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Published: November 11th 2008
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Km travelled 14620
05.11.08
Our room has no windows, it's hard to say if it's day or night, sunny or rainy. We wake up early. In the toilet I find the third Chinese girl in two days brushing her teeth while hundreds of litres of water run away unnoticed. Why do you have to ruin my day so early?! Give me a break! I know, I'm a pain. Everyone is.
At 8.00 we're waiting in the hostel hall. Our guide Benny comes to pick us up; we all walk to the van, us, a French girl and her Polish friend, both from Dublin, and two American ladies. It's clear from now that the ladies are going to be the major entertainment for the day. They're both blonde, slim, with heavy make-up and many wrinkles, one short with the voice of Marge Simpson, one tall with the look of Carmela Soprano in her sixties.
We understand immediately that the journey will be long. The first two stops are at two factories, the first producing jade objects, the second cloisonné ware. The only purpose of these visits is obviously to sell the products. I leave to your imagination who in our
group bought something. In a way I have to say that is interesting, but we could have avoided. I guess there's no choice, they take everyone there. We found out that ladies can't carve the jade but only polish it, and that a worker in the cloisonné factory earns $200 a month. Bear in mind this are government factories and not private.
By the end of the morning we get to the Ming Tombs. Well, we honestly see only one of the 13 tombs, Chang Ling, burial place of the emperor Yongle. Yes, because in fact it's not even a tomb. I mean, there's a magnificent building, but the emperor is buried somewhere under the hill they don't know. The hall is grand and beautiful and a statue of the emperor is preserved inside. But that's it. About to leave we had to wait for “Carmela” posing for a picture dressed up as an empress.
The only glimpse of culture and knowledge disappears under the immense body of the restaurant where we have lunch, an enormous factory of food for tourists. I would not comment on this, but the food is not too bad. What we find out is that
the American ladies booked the tour to go to Badaling, the most visited part of the Great Wall. The four of us booked to go to Mutianyu, a less touristy and less restored section. This is so annoying. I really don't like it, because we're put in a situation in which someone has to get unhappy. But for now we pass over it and we have our lunch.
Back in the van and ready to go, Benny asks where we want to go. In the general chatting someone says Mutianyu, and we go there. Fortunately. Because when we arrive to the Great Wall we understand that the ladies haven't realized where we are. We are left with not a long time to wander along. We jump on the cable car to reach the wall, which is already exciting and gives some amazing views. The wall is just incredible, shaped by the hills, snaking for miles, overlooking everything. It's wonderful surrounded by orange and red trees of this warm autumn. We'd love to walk on its back for ages, but the sun is already on its way down behind the thick fog of pollution that enables you to look straight at
it.
The plan wanted to have another stop at the silk factory, but as no one is interested in it, not even the ladies that after a brief look at the Wall spent all their time emptying the market, we opt for a more interesting visit to the Traditional Medicine Centre. Here we are introduced to the Chinese traditional medicine. Michael and the ladies have a foot massage and we all get a free medical check, done testing the pulse and looking at the tongue. Incredibly efficient! We're healthy anyway! This has been very nice, and Mike is very pleased by the foot massage.
Before finally heading back we stop in a tea house to see how Chinese make and drink their tea. We're quite exhausted when we arrive back at the hostel. These Chinese don't give you a break, talk like machines, push you all the time.
We check the news because we heard Vietnam is under the flood and we'll have to find out what to do. It can be a trouble. Before ending the day we go down to the shop for a treat and a Chinese guy wants to have a picture with us. You don't
see white people every day here. Quite funny, we end our day with a laugh.
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