Beijing huan ying ni

Our plan of ditching the tour didn’t work out so well because the travel agency changed itineraries on us. I wanted to be at the Forbidden City on National Day because I hear it’s quite a sight, but stuff happens. I planned our trip around the original itinerary, and no one could tell me what we were doing each day. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated with the change of events, and I was not a pleasant person the first day… The language barrier didn’t help either.

We went to the Forbidden City first. That place is huge, and after a while, it looks like the same thing over and over…just a bunch of buildings and courtyards.

That is why we decided to entertain ourselves by taking pictures of flying scenes.

I jumped, landed on both feet, and somehow fell on my face two seconds later. I was okay though. We had a good laugh. That's what I get for playing in the Forbidden City.

Then Trinh and Teresa decided to create fighting scenes.

Next on the agenda was Tiananmen Square. I wasn’t impressed, so I wandered off and took pictures of BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing, and NiNi.

Beijing huan ying ni. Beijing welcomes you. Too cute. My favorite is JingJing, as you can tell by my imitation of him lifting weights.

The next day, they took us to Summer Palace, where it was yet again a bunch of courtyards and buildings.

Somehow, we got separated from the tour because we were taking too many pictures or something. I’m not sure how it happened, but we were really far behind. I bet the tour guide was cursing us out in his head because he constantly had to come find us. Random Asian people kept approaching Christina and asking to take pictures with her. I guess they’ve never seen a white person. I had to use the restroom at Summer Palace. There was only one Western-style toilet, so I used that one, but the smell was unbearable. That is my disgusted look.

Then they took us to Temple of Heaven. I knew it was across the street from Pearl Market, so we hurriedly took pictures at the temple and ditched the tour to go pearl shopping.

No one told me pearl shopping could turn into an all-day affair! We ran around trying to bargain, but no one was willing to go down to the price we wanted. We finally found a lady at the building next door who would sell us pearls for cheap if we bought in bulk. I ordered 10 bracelets and 4 earrings, and we told her we’d pick them up in the morning because we didn’t have time to wait around. The five of us hopped in a taxi, and I begged the driver to let us stay. (It’s illegal for 5 people to ride.) Trinh was the smallest, so she had to lay across our laps.

We met up with the tour for what we thought was going to be a contortionist show. It ended up being something I NEVER would have paid money to see. They had little girls playing Chinese yo-yo, performing stunts, etc. They looked like they were seven years old!! Seriously… They shouldn’t be doing that. I’m sure they don’t get paid very well, and they probably get scolded/beaten for messing up. It was awful.

When we got back to the hotel, we had to arrange transportation to the Jinshanling—Simatai Great Wall. It was a much more difficult process than it sounds because:

1) I had Jinshanling written in Chinese but not Simatai, so no one knew what we were talking about.
2) A lot of taxi drivers don’t know where this place is.
3) Renting a taxi for the entire day means only 8 hours. It takes 3 hours to get there, 3 – 4 hours to climb the wall, and 3 hours to get back. You do the math.
4) It was National Day, so the fare was steeper than usual.

The next day, our tour guide arranged an all-day taxi for us. The taxi driver took us into the city to pick up our pearls and then headed to Jinshanling. We were so behind schedule that we had to take the cable cars up to the Great Wall instead of walking up the mountain.

Right away, two local farmers latched onto us and followed us to the 10^th tower. Once we realized that they wanted us to buy books and postcards from them, we told them to basically go home. Bu yao. I can’t imagine what their life is like. They hang around the Great Wall waiting for tourists to walk by, and then they follow them in hopes of scoring a sale. These people were with us for an hour. The first hour was the most difficult part…and these people do this every day. At one point, climbing the wall was really scary. Christina was afraid her shoes wouldn’t have enough grip.

Christina: Come on Payless
Trinh: Come on American Eagle
Teresa: Come on fake Nikes
Me: *laughing so hard my body hurt*

At the 15^th tower, a woman stamped our tickets and told us we couldn’t return. It was extremely shady. When we got to the Simatai part of the wall, we had to pay another 40 yuan. In all of my research, I never found anything about having to pay two entrance fees. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have felt so cheated. I don’t mind paying, but I would like to know ahead of time.

The last third of the wall was the easiest. The zip-line wasn’t as fast or high as I imagined, but it was still a lot of fun. It was a nice concluding activity to our 4 hour hike.

On our last day in Beijing, we took a taxi to the Pearl Market where I spent some major bucks on AAA pearls. I didn’t like the clasps they offered, so I’m going to have clasps put on in the US. I’m going to laugh if the jeweler tells me they’re not AAA quality.

The funniest part of this whole trip was at reflexology. The creepy massage guy was hitting on me and saying a bunch of things in Chinese which had to be translated to me.

Creepy guy (CG): You are very beautiful.
CG: *Stuff in Chinese*
Me: Ting bu dong
Michelle: He wants to know where your parents are from.
Me: My parents are from Cambodia.
Michelle: But where are your ancestors from in China?
Me: I don’t know.
Rude massage guy (RMG): *in Chinese* What is this world coming to? These Chinese people don’t even know Chinese. Goodness, she doesn’t even know where her ancestors are from.

CG: *Stuff in Chinese*
Me: Ting bu dong

CG: *Stuff in Chinese*
Me: Ting bu dong

[This goes on for a good 20-30 minutes…him saying stuff in Chinese and I always reply with “Ting bu dong.”]

Later translated by Teresa/Michelle

CG: Did your boyfriend come with you?
Me: No
RMG: *points at CG* He would be a good boyfriend. He can give you massages everyday.
CG: I like you.
Me: *shifty eyes at Teresa*

Then Creepy Guy did some moves on me that NO ONE ELSE got. Trinh was able to record it… I think they were more for his benefit than mine. That was the longest hour of my life…

It’s funny how I’ve made no effort to learn Cantonese, but I really do want to learn Mandarin. I successfully read a sign the other day. It said “Down one exit”. 下一出口