Advertisement
Published: February 11th 2008
Edit Blog Post
We're now sitting in the trainstation again, writing. We have just forced a chinese cafe to give their first refund ever, probably. They gave us two old, dry, lousy cakes for 18 yuan each! And we gave them hell... After many minutes debating and many more trying to ignore our angry stares, they finally caved in. A victory for every capitalist out there!
In our last entry we forgot to mention a couple of things. The most important being our first encounter with the chinese communist party. As we were travelling by taxi on the main road from the airport, two lanes were suddenly closed off by a very substatial number of policemen (about one per fifty metres). After a while some 15 cars speeded past us in about 100 km/h (almost twice our speed). They were all black, new, and had shaded windows. Just as they had passed, the policemen picked up their cones and returned to ordinary duty.
The second thing we forgot to mention was that we jumped our very first chinese spiked fence in the Summer Palace. Not as dramatic as expected though.
On Saturday morning we tried for the third time to get into
the Maosoleum, and succeeded! It was very strange to see how the chinese acted in front of their former leader. Some bowed, some cast flowers at the foot of his statue, and they just couldn't stop staring at him. He lay in a glass "coffin" just like Cinderella, looking quite yellow and almost as if he was made of wood.
After that we checked out of the hotel and began our search for a new one not quite so expensive. We found one in the guidebook that was supposed to be cheap. When we got there though, they claimed not to have had to cheap rooms for a long time. When we asked if they knew of another hotel i the neighbourhood, however, they all the sudden had a room for less than half the price they said first. How lucky for us!
Later that day we went to a park where three people stood and collected the admissions fee of 2 yuan. There weren't many other people there and no one was standing in line to get in, so how they could manage the business is an enigma. We then ate at the best restaurant yet, for
58 yuan (for the both of us).
Next day (sunday) we woke at 6 because we were gonna catch a bus to the Great Wall at Simatai (which is the least exploited part). Unfortunatly our guidebook seemed to be wrong about buses there and we instead took a tour bus that went to the Ming tombs and the Great Wall at Badaling (which is the most exploited part). This wasn't our best investment so far though, because on the way we went to various shopping centres (for which the tour bus organizers get a cut). It was extremely annoying, thought Hannes, and not even sunshine Erik was that impressed. We also went to the Ming Wax museum that proved to be interesting but not really worth the money (more than the bus ticket). The Ming tombs were fascinating but we expected to see some of the relics and we really lacked the time to explore as we would have wanted to.
The entire trip was worth it though, because of the Great Wall. We climbed all the way to the top and got some of the best pictures yet (though we have yet to find a computer with USB-port,
you'll just have to wait). It was quite stressful for the knees on the way down but we managed. Definitely one of the best things in China!
When we finally got back to town we went to a restaurant that was a bit beyond our wallets. But we at least go half a Peking Duck. It was very good, though we should have studied the act of eating it. Erik really got the grasp of making tortillas with chopsticks, but Hannes mostly struggled. After dinner we realized you should do it with your hands instead. Smart...
Today we finally had a calm morning with lots of sleep and rehabilitation. We checked out and went to a shopping street. Luckily/unfortunately they were having a market day today. And it was
crowded. Nothing bought though. Ever since then we've been running around town with our backpacks, biding time and upsetting chinese for trying to get our money back.
Next entry will be from X'ian or Shanghai.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0541s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mamma E.
non-member comment
l-e.edgarsson@telia.com
Hej Erik & Hannes ! Ni ska veta vad vi tycker det är kul att läsa era blogginlägg. Vi förstår att det är massor som ni får se och uppleva. Samtidigt känns det som att världen krymper när vi får era meddelanden. Man kan ju inte tro att ni är på andra sidan jorden, nästan:) Var i Djursvik i helgen och där var fint som alltid. Farfar var pigg på sin 86 - års dag. Vi träffade även Jenny, Magnus samt barnen, alla var i fin form. Till helgen ska vi försöka träffa den nya medborgaren Tyra. Många kramar Mamma E