Forbidden Cities and Walls Which are Great

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Well, we can now say we have climbed the Great Wall (and we have 5 t-shirts and a hoodie to remind us in case we forget!!). And what a Great Wall it is. But first let me tell you about yesterday…

We decided to see Tian’anmen Square first thing and then head to the Forbidden City which is directly behind the square. Tian’anmen (notice I know now the correct spelling) is the largest square in the world. Our pictures don’t really do it justice, as it’s hard to take a picture of something so large and concrete and flat. In one corner there were men working to erect giant statues of the “Friendlies”. The Friendlies are the Olympic mascots for Beijing 2008, there are six (Dev says five, but I was sure I counted six) of them and you can find their image on EVERYTHING. They are quite cute actually. There wasn’t anything overly interesting going on here, besides the hawkers following us trying to sell us everything from postcards to Beijing 2008 hats (for $1!). We bought 2 of the most delicious banana popsicles we’ve ever eaten for only 25 cents each! This place is awesome.

In front of the Forbidden City is the Gate of Heavenly Peace where a huge picture of Chairman Mao is hung. There are about a million Chinese tourists all posing in front of Mao. The green guy is some kind of authority figure, they are all over the square watching over to make sure peace is kept. They apparently don’t like their picture taken, I tried to take a closer shot of one and he immediately held out his hand as if to say STOP. Not wanting to be shot or run over with a tank I quickly put down the camera and moved along.

The Forbidden City is where the Emperor’s lived during the Dynastic period. It’s called Forbidden because only the Emperor and very important people were ever allowed to enter. There is even a special gate outside that was built for only the Emperor to use, there are separate entrances for everyone else.

Now I can’t imagine how one guy lived in this enormous “city”. It was really much much larger than I imagined it to be. Once we entered we realized that not even one day would be enough to see everything. Unfortunately one of the main attractions, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, is under restoration and was completely covered in scaffolding. They must be preparing for the surge of tourists that will come with the Olympics. We wandered around marveling at all the old buildings, walking through the various exhibits such as the Ceramics and Jewellry Halls until we were completely worn out. We spent all day here and only really saw one side of the place! It was truly a city.

We headed back to the hostel with tired feet and ordered dinner from the restaurant downstairs. It was essentially room service, as you just order by phone and they bring it to your room. Yum, this was the best Chinese food we have both ever eaten in our lives. Beef with mixed veggies, which came in on a sizzling hot plate, 12 textbook perfect looking dumplings and a huge bowl of hot and sour soup. For the equivalent of approx $8. And it was delicious, what a feast. The menu is rather extensive and we are looking forward to ordering more tonight. We tucked into bed rather early since we set the alarm for 5:45am this morning.

Up bright and early and ready to hit the wall this morning, we set off to find an ATM. Which proved a bit tougher than we thought. So we finally went back to the train station where we withdrew money the first night. Also near here was a KFC so we grabbed a quick breakfast since we weren’t sure of the food situation at the Great Wall. Breaky was pretty decent actually, we each got a chicken breakfast sandwich which was a chicken patty filled with corn and cabbage, 2 orders of hashbrowns and 2 Pepsi’s. For approx $3. (We just can’t get over the affordable prices here…can you tell?!?)

Our trusty Lonely Planet told us the cheapest way to get to the Badaling section of the wall was to take bus 919. So we truck off in the direction the book told us, and notice that every other bus passing us was a 919 (if it wasn’t a 919 it was a 345, we don’t know where that one goes). We must have asked about 10 919 buses “Badaling? Badaling?” and they kept shaking their heads and pointing further down the street. How can that be bus 919 and it’s not going to the Wall?! We keep walking, and asking buses 919, before reaching a larger area where small groups of people are waiting. We asked a man who was standing around “Bus 919? Badaling?” and he said “Yes yes, right here” so we stood amongst the others. Then he whipped out his cell phone and started punching in numbers and telling us the fare was 140 Yuan per person!! Lonely Planet clearly stated bus 919 was 10 Yuan per person so we knew something wasn’t right. We showed him the book and he just laughed at us and shook his head. Hmm. He kept harassing us until we realized he was a taxi driver, not a bus operator, and he was trying to get us to take a taxi to the wall. At this point we just started ignoring him hoping he would go away. 3 more taxi drivers approached us and punched prices into their cell phones, all in the same region as the first guy. We just want a bus!! More ignoring and finally one man started pointing us in a different direction yet again, and we weren’t getting anywhere standing where we were standing so we walked off. Down the street more and around a big corner and there was a pile of 919 buses!! The woman standing out front assured us it was going to Badaling but she wouldn’t give us a price, she just laughed and motioned for us to get on the bus. Sure we were being fleeced yet again but desperately wanting to be on our way to this Great Wall we climbed aboard and found a seat. Thankfully when the bus started moving and she came around to collect the fare it was 12 Yuan per person. Only 2 Yuan more than our book, we were on the right bus! We sure felt adventurous, being the only two white travelers on board and passing numerous minibuses and large luxury coaches full of whities. Our hostel was running tours out to the Badaling section for 150 Yuan per person, and we just paid 12! Score.

An hour and half later, and after much anticipation, we arrive at the wall. Or rather, the bus stop in the little town that is at the base of the entrance. There were signs pointing us in the right direction so it was easy to find. Notice the Starbucks, even here at the Great Wall of China people can’t get away from Starbucks. We didn’t go in to check the prices.

We pay our entry fee, received our neat little souvenir entrance cards and this is it!! Here we are. One of the moments we have been waiting for since first dreaming of this trip. Wahoo! The smog was heavy, even out here in the “mountains”, so you can see the wall stretching off for many km’s distance but it’s hard to photograph. We started trekking off to the south part, you enter almost in the middle and the wall stretches on in either direction. Probably the most surprising thing was the actual steepness of the wall!! It’s quite the trek uphill, sometimes with stairs to help you, although stopping to take a rest and looking back is extremely dizzying. The wall has its share of hawkers selling t-shirts, marble carvings, pee-pee dolls (small clay dolls that you fill with water and pee shoots out. Very cute!), stamps, postcards, paintings, authentic Great Wall certificates (?) you name it. You have to just learn to ignore them, if you even shake your hand and say no they follow you relentlessly. Our first purchase was actually on the wall when we caved and decided to buy some t-shirts from a woman. She started at 180 Yuan, which we scoffed at ($23!!) and replied with 25 Yuan. Of course their job is to make you feel like your offer was the most absurd thing they have ever heard and you banter back and forth, hoping not to stray too far from your intended price. We settled on 80 Yuan for 2 t-shirts and continued on our way. Now, we knew we had maybe been ripped off a little, this was our first experience bartering in China but the shirts were only 5.50 each. Once you buy from one hawker its like giving candy to children. You have a whole crew behind you endlessly bothering you to buy whatever they are selling. We ignored them and continued our trek, eventually reaching the end and heading back to the middle. Stopping for a break in the middle and a browse of the shops we spotted a cooool hoodie (and we all know I’m a hoodie lover) so I had to have it. We were a tough sell this time (or what we thought was tough) as she started at 240 and we came back with 50. We threatened to walk away and we both agreed at 70. Not bad, but now we really felt like we had been ripped off on the shirts. 70 Yuan for a nice thick good quality hoodie and 40 for a t-shirt?! Hmm.

Off we go to the north side of the wall, which was where majority of the tourists were, and we snaked up and up and up and up even farther until we reached the point. What marvelous views. Just to stand and take a breather and look around was so inspiring. We were on the Great Wall!! We took about 130 pics all together, although the smog makes them a little less wonderful than they should be.

When we reached the end we were both spent, and turned around proud of ourselves for having hiked both sides to the ends. The walk back and downhill was probably tougher for me, seeing as my right knee was now in pain (residual effect from breaking that leg I think) and going down the inclines and stairs seemed to put a lot of pressure on it. Slow and steady wins the race and we eventually reached the bottom once again. For us to walk up and back on both sides it took approx 3 hours, what a workout. I felt like I had been on the hardest stairmaster ever!! We have rethought the 10km hike we planned previously, as this section of the wall was the restored section, with guardrails and sure footing. We will go see the other section, but I doubt we will attempt the trek. Today was a trek enough!!

Heading back to the bus station the road is lined with stalls selling Great Wall merchandise. You can imagine our shock when we overheard a lady saying “T-shirts, 1 dollar, 1 dollar”…ONE DOLLAR?! Seriously. One dollar?!??! Man did we feel ripped off. We just spent $5.50 on our shirts, and they have them here for a dollar?! We couldn’t pass it up, so we allowed ourselves to be dragged to a stall for the sales pitch. We picked out three more shirts and some marvelous gifts for all of you back home (I don’t want to say what they are. You will ALL be thrilled. Great value!! Not t-shirts…) This was definitely the place to shop, we bartered hard and I think we made out extremely well. So well that it balances out the rip off on the first stuff. And now we are in the know, and ready to hit the markets of Beijing. Start out at one dollar, for everything! Even less sometimes. And if they are being tough, just walk away, they will chase you down and drop the prices faster than a bowling ball falling from heaven. Even if they make faces, we know they won’t sell us anything at a loss.

What a long wonderful day. On the walk from the bus stop to the subway we passed a food stand selling egg roll looking things. There was a big round hunk of meat being carved and a woman was stuffing BIG egg roll wrappers with the meat and various veggies (bamboo shoots was one of the veggies we identified). Ravishing after such a walk we stopped to buy 2. 3 Yuan each!! That’s 50 cents!! And so delicious. It left us eager to hit the other food markets and scope out more delicious mystery snacks.

Now we are beat and ready to order some dinner in our room. Tomorrow is an easy day, so hopefully we can save a bit of money as we were a bit over on our budget today. Stupid rip off t-shirts. We have quite the haul so pretty soon we are going to have to find a post office and post this stuff home. We also extended our stay in Beijing, as it is such a bustling city with loads to do, we check out of the hostel on Monday.

Oh, another interesting anecdote. On our first night, our room mildly flooded!! When I took a shower the shower was not draining, and by the end I was standing shin deep in soapy water. I thought it might be normal, so we waited 20 minutes for the tub to drain and then Dev showered. By this time we had a small lake on the floor of the bathroom, which we assumed was backsplash from the shower since the shower curtain is pretty shabby. Approx 30 minutes after Dev finished we were in our pj’s ready for sleep when a knock came at the door (side note: they do not knock and then wait for you to answer, they continuously knock…knockknockknockknockknockknockknockknock…OKAY I’M COMING…knockknockknockknock…our room also has a doorbell which they use the same way…dingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdongdingdong…hahaha). We answer and a frantic small Chinese girl comes rushing in and looks in our bathroom. She appears quite worried. She motions to the tub and we tell her it was not draining and she quickly runs out and gets another guy. Something definitely seems awry. The guy returns with a plunger and they go to work plunging the drain. We watch in awe as grayish globs of something start flying out of the drain. Towels are fetched and they start mopping up the floor when they notice there is a small stream coming out of the tub tiles. Someone grabs a coat hanger and they start scrapping away at the grout around the tile, when POP it comes off and this massive TIDAL WAVE of water comes gushing out, over the bathroom floor and sweeping into our room. OH MY. We start frantically grabbing things out of the way and jumping onto the bed to avoid the river of water now engulfing our room. We are kind of giggling, it was rather hilarious watching these two poor housekeepers (who couldn’t have been older than 20) run to and fro attempting to fix the problem. I think the water must have been leaking into a room below us, I don’t know how else they could have been alerted to this problem.

Many towels are now brought into the room, and a large dustpan to sweep the water into and dump back into the bathroom. It appears all our bathwater was actually draining into the area *around* the tub and not down the drain. The water is mopped up and after much apologizing from housekeeping (hey! Not their fault, no problem!!) we are left to go to bed. The time is now past midnight and we are exhausted from all the excitement so we fall asleep no problem. The next day when we returned from sightseeing we inquired at the front desk if our tub was ok. Yes, everything should be working properly now. The tile is replaced, albeit with the most shoddy caulking job we’ve ever seen, but the tub is no longer leaking. Thankfully the bathroom floor has also been cleaned and is grey muck free. The tub still drains slowly, but no lake after we are done showering!

China is fantastic. It’s packed with people, but we are loving every minute. Small dogs seem to be the companion choice of everyone, as you see every other person walking a little something. This morning it was neat to see the small groups gathered outside in the courtyards practicing their tai chi and exercises. North American culture could really take a note from that.

It’s time for us to eat so now we sign off. We hope you enjoy the pics! Ta-ta!!

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Photos

Inside the Forbidden City
This is the largest collection of well kept ancient buildings, and they are fantastic. Although the main attraction is under restoration until 2007 there was still ample sights to see.

Gate of Heavenly Peace
The gate leading into the Forbidden City is adorned with this massive portrait of Chairman Mao. Many Chinese tourists pose in front for their picture with the famed leader.

Huge Portrait!
If you can make out teeny Erin in the bottom right corner it gives you an idea just how massive this portrait is. Don't worry, there are many reproductions safely tucked away somewhere in case something happens to the current one. Years back it was pelted with tomatoes and it was only a short time before a new one was erected!!

Tian'anmen Sqaure
It's tough to take a picture that really does this place justice, as it's just massive. A nice place to wander around before entering the Forbidden City, if you can ignore the hawkers.

Nine Dragon Screen
This is a detailed shot of one of the nine dragons on the Nine Dragon Screen inside the Forbidden City. We had to pay an extra 10 Yuan to enter this exhibit. The dragons are made with mosaic tiles.

Friendlies!
One of the giant Friendlies statues being erected in Tian'anmen Square. Isn't he cute?!

Another Friendlies...
Is one called a Friend? Friendly? Friendlie? Hmmm...

Even at the Great Wall...
Yes Ann, there are Starbucks in China! Even at the Great Wall it's unavoidable. We did check prices at one in Beijing, and they are rather expensive!! A McDonalds meal is 15 Yuan and a coffee at Starbucks is 27 Yuan!! Yikes!

Marvelous Views
The view here was beautiful although shrouded in smog in the distance. Very inspiring (the view, not the smog)!

Two Travellers on a Wall
Don't worry Moms and Dads, we took MANY self portraits of us on the Wall and we are sure you will want copies to adorn your desks!!

Comments

[anonymous]

So it seems that a lot of people understand English there?

[Erin n Devlin]

It seems that the people involved with the tourist industry can speak very little English and it's hard to understand what they mean. Most locals don't speak any at all, although young male students are usually learning English and keen to practice if you look lost or like you need help.