The Great Wall

The Beijing & Great Wall photo album is not quite complete, but if you wish to see what Christine has to date, please go ahead and have a look at the album here to find it: Beijing & Great Wall

On our fourth day on Beijing we decided to wander around some smaller city cites a bit and have a bit of a slower day. We started off by visiting Jingshan Park, which was located about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. It was a pleasant park that sloped up to a hilltop with a view of much of Beijing, most especially the Forbidden City. There were a number of buildings placed symmetrically and strategically all over the park, and it made for a pleasant morning walk.

In the afternoon, Christine and I went to see the Temple of Heaven, another park with a large ceremonial building in the centre for offering sacrifices, mostly linked with the hope of achieving a good crop. The park was quite large and eclectic, with musicians scattered about playing and not asking for money. There were groups doing Tai Chi in quiet corners, a very large group that seemed to be engaged in a clapping exercise of some sort, and a bunch of kite flyers with a unique style of kite that doesn’t require much, if any wind to play with. All of these groups were well spaced and had their own sections of park within which to play. We also stumbled across a huge playground and thought that it would be a great deal of fun for children to play in. As we were passing closer, Christine noticed a bit of an oddity. All the people “playing” were adults in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. It turned out to be a jungle gym of sorts for adults to exercise and stretch on all manner of funky and weird looking contraptions.

In the evening we decided to enjoy a Chinese acrobatic performance, and we purchased the tickets at our hotel. We bought the very cheapest seats they had, and were told to arrive at the reception desk very early to head to the theatre. When we arrived, they ushered us and two other hotel guests to some very nice seats, right beside the most expensive in the building. Apparently it’s pretty much a pick the best spot when you arrive system, so I’m glad we didn’t spring for the more expensive ticket. After the concert we went home for an early sleep.

On Friday morning we woke up at 5:30 so that we were ready for a 6 o’clock pick up for a trip to the Great Wall of China. We were trying to avoid the really touristy areas of the Wall and found this neat section that is a 12 kilometre hike along the wall that included passing 30 towers. The starting point of the hike was at a place called Jinshanling and it ended at Simatai. We couldn’t find an easy way to get out to the section on our own, and to hire a car was actually quite expensive. We found a tour group that ran a bus out their, but once we arrived it was free for us to do the wall at our own pace. After a 3 hour bus ride, we arrived at a very small town right at the base of the wall. We were offered some advice about how to deal with the local farmers turned vendors, and off we went.

Once we climbed the mountain to the starting point on the wall we truly saw why they don’t call it the “It’s Pretty Big Wall” or the “Hey That’s Not Bad Wall” or even the “It’s a Decent Size Wall”, because it is a Great Wall. It stretched off for as far as we could see into the distance in either direction, snaking along the mountain top like a dragon at rest. The wall is quite wide and fairly steep, but they designed it to use the natural terrain to add height to the defenses, placing it on cliffs edges or at steep angles to the ground. The route we chose to take was a combination of restored sections and areas that are in a complete state of disrepair with some slightly dangerous spots. The climbs to the peaks of the towers were quite steep and there was an aggressive undulating pattern to the wall. The views were beautiful and the sky was clear of any clouds, though a bit of smog prevented a clear look at the furthest peaks, creating a hazy view.

Because there was no tour guide on the wall and it is a bit of hike, not nearly as many people visit this section of the wall, or if they do, they only visit the ends and don’t hike through the middle. As we were walking along there were lengthy periods of time that we didn’t have anyone around us at all. At most we encountered groups of 2-4 people, mostly from the same bus we arrived on. The only other human presence were the vendors with the exact same chant: Wata-coca-beer(with a really soft r). They very intelligently positioned themselves in the towers where you usually came up a steep way and were too out of breath to say much or to ask them to leave you alone. In general though they didn’t follow for too long, continuing to try and hawk their wares.

When we reached the end of the trek we had a choice, hike down to the bus or take this long zip-line over a small lake and then a boat to the bus. As if it was any contest and the zip line was a lot of fun, with the exception of a mild concern over Chinese safety and regulations. After we got to the bus we were taken for a late lunch that was probably the only bad Chinese food on the whole trip. There was also this pleasant bathroom which was probably the dirtiest one I have ever seen. Now squatty potties are a way of life out here and we are comfortable with that, but this place had group squatty potties, so you were squatting next to two other people while taking care of business, which is a little uncomfortable. To make matters slightly worse, there was no door to the bathroom and the potties were open and visible not only to anyone entering the bathroom, but also to anyone walking by. A little less privacy than we are used to.

On our way back to Beijing on the bus, our tour guide informed us that if we wanted to take an express highway, we could all pay an additional 75cents Canadian to do so. Of course everyone was tired and would love to save an hour and a half on the bus. The real question is why didn’t they include that in the original price and let me sleep in an extra hour and a half to a decent time. What bus full of westerners is not willing to pay an extra $1.50 to save three hours on a bus and get more sleep.

After dinner that evening we decided to enjoy a massage to help relax after the hike. We returned to the same place we were at before for my hair-cut. We had dual side by side massages that lasted 2 hours and cost us a total of $40. They were so skilled at their job that both Christine and I fell asleep at one point during the massage.

On Saturday we decided it was finally time to test our mettle in the Chinese market place. There were a couple of well known markets that we decided to visit, and see if we couldn’t find some things to make good Christmas presents. On our way to the first market our taxi driver took what we thought was a long route, going the wrong direction for quite a while. We had a vague sense of where the market was, and when it seemed to be taking too long, Christine (who was sitting in the front seat) took a photo of his picture and taxi license number. He started heading the right direction and when he arrived we saw the market was next to another site we had previously visited. His meter read at twice the price we paid last time. Christine was pretty incensed over the dishonesty so she really lit into him about it. He didn’t speak any English, but he was very nervous that we had his tai license number. He phoned someone who spoke to Christine in English and apologized for the dishonesty of the driver. Christine said she would only pay the same amount as with our last trip and the man on the phone gave a number even less than that. When we got out of the cab, the driver pointed at her camera and the license and he looked very very concerned that we would report him. In the end we didn’t, but thought it best to let him stew a bit about his dishonesty and maybe he would think twice before trying to take advantage of tourists. For my part, I was very amused because the taxi cost $2.50 instead of the $6 he was trying to charge. Not a lot of money, but on principle Christine was angry and I was enjoying watch her let the driver have a piece of her mind.

The market places we visited are absolutely nuts. There are thousands of stalls, with everyone selling essentially the same goods but claiming their products are better than all the rest. After my first purchase I really got into the bargaining and Christine was already well practiced from her first visit to India. They would typically quote an unbelievable price for a good and then away we would go. Often they might start at 2000 Yuan, and you would offer 50 and they would come down while we would only go up marginally and in the end you would get it for 70 or 75 Yuan, a long way from 2000. I guess maybe some people really don’t negotiate hard and they can make some good money. If they make a profit at 70, imagine if someone “bargained” them down to a 500 would mean. They engaged the most entertaining of tactics, you are always their friend or their first customer of the day (even if it was the afternoon and you saw a bunch of people just leaving their stall). We frequently heard that it was below their cost, that we were killing them, that we were not nice and too hard a bargainer. In the end they were usually not too happy with us when we left, but I am sure they wouldn’t sell it to us if there was no profit in it for them. All in all it was more of an adventure than a shopping trip.

That night we went out to a well known restaurant that was recommended to us by a friend of Christine’s mom. The restaurant was jam packed and we had to wait about an hour to get a table. The restaurant is famous for it’s Peking Duck, and it was absolutely incredible, definitely worth the wait. The entire meal was delicious and quite fancy compared to the small family restaurants we had been eating in. In the end the bill was definitely that of a fancy restaurant, at least by Chinese standards. When we put it into western prices it was like eating out at Milestones, but after $7-9 per outing, we were thinking in Chinese terms.

Yesterday held much the same as Saturday, we visited the markets again to pick a few other things, wandered around a bit, packed up, said good bye to Beijing and made our way to the airport. After a very lengthy and annoying airport visit, we made our way to Delhi, India. The flight arrived at 2 in the morning (5 Beijing time), but thankfully our driver was waiting to pick us up. We arranged with a tour company to have a driver and accommodation arranged in the three locations we want to visit in India this week. For a week with a personal driver to take us anywhere we want and hotels paid for, the cost is only $300 per person.
The first impression of Delhi is that the people are very friendly if not a bit too pushy wanting you to buy or get a tip for not really doing anything. The city is incredibly dirty in certain places and in other places pretty and well maintained compared to Beijing, and a bit more chaotic and unorganized. It should be an exciting time!!

Our very best wishes to all of you,

Christine and Hovan