Day 4, Mon, 5 Sep 2011

Anna set me up with a tour group, but they won't come to our place because it's too small! Anna negotiates that I will meet them at a big hotel if they pay my cab fare. Anna hands me my breakfast (yogurt and bread) and off I go to the fancy western hotel.  I eat my bread and chat with a guy from Alberta, Canada on his first day of his trip in China. He's going on a complete package tour. The thing about the package is that you're kind of stuck. Activities and routes are pre-planned, no time to stray. I tell him about my cooking class, but his schedule is so jammed packed he barely has any free time. :-/ makes me glad I'm so free! Come and go as I please, switch things around. Solo travel definitely has it's pros and cons. 
So I'm waiting...waiting...the hotel comes and tells me I have a phone call? The guy tells me they're running late--15 mins. I ask the concierge, how did you know it was for me? He answers, how did you know it wasn't? Or something ha
I wait more and they call again! Even later! Grrr. I tough it out, play on my phone, people watch. The van finally arrives. The tour guide is really happy I speak Chinese and asks where did you learn? And, how much did you pay for the tour? I tell him I paid too much, please give me a discount haha. (cost was about $62 USD) It's probably annoying to the other 11 people in the van that we are having a private conversation, but then he goes on to brag about my Chinese to everyone and a Dutch guy in the back speaks up that he speaks Chinese too! Whoops! He actually lived in China in 1995 for high school or something. Pretty interesting. He came back later, but it'd still been awhile since he'd practiced. So total of 12 people: me, Dutch man and his clingy brazilian gf, little Italian guy (Francesco) and his 2 (look like Jersey shore, but are actually from Italy) girlfriends, older Israeli couple, 2 big German dudes, and a stylish Spanish couple.
If you take a tour in China, they are notorious for including forced shopping trips, making a half day trip into a full day :-/ it supposedly subsidizes the cost of the trip.
Our first stop was a jade 'factory'. Which was basically a huge shopping floor with 8 people working on producing jade jewelry and carvings sitting behind a glass wall. It seemed like a dog and pony show. The people probably sat inspecting and carving the same piece of jade for weeks. Very artificial and set-up feeling.
Another thing is that in China there will be five people doing work that could be done by one person. Not sure if it's just because there's too many people and the government would prefer people idle at a job rather than the streets or what. For example there were 5+ people as door greeters and ticket handers, but why do you need a ticket for a store? They never even checked it! Our tour guide, Bruce (no, last name is not Lee, I asked) was pretty "whatever" about the shopping. He knew we had to go, but didn't pressure us into buying anything.

The one thing at the Jade factory that I thought looked interesting

From the jade store we went to the Ming Tombs. It was almost like a park; a large, open area with gates and statues. Bruce tells us that Chinese people feel creepy to come to such a 'evil' place, but tourists don't seem to have a problem with it :-/ Funny because we were made to come here, it wasn't requested!
Finally done with the tombs, we head to Mutianyu (area of the Great Wall we're visiting). It's only about 45 miles out of the city of Beijing, but it feels really far. On the way we drive through small villages which feel odd because they are filled with empty shops boasting their name on brightly colored signs using both Chinese and English. I almost seemed like they were fronts or some kind of propaganda village, but I talked to the Dutch guy and said it was probably an ambitious development that failed.
We were given about 2 hours to explore the Great Wall. You can either walk or take the cable car up. Strangely, all of the group except for the Israeli couple and I, take the cable car. It's about $12 USD additional for the roundtrip ticket. The hike is just going up tons of stairs. I don't really take a break and it takes me about 20-25 mins. All that step aerobics class paid off! Whew! But unfortunately the hike isn't anything special, just stairs in between lots of trees and some little tables where some people are resting or having a snack.

Almost there! Top of the stairs

Once you are actually on the wall, the view is beautiful. The wall itself is interesting too, just seeing how it's arranged, the different guard towers, etc. 

The vendor who took the photo for me insisted I wear this Mao cap

You have to see it in real life, pictures don't do it justice

There are stands selling water, snacks and souvenirs on the wall too. I buy a water (negotiating down the price of course), so even though it looks ugly to have the rainbow colored umbrella on the wall, it is somewhat useful because you're pretty tired and thirsty after walking up. I spend about an hour and a half walking around and then I decide to take the toboggan back down cuz it seems it may be fun. It's about $9.30 USD. Francesco goes back with me too because he can't find his girls. The slide is kinda cool, but too many people in front which means you can't go too fast.
Francesco and I head down to Mr. Yang's restaurant where we are meeting for lunch. The price of lunch is included in the tour. We are the first too arrive, Francesco just relaxes and smokes a cigarette outside and I chat with the waitress. She lives in the nearby small town and most people there work at the Great Wall. Her kids already moved away to Beijing to find better jobs.
Lunch is rice and 6 different dishes. Eggs & tomato (very common dish), kung pao chicken, cauliflower, potato & eggplant, cabbage, and some other things I cannot remember. I do recall almost every dish had green bell peppers for some reason.

After lunch, we headed back to the city for even more forced shopping disguised as a tea ceremony and pearl factory. The tea ceremony was a girl talking about different kinds of tea and the way it's grown and specialty regions, but at the same time, she would pour it into a particular mug that changes color and she'd be like "on sale today!" lame.

tea ceremony aka sales pitch

I told Bruce I had to leave early and didn't want to go to the pearl factory, and he offered to pay for a taxi, but I know it's almost traffic time so I just walk a mile or so by myself to the subway. 
I was so tired when I got back to my place. Originally I planned to attend this cultural discussion group in the evening, but I didn't feel like going back across town, so I called and canceled. I asked Anna (girl working at my hotel) to dinner instead. We went to a place nearby that she likes. I tried fish dumplings, pork dumplings, spinach w eggs, and a stew with glass noodles, pork belly, spare ribs, meatballs and cabbage. It was really tasty! I want to learn how to make it! I wanted to drink sprite, but couldn't figure out how to say it in Chinese! I'm like, it's clear, it's lemon soda? Turns out it's called bluish-green snow in Chinese. Haha. I don't know why but when I read it on the menu I thought they meant mountain dew! After dinner Anna and I just hang out chatting in the common room. What a long day!