9--Trip to Beijing2

The next morning we walked through the park for our breakfast and saw the old men playing chess and the old women doing their exercizes. I watched one woman do her stretches and then she grabbed a tree branch and started swinging from it. She has obviously been doing this for years, but I couldn't help worry about the branch breaking. Then, closer to the gate of the park on the main pathway, we watched an old man with a pail of water and a large calligraphy brush make Chinese characters on the tiles. One letter per tile. We later asked Mr. Zhang if he knew what was being written, and he said he did, but we never found out what it was. Maybe we're not supposed to know?

(I'm not sure if it was this morning, or the one before, but the bus had a flat prior to getting out of the city. We went down a ramp and drove into what looked like a gravel driveway. Then we realized that this was a mechanic and he and the busdriver chatted and then pulled the tire off and proceeded to fix it. Meanwhile, the passengers had gotten off the bus, and the second smallest of the boys was picking up rocks and then taking them to the bus. He obviously liked to collect them, and this was right up Dick's alley. He started explaining what some of the rocks were. The little boy didn't care much about it, but his mother took quite an interest. Of course, the good old dictionary had to come out to get anyone to understand what Dick was trying to say, but they got it and then even some of the adults started picking up some of the rocks.)

This was the day we were going to the Great Wall and we were excited. With my new shoes on I felt much better and knew I could walk wherever we were being taken. The bus took us to the Ba Da Ling section of the wall and parked. We got off and gathered on the parking lot. Before climbing up the wall it's always a good idea to do a biffy break, so we asked for the bathrooms. They were accross the parking lot and had a big sign "WC". In front of the door there was a woman taking money. It costs 3 Jiao (0.3 Yuan) to go potty here, that's about 6 cents Canadian. So we paid her and went in, but I'm not sure what you're paying for, really. Inside there is another vendor who will sell you toilet paper and other necessities. Paper is not supplied in public toilets, so you carry your own. There was a woman going around the different stalls with a mop and emptying garbage cans, but I can't say that the place was clean. Oh well, you have to put up with these things.

When I came out of the washroom, Dick was waiting for me. There was a lot of commotion and I managed to get around it somehow. It seems that some jerk decided he wasn't going to pay to use the bathroom and forced his way through the ticket takers. So they blocked the way in for everybody while they tried to fight this guy off. So stupid, really, but there are all kinds everywhere.

Now it was time to head up the Wall!. We started up the east section. This is a major staircase, only the steps are not all uniform. Some are only about eight inches high while others are two to three feet high. There are slopes in all directions, obviously they built the wall exactly along the slope of the mountain. Then there are some sections where there are no steps, but the ground is sloped in two directions. You climb up this with a very strange feeling, sort of like the haunted house in Disneyland. It's hard on the legs to do this climb, but well worth it. There are all sorts of people on the trek with you, so you have to keep going. Some oldtimers insist on trying, even thought they don't look strong enough to make the steep climb. Somehow they manage. These people are tough if nothing else.

While climbing constantly, you are subjected to the most magnificent sights. The mountains, although not like the Rockies, are beautiful. The wall itself, built by so many hands so many hundreds of years ago. The peepholes for shooting arrows and possibly gun powder guns, the thick, brick walls, the stone steps. It's all awe inspiring, to say the least. Just to think that we were actually on this piece of history! The Great Wall is the only man made object that can be seen by astronauts on the Moon.

We managed to make it to the top of the east section and Dick and Mr. Zhang even went on the path that had obviously not been restored. I decided to wait for them, it didn't look very safe to me. Not much later they came back with the same comment. But from this vantage point we were able to see another section of the wall that had some damage to it. This made us realize how well the section we were on had been restored.

All the while being on the east side, we were able to see the west section. Thousands of people are all over these sections of wall, it's almost unimaginable. But the view and the idea of being on one of the Seven Wonders of the World!!!! Magnificent.

We headed back down and managed to get down the really, really narrow steep steps on one portion. Once at the bottom, all of a sudden no one was moving. The guard had stopped all traffic from going through, we still don't know why. Finally after a long while, one of the people on our tour decided that we had waited long enough. She said something to the guard and then grabbed me and pushed me past him along with a few other people. This is not a pleasant experience. I don't do crowds well, and to be shoved along like that was not to my liking, but fortunately shortlived. Now we were inside the wall, and there were not many people there-- Mr. Zhang and Dick and a few others from our group. Why did the guards want the traffic stopped? No one would tell me, so I still don't know.

Once we got back down to the bottom, Mr. Zhang indicated that he was now going to do the other side. He asked if we wanted to try, and even though my legs were rubbery, we decided to give it a go. But when we got to the first platform I decided I really wasn't doing my knees any favours. So we begged out and stayed on the platform a while. He and his daughter went up the entire west section.

After a while we decided to go back down, and met up with Mrs. Zhang who hadn't made it too far, I think. She got us some stools from the vendor and we sat down and ate our coffee flavoured ice cream bars that we had just bought. We sat there for a while and finally decided to go back down to the parking lot. After looking around at a few of the souvenir shops, which are plentiful, I spotted a nice sweatshirt. Dick hadn't brought a warm sweater to wear either, so this would come in handy. It had a picture of the Great Wall on it and said "I climbed the Great Wall" in both English and Chinese. The price was right, and we didn't need to haggle. I bought myself a T-shirt with the same picture on it, and we were happy with our purchases.

We got back on the bus and showed off our treasures. I'm not sure if the young girl who sits behind us on the bus thought I was giving her my T-shirt, but she said something about buying together. So I said OK, and thought she wanted to go shopping at the souvenir shops. Dick and I got off the bus, but the young couple didn't follow. So we looked at some of the souvenirs, and managed to buy some cute stuff for the grandchildren (not telling - it's a surprise).

We got back on the bus and waited for the rest of the group to come back from their climbing activities. Mr. Zhang and Emma were very proud to have made it to the top of the other section. Apparently it is the highest section of the wall, which is why it was significant for them.

When everyone was back, the bus took off to go to our next adventure. But there seemed to be a problem with traffic and we were in a line up of tour busses for what seemed like a good long time. Of course, our bus was just a little peanut compared to some of those airconditioned, TV equipped, posh European tourist busses.

Finally our bus was moving. It seemed that the driver had decided to take a back road instead of the more popular main road. Didn't matter to us, we were moving. Dick found that some of the structures by the toll booths were kind of neat, so he took pictures of them, as well as of the stone guards that had been laid down to protect rock falls along the highway.

Our next venue was the Ming Tombs. Out of 13 tombs discovered, this is the only one that can be visited. Dick had done some reading on it and we were warned that there wasn't that much to see. But it would be worth looking at, no matter what. We first entered a sort of park where there were some statues. One was a giant turtle. I couldn't get it all in one picture, but you'll get the idea. Of course the everpresent dragons were also on display. Once we had gathered with the group and had received our instructions, we went on the long walk towards the tombs. We ended up in a roped off area that was about 6 feet wide and had obstacles in it like tree roots and at times whole trees. On the right there was a brick wall and beyond that was a park. Inside the park there were guards that could not be seen except for when they spotted someone doing something that was not allowed, like letting small children walk on top of the wall. They would come out towards the wall, shout up at the people to stop whatever it was that upset them, and then disappear into the trees or bushes again.

This was the longest lineup I have ever been in, and the number of people was again astounding. At some point we found ourselves falling way behind from our group, and were constantly being passed by Japanese tourists. They seem to think that they must pass as many people as possible no matter how slow the line up is moving. We finally got ticked off with them, and Dick grabbed my hand and started working his way past all of them saying "Excuse me, we're trying to get back to our group". Some of them repeated his "excuse me", I'm not sure if they were being smart alecs, but we decided to stay with the group at any cost from that point on. I managed a picture of the sunset while we were in line, and it's probably the best picture of the afternoon.

When we got to the end of the roped off area, the line took a sharp right and we were now in a sort of corridor with fenced lanes. I grabbed one of the fences and Dick the other while we held hands. This way, no one could push past us. One older Japanese lady was whining behind me, and the younger lady just in front of me slipped behind me to be with her. I guess they don't like being restricted from pushing past people, but we had had enough of being subjected to it. Line up etiquette is not the same here as in Safeway stores at home.

A few more minutes later we went through a door and then down some stairs - about five flights of them. Then we were in the underground structure that was mostly concrete or stone and had some signs explaining that the majority of the artifacts had either been removed or had been destroyed or decayed. So replicas had been put in place. The actual coffins were just boxes, nothing fancy. There was a large one for the emperor and two smaller ones for the empress and the concubine. Money had been thrown into the roped off area where these coffins were displayed. A gift to the Emperor gods? Or maybe a request to provide more entertainment? Anyway, it was kind of neat to be in a historical site like this, but the crowds did not make it very much fun. There wasn't much chance to take time to really look at something even if there wasn't all that much. We took some pics and headed back up.

It was quite dark and we had a long bus ride ahead of us to get back to the hotel. By now the little boy who had gotten lost the first day was beginning to show signs of boredom or perhaps he was really tired. He and his dad had a bit of a disagreement. Dad obviously had a temper, and all through the trip we had seen this kid with a new toy every time we got off the bus. Seems like maybe dad spoils him too. Anyway, he was making a fuss and dad spanked him and yelled at him. Quickly the tourguides and a couple of other women came to the rescue. They whisked the child away from dad, who was sitting in the front seat next to the driver. They put the boy down on the lap of one of the women and started talking to him and hugging and consoling him. Dad yelled at him a couple more times but then calmed down. The kid had a few more remarks to make at his dad, but eventually calmed down too. This is definitely one of the cultural differences that are so interesting to observe. A late supper and early to bed.

The last day of our tour we did the usual breakfast. By now the people in our group had warmed up to us because they realized that we were going to eat and do things just like the Chinese people. We were getting a little more conversation from them and really felt like part of the group.

After breakfast we got on the bus and headed to the Summer Palace. This is a beautiful place, on a lake and definitely worth taking in. We had hoped to be able to go into the actual palace, but our tour didn't go that way.

There were many outdoor structures, including a wall with many different shapes of windows. These were double windows with paintings on the inside of one of the panes of glass and dark wood trim all around. I wish I could have taken more shots of them, but somehow the effect wasn't coming through on our camera. A definite must see.

We walked through the long corridor which is absolutely beautiful. It is decorated with a total of 14,000 paintings depicting stories, historical moments, poems and songs, and so on. We didn't have enough shots left on the camera, so we took very few pictures. But at the end of the tour we ended up at a book store and managed to find a book in both English and Chinese that told the stories behind a lot of these paintings. A good souvenir to have.

After the tour, we wandered around for a while on the parking lot, when all of a sudden we spotted a McDonalds. We decided to try to see if they had coffee and they did. It was much cheaper than the first cup we had bought, 4.5 Yuan, but we soon found out why. This stuff had been sitting on the burner all day, I'm sure. Anyway, we drank it, even though I ended up putting cream in mine, which I normally don't do. The young couple that sits behind us on the bus decided to come in and join us. They wanted to try coffee. They said they liked it, and then I spotted a sign for blueberry pies. Dick went and bought four of them and we enjoyed them with our young friends.

When we got back on the bus, we did not know where we were to go next, but we figured whatever it was, we would enjoy it. All of a sudden there was an altercation between the Beijing tour guide and the bus driver. It turned into a heated argument, and we asked the people behind us what the problem was. But, in true Chinese fashion, the passengers all looked straight in front of them and pretended that nothing had happened. The guy behind us motioned that his lips were sealed, in other words, he couldn't repeat what had happened. We continued to be puzzled and came up with our own version of what had happened, and now the tour guide was in tears and being consoled by some of the women at the front of the bus. By our standards a completely unprofessional approach, but this shows either lack of experience or maybe it's how things are handled here. Now the passengers were all being asked for more money and Mr. Zhang paid our share. We don't know if this was a change of plans or whether this had been discussed previously.

A few minutes later the girl behind us confirmed our suspicions about the tour guide incident. It seems that the girl had provided directions to the bus driver and he had not listened to her and taken the wrong route. She had been "wrongly accused" and that was
not acceptible and maybe it was throwing us off schedule. We were still a little confused about the whole thing, but the Chinese people acted like it never happened.

After a while the bus was being parked along a boulevard and we got off the bus. We had to walk quite a way to the main gate of the World Park, but it was early in the day and we had energy. Once we went through the gates, we realized this was a park that had replicas of famous buildings all over the world. We took numerous pictures, but not of all the sites. We figured we could either tell people back home they took us on a complete world tour, or we could wait until we actually get to see all of these sights for real.

The replicas were pretty good as far as we could see. They were of course smaller than the real things, but the detail in the reproductions was commendable. We walked around the park for a few hours, and were told to meet back at the gate at a certain time (I think around noon). We did what we were told, but some of the people on the tour decided that they were in this park, they were going to see all of it. So, while we had gone back to the bus and were patiently waiting to be taken for lunch, the rest of the group was out there taking more pictures and seeing more stuff. We ended up not leaving the site until around three, and in the process missed lunch. Some of the kids had fried chicken and corn on the cob, and had we realized what was happening, could have bought ourselves some food too. But we thought they were going to stop somewhere for lunch. Wrong!

Seems the busdriver was ticked since the little incident with the tour guide, who by the way has now left us because her part of the tour was over. We were now headed back to Huimin and an interesting ride it would be.

After a couple of hours it got dark, so much for trying to get some better shots of the salt mines. Most people on the bus were somewhat tired and didn't talk a lot. At some point Mr. Zhang's phone rang, and it was Mr. Liu. He was checking up on us and letting us know that a package had arrived for us at the school. We weren't sure if it was the stuff from home we had been waiting for, but it was exciting to find out nonetheless.

Then we got to a section of road that was under construction. At some point we wondered if we were even on any kind of road at all. This extremely bumpy, very dangerous stretch seemed to go on for hours. Shortly after getting back on paved road, the driver stopped at a store of some kind to get himself a snack, but did he offer for us to get something? No. What a jerk! While he was off the bus, the old woman turned around and spieled off her thoughts about the ordeal we had just encountered. I could see her eyes flashing and her voice sounded very angry. No one else on the bus acknowledged what she said, but later Mr. Zhang told us that she had said how dangerous that piece of road had been and that the driver should have taken an alternate route. We agreed.

Well, the driver got back on the bus and we continued on home. Everyone was silent, and we were hungry because we had missed lunch and we didn't stop for supper. Someone had given us some dried noodles (like Itchiban), but I let Dick eat most of them. The young couple behind us gave us one of those wiener type sausages in the red wrapper that everyone here likes to eat, but I'm not a hot dog person at the best of times, and cold they tempt me even less, no matter how hungry I am. The tour guide had reimbursed the people for whatever the cost of the lunch would have been, and I think the original schedule would have put us back home at about supper time. But, because of the delay at the World Park and the construction on the road, we didn't get back home until around nine o'clock.

The bus let us off close to the new restaurant, in the same block as Mork and Mindy's, and Mr. Zhang suggested that we have supper there. We were game.

In his grand style, he ordered way too much food for the five of us, but we were hungry and ate our share. Going without two meals in a row can do that to you. After our supper, we walked home and said goodbye to the Zhangs at the school turn off. It had been a great trip, in spite of all the little inconveniences. We were dead beat, and slept very soundly that night.

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