on the Great Wall of CHINA I just recently returned from an amazing weekend in Beijing and the whole thing was a nice vacation from the hub-bub and monotony of Wuhan. The trek began with a last minute scramble for tickets only three days before we planned to leave. We ended up enlisting the help of our colleagues at New Oriental to help us find tickets when the travel agents all claimed to be sold out. We ended up spending 430 元 for soft sleepers on the way to Beijing and 250 元 for hard sleepers on the way back, all thanks to the powerful name of New Oriental on our side.
Once we prepared to leave we piled into the cab with our backpacks and headed off for the Wuchang train station. I was warned ahead of time that the station was under construction, so thins might be hard to find. “Under construction” was a gross understatement – the train station is actually still being constructed.
The Wuchang Train Station: Note the exposed beams
There was scaffolding up all along the outside, and I could have sworn that the floor was made of packed dirt. We played a quick game of match the characters to figure out which gate our train was leaving from and were off to train security. Security was very harsh: Erin with her mini duffel, Rachel with her large duffel and me with my stuffed backpack sped through, but Tim, with his very small backpack was called out and had to put his bag through the x-ray machine, which no one was actually watching. We arrived at our gate which was directly beside the VIP section and included leather chairs and decorated with flowers. I’m not quite sure why our gate was fancy and others had hard plastic chairs with broken fans. After a stampede to the train, the four of us were finally able to relax in our cabin. The cabin was kind of amazing. It had four beds, which were set up as two bunks and were pillow soft, much better than the wood planks that Tim sleeps on nicely and the box-spring that us girls sleep on. There was a vase with a white flower in it and a pitcher of water sitting on the table between the beds, on the wall was a personalized video screen that played new movies (in Chinese, clearly), and a door that we could close if we felt like it.
Reclining in my top bunk soft bed
Leo Hostel was located on a great shopping street that had so many vendors on each side of the street and a number of other hostels, too. It was kind of funny when we arrived because just about everyone stopped driving, working, talking or to look at Erin, the resident “celebrity” because most Chinese have never seen a black person before. Upon arrival in our hostel in Beijing, Erin and I left with Nina and Olga on a trek to the Great Wall. We had planned on taking the subway to a bus station where we could get to the great wall for 10 元 a person, but clearly we got lost and ended up taking a taxi. The taxi was a bit like a near death experience because he did not exactly follow basic traffic laws like sticking to just one side of the road and letting vehicles with the green light proceed first.
People all over the Great Wall
Once we actually got to Badaling, it was simply breathtaking. Even in the nearby areas, the landscape was beautiful and the architecture akin to that in the movies. The wall itself was covered in tourists from all over the world, most wearing walking shoes, but some were braving the steep inclines in flip-flops, canvas Chinese shoes, or (as we have begun to affectionately refer to the sparkly heeled sandals popular in China) their Easter Sunday best. People were streaming in both directions along the wall stopping for picture breaks, water breaks or to take a closer look at the wares being peddled on either side. We of course stopped at every vendor to practice our improving bargaining skills; we bought “pee-pee” dolls, scrolls, t-shirts and arm loads of other “must haves” from the wall and the surrounding vendors.
Merchants and shops near the wall
After making our way down the wall and into the tourist section of shops and ATMs, we were rewarded with the first Starbucks that I’d seen since my arrival in China. We rested our legs and reveled in the familiar café atmosphere with our cardboard cups of coffee. Nina, who works at Starbucks back in Ohio, bought all kinds of paraphernalia to show the folks at home in a way that sincerely reminded me of Melissa and me in the HRC Chicago buying retail to show everyone in DC. After Starbucks we commenced our trip back to the city in an unmarked taxi cab for considerably less than we had paid to get out to the wall in the first place.
Upon arrival back at the hostel, Erin and I bid farewell to Nina and Olga and set off for dinner at a nearby hostel, 365 Inn. The two of us inhaled a couple of cheeseburgers and were quickly off to find our next bargain on the market street where we were staying. We found lots of expensive gifts, and just as our frustration reached its pinnacle, we stumbled into yet another t-shirt shop. Erin, who was sick of being poked, prodded and photographed by strangers all day long was surprised to see a two year old hurl herself at Erin’s legs and hug them tightly. A grin spread across Erin’s face as the little girl left and returned with a small t-shirt in her hand and held it up to Erin. Once she noticed me, she toddled back to the storeroom and returned with another small t-shirt for me to inspect. The two of us returned the t-shirts, but were enthralled with the little girl who was now busying herself with a screwdriver and some electrical wire. Between her hugs and calling me “A’yi,” auntie in Mandarin, I was reluctant to leave the overpriced store without a purchase, but in the end, the cuteness of the daughter did not override the indulgent prices. We didn’t see the little girl again until we were talking our final walk down the alleyway on our last day all packed up for the train station. Erin told me to look to my right, and sure enough, the little girl was in her mom’s arms, holding her arms to me and saying “A’yi!!” I’m telling you, that toddler won my heart for Beijing more than the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace combined, but that is another story all together.
After wandering the market street, Erin, Tim and I decided to sign up for a tour from the 365 Inn that went to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace, covered entrance fees, transportation and provided an English speaking tour guide. We met with Jennifer our tour guide at 7:30 the next morning and the four of us began our tour. We piled into a small white van and headed off to the Temple of Heaven. Jennifer was a bit of a crack up; she asked us if any of us had studied Chinese history, so I let her know that I had a general idea of the history. For every bit of information that she decided to share with us, obscure or obvious, she would turn to me and ask if I knew of it, which wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t questions like, “Do you know the color associated with favorite concubine of the fifth emperor of the Tang dynasty?” Pretty much every question was answered with, “uh, I don’t think so,” so she’d turn to Tim and Erin and ask them, after they started the tour by saying they knew nothing of Chinese history.
Anyway, we arrived at the Temple of Heaven at 8am and were delighted to see a new Chinese pastime that wasn’t ping pong or badminton, but a happy hybrid of the two. Erin ended up trying to play with a couple of old ladies who had a mean volley going before we arrived, but her backhand was nothing compared to the swings that the ladies had mastered. Also on the temple grounds were scores of people practicing Tai Qi, walking briskly, and, of course, playing ping pong. One of the chambers in the Temple of Heaven featured both Echo Stones and a Speaking Wall. The Echo Stones were pretty cool and completely unintentional. If a person stands on the third stone from thesteps, and claps one time, the echo will ring three times, on the second stone it rings twice and on the first stone it echoes once. Erin tried and was pretty successful; her first stone echo was louder than the rest.
Erin clapping
The Speaking Wall, however, is like a less effective version of the Whispering Wall in the mezzanine of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The idea is that if one person stands on one end of the circular wall and speaks to it, the person on the other end should be able to hear what was said. When it didn’t work, the tour guide blamed it on the weather. After our allotted 45 min at the temple and Erin accidently bargaining some hacky sacks down to 5 for 10 元, we were piled into the van and off to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
Tiananmen Square was a bit surreal. Having had seen pictures from the protests in 1989, it was strange to see families, school groups and individuals enjoying the afternoon. Kites were flying high in the sky and umbrellas were everywhere shielding the evil sunrays. In the center of the square is Mao’s mausoleum (which was closed for cleaning) and off to the side is some kind of legislative building (I think, by this point I had pretty much zoned out the tour guide). On the far side of the square was a building with a countdown to the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games that Jennifer pointed to and asked us, “Do you know that in 2008 the Olympics will be here, in Beijing?” Erin (being a jerk) responded with, “What? Really?? I had no idea!!” Jennifer, of course, took this as her queue to explain that the Olympics were, in fact, going to be in Beijing and that the Chinese were very proud. After the three of us regained composure, Erin finally cut her off and explained that we did know. After a few more giggles, we followed her teal umbrella to the main gate of the Forbidden City (apparently the portrait of Mao is replaced every year on the anniversary of the founding of the PRC).
Tiananmen Square
The Forbidden City was a sea of tourists, mostly school groups, but wall to wall with tourists. During the fifteen minutes that it took for Jennifer to get our tickets, Erin and Tim had countless pictures taken of them with or without another person beside them. I have included some of the best pictures as examples. The obvious question is “What will they do with these pictures now that they have them??”
The Forbidden City itself is really remarkable. It’s easy to imagine the emperors of centuries past wandering the grounds and the complete isolation that they felt day to day without being able to leave. Unfortunately, one of the main buildings was under renovation or refurbishment so there was scaffolding covering it but it was painted to look like the building underneath. With Jennifer, the Forbidden City was a fountain of obscure questions like “Do you know why the tops of buildings have different numbers of animals on them?” or “Do you know what this building was used for in the Ming dynasty?” It’s hard to explain the vast beauty of the palace; from the worn bricks underfoot to the red tiles on the roofs, the city can’t help but remind you what just how young you are in comparison with the extensive Chinese history that is being forgotten everyday. On a humorous note, within the walls of the Forbidden City I was hit square in the head with an umbrella once and hit in the shoulder and brushed by with umbrellas more times than I can count. Unfortunately, for our caffeine levels, Jennifer managed to disregard our request for the Starbucks in the Forbidden City and ushered us out to the street.
An Imperial Building...
Tangent: In Beijing, the peddlers see tourists and run at them like a mob and don’t really let up until you are out of range of their turf or you buy something. So when we exited the Forbidden City and walked down a nearby street, we were approached by a number of ladies who were selling goods at the stores lining the sidewalk. Tim, after observing Erin and me throw absurdly low prices at them, yelped like a little girl and took off running down the street when an old lady tried to sell him a silk purse. Tim, by the way, is 6’3 and roughly 200 lbs.
We took a brief lunch at a buffet style restaurant and were off to the Summer Palace. Before even entering the complex, I bought 50 postcards for 10 元; this was a good start. Honestly, by the time we started wandering the grounds, every building looked the same, since the ancient Chinese styles only differ slightly from dynasty to dynasty to the untrained eye. One of the best things that I saw was the Long Corridor which is (clearly a corridor) outside and runs along the waterfront for 2,388 ft and is decorated with 14,000+ intricate paintings. Each painting correlated with a well known Chinese story, like the Monkey King and Dream of the Red Chamber. It was pretty phenomenal to see a story I had read for school unfold in illustrations along the beams.
The Long Corridor
Also in the Summer Palace was an enclosed square that was once open to the rest of the compound until one of the final royals of the Qing dynasty was imprisoned there by his own family. Standing inside the square, you can actually see through a window to where bricks were laid to keep him in. The heir committed suicide for obvious reasons. All of this is not out of a history book, but the tour guide’s answer to her question of, “so who knows why this square is special?” After the square of doom, we took a boat to the other side of the lake, and fled the grounds as it started to rain.
The Ox that guards the palace from floods
The next part of the tour was the bit that Erin and I were most excited for: scheduled shopping at the pearl market, silk market and a teahouse. I can sum up the experience in 3 words: NOT SO MUCH. The “markets” were actually high end manufacturers and retailers where the tour guide received a commission on all of our purchases and we were required to stay in each location for at least 30 minutes. Erin and I almost got guilt-ed into buying some pearls, Tim bought a silk tie, and I dropped 120 元 on some lychee green tea and rosebuds at the teahouse. The teahouse was the only place that was actually interesting. While each location has a small demonstration of how pearls were harvested or how to make silk blankets, the teahouse was the most rewarding, and consumed twenty minutes. We tried the lychee rose water green tea first, followed by jasmine tea and finished up with some strong oolong. The teas were all really good, and there was less pressure to buy than at the other places. We were, of course, irritated that we had been used as the tour guide’s own personal money makers, and returned home in foul moods.
To turn those frowns upside down, the three of us treated ourselves to American food at the HRC with a nice little discount on food (damn the retail shops that are simply not interested in helping me out). The place was pretty cool, and Tim sang his heart out to “Dark Africa” before we found our way out. Once outside, Erin and I were again drawn to the man selling jewelry and Tim was again sprinting down the block after an old woman approached him. Really, though, who can blame Tim? I would have been running down the block and yelling for us to follow if an old Chinese woman with very few teeth approached me and said, “Hello. Would you like massage? Make love to a beautiful woman?” then smiled at me with a jack-o-lantern grin. Tim’s response was “OH, GOD, NO!” followed by “Erin! Kelsey! Help! Let’s gooooooo!!”
The next morning Rachel rejoined us after a trek to the Great Wall the day before and we were off for the real Silk Market that she and Ben had discovered two days prior. Rachel’s sense of direction is, regrettably, awful. After about 45 min of wandering the streets, we gave in and asked some tourists where to go. They pointed us towards the Pearl Market instead and we were off. We finally arrived, Starbucks in hand, nearly two hours later, but it was completely worth it. We used every technique from “but we’re teachers from Wuhan” to sending me in first to Erin’s “I’m planning my wedding and these wallets are for all of my bridesmaids – Tim, honey, do you think the girls would like these?” Tim sunk his teeth into a 75 元 Transformer belt buckle as soon as we arrived and Rachel was unable to decide if 20 元 was too much to pay for jewelry boxes, but overall, it was a good time. Rachel is the opposite style of shopper than me. I will pick a price and if I can get them to it, I’ll buy it, and probably two or three if I can get a further discount. Rachel will pick a price that is almost insultingly low, then decide that she set her price too high if they come down to it. She ultimately ended up with 4 scarves and 2 dolls after our many hours of shopping. She did make a final attempt at bargaining as we arrived on our market street. She had been hoping to buy one of the many kites that have been on sale across the city. Rachel set her sights on a frog kite, but the price of course was too much. So she moved onto plan B: finding a flaw in the product and focusing on it until the seller gives you your desired price. After a few minutes of fussing, I turn around to hear an exasperated Rachel saying (on the verge of yelling) with arms flailing, "It's too expensive!! It only has 3 legs! It's MISSING a LEG!" Needless to say, we went back to Wuhan without a kite, but with a pretty good story.
Leo's Hostel
That’s pretty much the trip to Beijing. After we finished buying everything in Beijing, we packed up our stuff, grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to the train station. The Beijing station has the same made rush of people and mob-like mentality that we experienced in Wuhan, but this time with AC. We were all pretty worried about our hard beds, but they were actually pretty good. The mattresses were a bit thinner than the soft beds, but the biggest change was that there were 3 beds on each wall, rather than the typical 2 bed bunks in the soft bed. This meant that we were able to watch two Chinese men in slacks and button-downs scale the wall of cabin, Spiderman-style, to get to their beds at the very top. Also different was the lack of a door to our cabin. This allowed every person walking to the bathroom (which was beside us) to look into our room and gawk at Erin asleep on the middle bed. It was also key in disturbing our sleep as people ran to the sinks to spit phlegm while making the disgusting sound that occurs during that process – gross, right? Oh, and the toilet made this awful howling sound every time it was flushed, so Erin legitimately dreamt about elephants. We arrived safely, fought to get into a taxi and all promptly took naps when we arrived back at home.
Erin and Rachel squished into their middle bunks
