Much to my chagrin, I was not ready to get out of bed at 8. But I wasn’t about to forego the events of the day and just sit around the hotel room and see how I felt. Hell or high water, I was going out today. Once I was freshened up and dressed, I went downstairs for breakfast. Now I know what you’re thinking – why would I be going down for breakfast if I still might not be feeling well? I was hungry.
I had a banana. I felt like I needed to have some kind of sustenance in me for the day. We’ll see how well that goes. I told a few people in my group about my events of the evening, to see if it was a widespread thing, or just lucky me. And from what I gathered, it was just lucky me. That means that there was probably nothing wrong with the duck, with the exception that it was a little too greasy and oily for my stomach to handle.
After breakfast, we all went out to load up on the bus. I happen to find the doc on the way to the bus, so I pulled him aside to ask what I should be doing today. He said to go hungry today. I said I’d had a banana. And he asked why I did that. I said I was hungry. Then he said to just take it easy today. Take it easy? Now why would I want to do that?
Today is a jam-packed day so we didn’t want to be late. And none of us were late – but the tour guides were. Apparently there was traffic, or an accident somewhere. Imagine that – traffic during the morning rush in Beijing. We were growing concerned because no one knew where they were, and we were slowly losing time in our day. Stuff was going to start to get tight. Eventually, they did show up, which was nice of them.
Once we were all on the buses, as well as the tour guides, we shoved off. Something that I did not mention with the buses was the breakdown of the riders on each bus. My group surveyed the entire group on the trip and found that about a quarter of everyone was a professor, staff, or family. And somewhere between a quarter and a half of the group was what we’d call a rowdy, frat-like group. When we exited the airport, we made sure that it was our sole plan to get on the well-behaved bus with the professors. We weren’t about to be inconvenienced on the rowdy bus, which happened to have a number of people that have potential to hold the group up and be late. And we were successful in getting on the good bus, and were very happy about that.
Unlike the skies when we arrived yesterday, when the skies were clear and blue, they were now completely overcast, but I don’t think it was from usual clouds. The pollution in Beijing is second to none as far as I’m concerned. If there is a more polluted city on this planet, I don’t want to see it. I can’t figure out whether it’s smog that’s hanging above our heads, or it’s just the pollution in the air stuck in a thermal inversion. No matter what it is, mark my words – the athletes coming for the Olympics next year are going to be in for a rough go.
To this day, I still have no idea exactly where we went. I’ve looked at a few pictures and notes people took, but I cannot find where we went anywhere. All I know is that we drove out of Beijing for a long time, about an hour, and arrived at a section of the Great Wall. I will eventually find where I was, but I’m going to have to work on that.
What’s interesting is that a large portion of the original Great Wall is in a great state of disrepair. This section was not in a state of disrepair, and was also not part of the original wall. The section we were at was built only a few hundred years ago, while most of the wall dates back much, much further. Nonetheless, we were at the Great Wall of China. Yet another place I never thought I’d get to in my life, let alone at age 20.
So, the bus arrives in the parking lot and before we exit the tour guide gives us two important pieces of information. Because he was late arriving this morning, our schedule was to be adjusted and slightly shortened in places. Here at the Great Wall, our time was decreased down to one hour forty-five minutes, and who knows where it was decreased from. He then went on to tell us that this particular section of wall is on the side of a mountain and to reach the top would take about an hour, and another hour to get back down. You may be noticing that if we were to attempt to reach the top, there is a likelihood that the bus will leave without us. Two hours to go up and down the wall, but fifteen minutes less to do it in. The other tidbit that we had to know was that we were taking a group photo before we were to be let go.
I thought the group photo would be 1, 2, 3, click, and I’d be off on my way. To the group’s dismay, that photo took fifteen minutes to take. I’m not sure what caused all the monkey-ing around, but the group was unable to all get to the same point at the same time very easily. And the tour guides didn’t seem to be in that much of a rush either. Sure, they’d been to the wall already, and they’d be going back. I won’t exactly be back tomorrow, if you know what I mean.
Once we got the all clear for the photo, I turned around and started the ascension, without a second thought. I already asked my group if they were going to try to make it to the top, and I was the only one who was going to try. Can you believe that? Sick boy is the only one of my group of friends to try for the top. I’m guessing most of the whole group was going to try to mount an effort to the top, but I don’t think everyone is going to make it. I just hoped that I would.
The start had a bit of a flat plain, and I grabbed one of my friends who had started off with me to grab this photo of me before the climb began.
If you’ll notice, I’ve still got my Semester at Sea hoodie on, because it was relatively cool at the wall. And if you’ll also notice in the photo, wherever we are, it’s still overcast. But that was no surprise.
Anyway, I quickly lost the group that had been with me, and I think I set a pace for myself that was a bit too quick. The only stairs that I’ve done in the past few months have been on the ship, and while that doesn’t seem like a lot, I go up and down those stairs quite a bit. However, I apparently did not go up and down the stairs enough to prepare because I started to feel it. But now I expected to be like Lance Armstrong going up the mountains, and the more he vomited the faster he went. Although, I was hoping to have the vomiting behind me by now.
When I did stop the first time, the hoodie had to be removed because I was working up quite a sweat. I also stopped for a water break, and felt awful as I watched people from my group pass me by. I wasn’t bound and determined to be the first to the top, but one of the first to the top. Don’t ask why.
The remainder of the journey progressed like the tortoise and the hare. I rushed at some points, took my time at others, and altogether stopped at others, usually to take some pictures. There were a number of points when I thought that I was reaching the top, or at least getting close. What would happen is that the higher I would go, I would see over the next ridge that there was still more steps up ahead.
This was the first stop I stopped at (shortly before the hoodie came off):
And this was the view that I had toward the top:
I said to myself that getting there would be no problem, and I lessened the pace a bit because I was doing well on time. And the further up I went, the more my legs screamed for stopping. I found that good stopping points were the structures we’ll call guardhouses. They’re empty, with no rooms, and have two levels. Just places to look for invaders. Here’s one of the ones I stopped at:
And this was the view down now:
And this was the view to the top, except that’s not the top.
But I kept seeing more and more stairs, as if they were magically materializing just to spite me. But I finally think that I was reaching the top, because if this wasn’t it, I don’t know what I’d do. Probably keep going, but the pace would have to be picked up, and that was asking for a bit.
Much to my joy it did turn out that the top was the next guardhouse, so I stopped and filmed the following video:
And after long last, I made it to the top of the Great Wall of China. I was the second student to make it to the top, and the group that I arrived simultaneously with was the oddest group I’ve ever seen. I arrived at the top, a minute or so behind the first person from the trip, along with the Ebersole family (that’s Mom, Dad, and daughter), and Arnie, one of the two psychologists on the ship, who is in his 70s. Here’s our group photo:
And to top it all off, one of the next people to the top was David Amante, one of the older professors on the ship. When I saw him at the top, I was stunned – I didn’t think he would even try to make it to the top. He beat most of the students to the top and I was very, very impressed.
This is the view from the top. Don’t forget that the greenish pond at the bottom was where we started. Maybe you can see it through the haze/pollution.
If you look close, you can’t see most of the wall from the top because the ridges are blocking the view, but you can see all the way to the bottom. And just like a mountain climber can’t spend too much time at the top of Everest in order to make it back to alive, I couldn’t spend too long at the top to make it back down in time for the bus departure. So the rapid descent began.
And I took breaks on the way down, too. I stopped and bought a shirt that proclaimed “I Climbed the Great Wall of China” which I thought was pretty cool. And then I took this photo of me with the summit in the background.
And on the way down, I found it to be of the same difficulty, but I different kind of difficult. It’s the feeling of walking down, and feeling like you’re going to fall and there are weird feelings in your legs, so I took breaks on the way down, too.
Once I made it to the bottom, most of my group was there and appeared to have just finished enjoying an ice cream. Knowing I shouldn’t be eating anything, based on doctor’s orders, I went over and purchased a Magnum ice cream bar for myself – and it was delicious. After climbing up what I’m approximating to be 1000 ft of stairs up and 1000 ft of stairs down, the ice cream was a nice touch. And I did it all with fifteen minutes to spare before departure.
Also at the bottom was David Amante’s wife, who, after learning I had climbed to the top, nervously asked where her husband was. I told her that I saw him at the top and her eyes went wide with fright and shock. I don’t think he was supposed to make it to the top. She then muttered, “Well, he had been exercising more.” Then I told her that I hadn’t seen him since the top.
What was interesting at the top was there were two ways down. The way we came up, and another way down. I was tempted to take the other way down, but I couldn’t see where it ended up, and the last thing I need to be doing in China is being places I shouldn’t. So I took the same way back down. This is where the story gets odd.
We have no idea where David and the student are. We’re getting ready to go in a few minutes and we keep looking at the wall for a sign of David and one other student. Then, behind us, we hear the distinct grunting of an older man. We turn around and see a steep embankment with a retaining wall, and a tree next t the wall. And here comes David Amante climbing up the tree and over the wall. I looked over the wall, and he and the student had to climb up about fifteen or twenty feet to get where we were. And at the bottom of the wall was the road we drove in on. I have no idea where they came from, but they said they took the other way down, and that was the only way they could get back to us. I’m quite glad I went down the way I did.
Once we all wandered, slowly wandered at that, over to the buses, we loaded up and departed. Some people on the trip did things other than scale the wall. One of my professors bought a mid-sized Tang Dynasty horse, and the Tang Dynasty ended in the year 907. Apparently, she got the horse for a steal of a bargain, but would now have to schlep it all over China. This was only Day 2 of the five-day trip.
Our next stop was a giant store, which just happened to have a place to eat all the way in the back of the store. We were given enough time to eat, and then plenty of time to wander the store. Seeing as how I really shouldn’t be pushing it with my diet today, I stuck to the white sticky rice at lunch, even though a portion of the stuff on the giant table with the lazy-susan looked edible, rather unfortunately.
And continuing the theme of unfortunate food-related events, it was someone’s birthday in the group, and cake was being passed around. This confused me for a couple reasons. First, my luck there’s cake when I shouldn’t be eating it – and I didn’t. There was still too much left to do today to risk forfeiture. Second, what is a cake doing in China? I’ve been looking for rice that’s anything but plain, white, and sticky, and here I am looking at what appears to be a properly made cake. Although, I didn’t eat it, so I can’t verify that it actually was cake-like.
After our table finished eating there was, as usual, about a half hour before the bus was to depart. So I guess we might as well walk through the giant store. What else have we got to do? And as the number of ports on the trip begins to bring itself to a close, I’ve got two masks left to grab. One from Japan, and one from China. So the goal was to find a mask in this store that I was sanctioned to for the next half hour.
And I found an area with masks. But something was different. In every other place that I’ve bought a mask, the store has been a little dirty, small, and cheaper than this place I’m in. But the likelihood of finding something in China was not a high prospect as far as I was concerned, so I’m jumping on this opportunity. To make this matter even more different, there was a sign behind the display that stated that bargaining for prices was not to be permitted. I read it and figured that I might as not well try.
There were two varieties of masks available. One that was more towards my price range, and a really fun looking type of mask that was more out of my price range. Again differing from the past, these masks were behind the counter, and I had to wait for an attendant to come around and assist, and surprisingly that did not take much time at all. And as soon as I point to the lower price mask, the guy starts to bargain prices with me, ignoring how own sign. Now I have to switch my entire tactic and strategy.
I realize at this point, I’ll be most likely leaving with a mask, and not it just mattered how much I’ll be paying, and which type I’ll get. As soon as he starts the bargaining, I ask how much the more expensive mask is, then I start the waffling, that I don’t have that kind of money, but I really want that one. I turned on the acting a bit, and he barely budged on the price of that one. But when I came back to the cheaper mask, he lowered it further. The guy spoke pretty good English, so the language barrier wasn’t an issue, but as he lowered the price of the cheaper mask, I tried to get him to lower the price of the other mask, and he still wouldn’t budge. If he lowered it a bit more, I would have gone with it. But he lost that, and I went with the cheaper mask, which is still quite nice. Very Chinese.
And now the problem was what would I do with the remaining 20 minutes. I know what you’re thinking – I could have argued prices for 20 more minutes. I have a limit for how long I bargain. If I keep going too long, I eventually get annoyed and leave with nothing, and I was trying to avoid that here.
I walked around the store, which was about a third of a size of a typical Wal-Mart. I found one section with a lot of fragile, breakable glass, and was immediately found myself drawn to that area. The glass was a hollow globe-type thing but all the artwork, writing, and drawings were done on the inside of the glass, hence the sky-high price. I also didn’t think that I’d be able to transport it back to the ship, so I didn’t even give the glass globes the time of day. But they were impressive.
15 more minutes to kill. I found an attached room to the main area, and went in there. (And he was never seen or heard from again.) And in this room was the super-expensive, old stuff. This is thousands of dollars of stuff, and hundreds of years old. There were beautiful dragons, and other fine antique-looking items that would not be allowed on an airplane. I went through the entire area, marveling at the quality of the overpriced stuff in there. I call it overpriced, but in reality it could have been a bargain. I’m not exactly an appraiser.
That took up a giant chunk of time, and on my way out of the store, I found the professor that bought the Ming Dynasty horse. And she showed me a picture of it on her camera, because I don’t think she was going to unwrap it out of the box to pass around. That was bundled up until return to the ship. And that journey was still days away.
We all loaded back on the bus and headed off to wherever we were going next, and that turned out to be the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is an imperial garden that is open to the public. It’s just under three square kilometers, most of which is water. Other than that, that’s about all I know about it. It’s beautiful though.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. I have kept my nose open for the entire trip, and now it is time to unveil THE WORST SMELL ENCOUNTERED ON THE ENTIRE VOYAGE. Many thought it would be in India, but they thought wrong. China holds the honor, and the specific location is in a happy house outside of the entrance to the Summer Palace. Allow me to explain.
To refresh your memory, a happy house is the term for a bathroom. The buses dropped us off about a fifty meters from the entrance in an area that looked shady at best. And the guide said that if we needed to use the happy house, we could do it now. Most of us had to use the happy house, so we excused ourselves. About a foot or two from the doorway, we knew something was wrong, but once we went inside, something was really wrong. And it didn’t look dirty either. And I think that was the problem. The smell had a hint of a cleaning solution, along with a lot of something else. The smell was not a typical bathroom smell. The smell was not human or of this world. It was overpowering. It hit me like walking into a wall in the happy house. That was certainly not a ‘happy’ house. The smell was so bad, that the air should have been opaque. I got out of there as soon as I could because I didn’t need whatever that was staying in my lungs anymore. After all the rivers in India I drove over, after the far reaches of the Amazon jungle I’ve been to, and after being behind the business end of a wild elephant in South Africa, the award for worst smell in the world (so far…) is handed to the happy house outside of the Summer Palace. And for the proverbial cherry on top, the urinals had the sign below above them. Good luck trying to figure out what it’s for:
After the happy house adventure, which threw the entire group for a loop (even those that didn’t have to use the happy house went in to breathe in this fabled smell, then came running out hysterically laughing how awful it was – I wasn’t about to go back in – I still remember the smell), it was now time for the Summer Palace. Just like the majority of places we go, we’re in the minority here again, but most people aren’t tourists here. The Summer Palace is a very rough equivalent of Central Park in New York City (a very rough equivalent). It’s a place for people to relax, walk around, or exercise – under the watch of the government.
It may have been the smell from the happy house working through me, or perhaps a touch of starvation or dehydration, but I started posing next to the statues:
You can tell the lion is male because the one paw is on top of the ball, which is supposed to represent the Earth, and therefore man’s dominance of the Earth. Oh, those wacky Chinese…
I don’t want to say that we rushed through the Summer Palace, but our tour guide had us moving at a pace that would suggest that we did rush through the Summer Palace. So I’ll say it: we rushed through the Summer Palace. And what else was tough was that unless you were right up in front of the group, we couldn’t hear the guide. I tried for a while, he was kind of wily so if you were at the front in one spot, you weren’t going to stay there for long. I stopped trying and hung out in the back walking around, taking photos and commenting with others around me, which included some of the fun people from my bus, and the doc’s family.
This is a photo taken across the lake in the middle of the place. Don’t get me wrong, the Summer Palace is absolutely beautiful. But I’m sure it’s even more beautiful when the air is clear.
The entire time that we were walking the grounds, we had to follow a little yellow flag at the top of a stick held by our guide. There were a few times I fell behind a bit and had to catch up – so thank goodness that flag was there…otherwise I would have been lost in China forever.
So, at one point, my group decided to take a photo in front of what I’m guessing may be cherry blossoms, although I’m guessing not, just because not every blooming tree in Asia this time of year is a cherry blossom.
One of the most intriguing parts for me was this incredibly long corridor with incredibly intricately painted features. I’m sure our guide said what the story behind it was, but I have no idea. There has to be a reason for building an incredibly long corridor (only part of which you can see in the photo below). I just don’t know what that reason it is.
I think this corridor is about three-quarters of a kilometer long, and as far as I can tell, it’s actual name is the Long Corridor. Anyway, in the picture above, you can get an idea of what the drawings and paintings are like the entire length of the corridor, and the detail really is stunning. Below I have a picture of a part of the ceiling. This isn’t what the entire ceiling is like, because this is just where the entrances to the corridor are.
Moving swiftly onward through the grounds, and the corridor, I found that our guide was walking the group outside of the corridor. I was puzzled as to why we were avoiding walking through it, so I went inside the corridor and walked through that. The handiwork is phenomenal, why would I avoid it? I’m guessing that taking a big group through the corridor might block it up, or the guide selfishly thinks that not everyone will hear him if we’re squeezed in the corridor. Either way, it didn’t matter – I walked through it.
Eventually we started to work our way out to where the buses had moved to pick us up on the other side. But, along the way we ran into people selling stuff. Someone had a Beijing Olympics 2008 t-shirt for five dollars. I’m sure there’s something wrong with it, bit I bought one, along with a few other people. I figured I can always wear a t-shirt. I don’t need something kitschy.
Then we walked by the supposedly famous marble boat. It’s a boat that’s made of marble that looks like it floats. But it doesn’t. But as a feat of carving, it is quite stunning. But it would be even more stunning if it floated, let me tell you that.
The further away from the central lake you get, the less there is to see, so once we moved away from the lake, we had a pretty steady walk back to the bus. But the scenery was still absolutely beautiful. Then we exited the grounds, and the scenery went from beautiful to shady in the blink of an eye. There were shaky looking shops outside between the exit and the buses. And just as we were leaving, we passed this below, something you will never see in the US:
We often forget that we’re in a foreign country and unexpected things can happen to people in the group. Once the group was back at the buses, the other bus (verifying my reason for wanting to avoid that bus) was missing one person, and no one knew where she was. The presented a dilemma I had not seen before. No one carried a phone, so there was no method of contact. And the people she hung around had no idea where she was. She didn’t say she was going anywhere. So we waited for her to show up – and she didn’t show up.
The plan was devised for that bus to hang behind and wait while our bus drove back to the hotel – at rush hour. We were still behind schedule from the late arrival of the guides this morning, and we were about to be a little more under the gun. The evening’s event was a Chinese acrobatic show. Believe it or not, China is known for its Chinese acrobatic acts. And the original plan was for us to go back to the hotel to relax and freshen up for an hour or so, then leisurely depart for the show. This was in crisis as we may have to go straight to the show. I say crisis because we were on the adult bus, and a few people needed to get back to the hotel for necessities such as hairspray. Let’s just say that I was not in crisis.
As the cause for crisis was initially a need for ‘freshening up’ the crisis began to waver back and forth into whether we would make the show in time. Beijing is kind of a big city, and we were on the other side of it at the time. The traffic was unbelievable. Who doesn’t own a car? There’s a difference between owning a car to get around, and owning a car as a status symbol. I guess it’s their way to save face.
On the way back, we passed a number of interesting looking buildings, but none were as interesting as the Bird’s Nest, which will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics. Can you tell why they call it the Bird’s Nest?
We must have made up some time somewhere because we were told that we had fifteen minutes to freshen up at the hotel before we had to depart for the show. I went in and used the clean bathroom, as well as dropped off my backpack, which I didn’t need for the nighttime activities. I made it down with plenty of time to spare. However, the individual that needed the hairspray almost made us late. Once we were back on the bus, I’m not sure how the word got to us, but the other bus departed without the missing girl, and she supposedly was separated somehow and was taking a taxi back to the hotel, so she was fine.
The theater is made for the acrobatic show. They don’t travel, people come to them. I wanted one thing in the show: I wanted those 80 people on one bicycle. I didn’t want to be disappointed. The first act started with the acrobatic lion-like creatures on seesaws.
There were incredibly young children in the show performing acts that no young child their age should even be attempting, like creating this tower:
And then act one ended with the girls and spinning plates on sticks. I was convinced that those plates were attached to the sticks. There’s no way that that many people can spin that many plates on sticks and jump around and contort their bodies. That is, until the end came, and they all dropped the plates at once to prove that they weren’t attached. Again, I was proved wrong.
Something you might be able to notice in that photo above is the green laser in the back. The laser went up and down, and shot directly into the audience. After the first pass where it felt like I was getting corrective Lasik surgery, I closed my eyes the other twenty times the light buzzed by my eyes. I remembered I was in China and there may not regulations against the lasers that point into acrobatic show audiences.
Then we hit intermission, and I’m assuming the point of intermission is to allow time to clean up all the plates that they just dropped. And, feeling inspired by the astounding feats of acrobatics we had just been watching, I decided to participate in my own acrobatic demonstration. So I balanced my water bottle on top of my head:
And apparently Magnum bars are quite popular in China because the attendants were walking around trying to sell them. They were all gone by the time they got around to me, but that was okay, I was still following doctor’s orders and was starving myself.
Then the second half came along, with its multitude of acts. Acts like climbing a staircase using only one hand, and the girls on the bicycle! So, it starts out with a bunch of girls riding on their own bicycles. They ride them normally, they ride them sideways, they ride them while standing on top of them, you name it, and they rode their bicycle that way. And then they all ditched their bicycles, and started climbing up on the same bicycle, until at least ten girls were on the same bicycle.
Talk about a fun way to end the day! I can’t even ride a bicycle without holding the handlebars, and here these girls are piling on top of each other just to ride around in circles. I still haven’t figured out which of the ten was driving the bike, but I’m thinking that it was probably a group effort.
The acrobatic show was good fun and it really was a nice way to end the day. It was quite entertaining, but I was left with one thought at the end that I can’t seem to place. I was left feeling like it was a dress rehearsal. There was something about it that didn’t make it seem like they were really in it to win it, if you know what I mean. I’m sure it wasn’t a dress rehearsal, and as impressive as it was, I was left feeling room for improvement in some areas – like the positioning of the green laser of death.
When we exited the theater, as far as I could see down the street was a line of buses, waiting for people to board back on. I was towards the front of the group, so we kept walking down these dark Chinese streets trying to find the bus. We kept walking, walking, and walking, and the buses just kept on going. I’m guessing that because we arrived close to show time that we may have missed out on a prime parking spot. We were walking so far that we thought that we must have missed the bus by now. But just as we were losing hope, there it was. We realized that it was going to take some people a little while to reach the bus, so we might as well get comfortable.
We also realized that if people walked back on the other side of the street, they were most likely going to miss the bus. Sure enough, we look out the window and see people going right by the bus, and off into oblivion. Someone exited the bus to yell for them, and then stood outside so that no one else would walk by the bus, and that turned out to be a good move because I’m guessing that we were so far away that people were just going to keep on walking for the sake of walking.
Eventually we did have everyone on the bus, and a certain someone with hairspray in their hair was last, then we drove back to the hotel, which without traffic is a few minutes away, but we would never find the place if we walked. Too many turns, and it was also dark. I’ve walked the backstreets of Beijing once and I think that was enough.
Now at this point, it’s just before 10, and the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel was nearing its close. I had eaten small stuff throughout the day, and I was fine. I was hungry, I got the problematic duck out of me, let’s go. There was, of course, the option brought up of going out into Beijing to find a real place to eat, but at this point, the group sentiment was that we were pooped. And the restaurant served Western food, or so it said it did. I ordered the spaghetti Bolognese, which in later thought was probably too heavy. I should have went with something a little lighter. But it was too late now. Plus, don’t forget, I was hungry.
The meal came out and it was actually pretty good, I must say. I ate the whole thing and that also was most likely not the most brilliant of ideas, but there was no turning back now.
Shortly thereafter the stomach began to rumble. And also shortly thereafter, I went to bed.
Well, I should say ‘tried’ to go to bed. The roommate was getting ready for bed, when his satellite phone rang, and it was his family. And I guess they wanted to have a conversation, nearing midnight in China. I guess the family back home isn’t too good with the time conversion, and they just called at a time that was convenient for them. And I’m sure the roommate was thrilled to talk to his family, and I can’t fault him for that. What I can fault him for is not excusing himself from the room to go talk somewhere where he won’t be keeping me up for the nearly hour-long chat. I put forth the effort to get more sleep, but it was not in the cards for me.
I was up at 7, which felt awfully early again. It was another jam-packed day. And today was even more jam-packed because there was a flight wedged into the afternoon. Yes, today, day 3 of 6 in China was our last in Beijing. I think whirlwind might be the best way to describe our journey thus far. And I’m sure it would be applicable for the remaining days of the journey.
While the dinner stayed down, indicating the end of my miraculous recovery, I still only ate two croissants and a ‘donut’ at breakfast, as somehow that was all I was able to eat. There was quite a large spread, but that’s all that I went for. Everything else was out of my breakfast food zone, which is the narrowest zone of all my meals.
The first item on the agenda started us out at Tiananmen Square. I had not been there in over a day, but I have to say that it’s much less creepy during the day when it’s light out and the square is populated. But it wasn’t just populated, it was absolutely packed with people, who looked like they were doing little more than milling around.
Again, we had our guide with his flag in the middle of the world’s largest public gathering space. The trouble is that there were multiple tours throughout the area, and he wasn’t the only one with a flag on a stick. But the saving grace was that as far as I could tell, there was only one flag on a stick with a silly group of Americans following it around.
Much like the day before at the Summer Palace, it was tough to hear our guide. I could hear the other guides in the area much better because they had a microphone with a speaker attached to their hip. The problem there was that those guides were with non-English speaking tour groups, so I have no idea what they were saying. It was another lose-lose situation that I tried to make the best of by wandering around and taking photos in front of monuments that I had no idea what they were.
You may be noticing that I’m wearing the same loud, orange hoodie in all the photos. Don’t forget that my laundry was not back to the room by the time I departed for China, and that I am wearing different, clean clothes underneath the hoodie daily.
That photo above was quite out of the way, too. Me and the other people that ran around to take photos were about 100 meters away from the group when the picture was taken, and we all tried to keep an eye on the group. Because while we were posing for photos, the group was on the move across Tiananmen Square.
Something to note while I’m on the topic of Tiananmen Square: in the US, when a tragedy happens somewhere, there’s always some kind of memorial to mark what happened. The US does not shy away from marking tragedies. In China, if the government does not want the people to know about something of their history, as far as they are concerned, it never happened. There is zero evidence of the uprising and massacre that took place in Tiananmen Square just 18 years earlier. The man with the shopping bag that blocked the tanks was most likely on the same street as our hotel. And we were in the square during the anniversary of the events (4/15/89 to 6/4/89) and you would never know. The government reported up to 300 casualties, the New York Times reported up to 800, but the student associations of China reported numbers as high as 3,000. NATO finds as many as 7,000 died. But you’d never know. And that’s exactly how the government wants it to be.
Eventually the group worked its way towards the street splitting the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square, and it was time for another group photo, and it took almost as long as the photo before it. I’m not sure why, but photography has not been bundled down to a science yet. The difference with this photo-op was that there was no rush to run up a wall. We were just crossing the street and, as far as I was aware, we were not behind schedule at all.
Now we walked across the street and into the Forbidden City, which I figured cannot be housing something important because while there was what I’ll call ‘security’ we could walk right in. But I didn’t go in before posing with the Chairman Mao.
There are few more prominent symbols of China than that photo of Chairman Mao hanging outside of the Forbidden City. But as we must keep moving, we entered the Forbidden City, and let me tell you, this place is large. Gigantically large. Our guide moved us through the square at the bottom of the map below.
At the end of this first area, he told us that we had an hour and a half to ourselves, but we had to meet at the other end of the City at that time. We didn’t think that that would be much of a challenge, but that was before we found the map, and realized how big the place is. It’s big. So my group immediately started walking to try to see as much as possible, and make sure that it was possible to reach the other side in an hour and a half.
As we started to walk we saw signs for a rather intriguing location, something appropriate for a ship full of students: the Hall of Mental Cultivation. To make a long story short, we never found it. I’m not sure what that says about my mental cultivation, but we tried to find it. We got lost, it’s a bit of a big place.
In some spots there was nobody:
It was at times like that we almost felt like we wandered into the wrong area, if you know what I mean. And other times it was wall-to-wall people, and you had to fight your way through the crowds to see what everyone was looking at. And most of the time, they were looking at something that I would react to with: “That’s it, huh?”
Even now, well over a year before the Olympics, they’re really trying to clean up. Aside from taking the homeless off the street and throwing them in prison, they’re refurbishing much of the Forbidden City to make it look extra nice when the rest of the world comes to visit. Unfortunately for us, much of that stuff is currently covered in scaffolding, so we’re getting somewhat of the short end of the stick.
One of the places we ducked into to look around was some kind of museum, with a bunch of important old stuff in it. It did not take long for me to realize that these objects were laughably bizarre in their nature, and I’ll take the time to highlight two of them for you. The first item below is an instrument that demonstrates how the Moon revolves around the Earth, and how the Earth revolves around the Sun.
But the first sentence of the description reads, “When it works…” I’m guessing that this piece is in the museum as a showpiece because nobody can get it working again. The second example is the following interesting looking contraption.
What is this, you ask? Well the official description says that it is a “copper vase used in the ancient game of throwing bamboo, wooden, or ivory sticks; in the life of court, throwing sticks into the vase was an amusement.” And this gets put into a museum? A thing to throw sticks into? I could make one of those in my backyard. While the game may not be amusing, the description of it in the museum certainly is for me.
The Forbidden City is what I call beautifully repetitive. They have a fondness for the color red and this orange-colored roofing tile. They seem to use it everywhere. But it works.
And there was a point when my group took a break to sit, and I’m not sure what happened, but I lost my group. I have no idea where they went. But I found the doc and one of his daughters at the same time I was feeling lost and lonely. The only section we had left was the imperial garden at the end, and we had about twenty minutes to cover that in, so I joined them.
The imperial garden is the epitome of peaceful tranquility. There are some really fun looking rocks that the Chinese seem to be fascinated with. The photo below is supposed to be the most famous of these rocks. I’m not sure what’s going on with the Chinese and their rocks, but I’ll go along with it.
And as soon as it came, our time in the Forbidden City drew itself to a close. And we all met outside the north gate, and waited, and waited, and waited, but I’m not entirely sure what we were waiting for. But I was with what appeared to be the entire group, so I wasn’t going to get antsy. Although lunch was the next stop, and I was growing hungry. My ‘donut’ and croissants did not hold me over as I had hoped they would.
And then the order was given to be on the move. As usual, the buses had moved and it was a game of follow the leader, and hoping that the game was not the blind leading the blind. I was up towards the front of the group, so I was unawares of some of the antics and issues in the group behind me. So we’re walking along the outside of the Forbidden City, which is surrounded by a moat here on the other side, and we have to walk the length of that, then down a side street that is, coincidentally, lined with buses. When I get to the bus and climb on, someone comes running down looking for a first-aid kit, rather frantically at that, too.
I have no idea what’s going on, but as time goes on, it’s clear that someone has a head wound that they developed on the way to the bus. This is blowing my mind because I did not see anything in the way that would cause a gash in the head. I look out the window of the bus, and there’s a guy being attended to by the doc, and he is covered in blood. The cut in his head was apparently not to bad, and would just need some dressing. Then, as the rest of the group comes on the bus, the story develops.
Apparently, there were a few hawkers trying to sell something, and they were bothering this guy, and in an attempt to avoid them, he jumped from the street to the sidewalk, and did not see the giant metal sign that was right next to his head, and it cut him open. And yes, you guessed it, he was on the other bus. Are you seeing how my advanced thought process continues to pay off?
Lunch was supposed to be low-key, I think, but it didn’t turn out that way. First, this sign was in the neighborhood:
And then we walked into the restaurant and this sign greeted us:
BE CAREFUL WHILE DANCING ON THE TABLE? I can understand the first two rules about taking care of belongings, but rule 3 is be careful when dancing on the tables? Where were they taking us?! And on top of it all, this restaurant could not have been more discreetly hidden on a side alleyway. You need to know that this place exists to be able to find it.
I expected a hole in the wall place when we walked in, but it was surprisingly clean looking. There was a stage at the front, but I think it’s only used during dinner because it was vacant for us. No dancing for us, as so it would seem. Although, there were TVs that were running a loop of some bizarre performances, with music that graded on me the third, fourth, and fifth time it looped.
And on top of it all, there was cross-contamination. Another Semester at Sea group came in the restaurant about halfway through the meal. And because there was no attached store to occupy our extra time, we had the opportunity to mingle with them. Only on Semester at Sea can you run into people you haven’t seen in three days in the middle of a giant city like Beijing in a restaurant that probably doesn’t officially exist.
Next, we went off to our last stop in Beijing – the Temple of Heaven. This iconic temple is of the Taoist religion and was where the ancient emperors would come to pray for a good harvest. And of course, it has grounds that surround the temple. And perhaps one of my most favorite parts of my entire time in China was what I witnessed at the Temple of Heaven and captured in the video below. Repeated viewing is a must. Keep your eyes on the one in the red hat especially, although the one with the drum is also a winner:
I have watched that video more times than I can remember, and it never ceases to amaze me. What are these people doing? And why is the crowd watching them gigantic? I would have stayed longer, but I feel like I saw all there was to see. This is the perfect example of why we all need to stop and smell the flowers. I could have easily walked by this crowd, but I would have missed the mysterious and entrancing Woman in the Red Hat, and her partner, Drum Girl. And they look like they’re having so much fun. I made me wish that I had my own red handkerchief to wave with them.
And is it me, or are they completely out of sync with the music? There appears to be a lack of rehearsal. And I just noticed that there was a red microphone in front. I can only imagine the singing that would have accompanied this once-in-a-lifetime performance.
Anyway, while I was being mesmerized by Woman in the Red Hat and Drum Girl, I lost my group, and did not find them until we all met back at the bus. The Temple of Heaven is not a huge complex, and most of the attraction is the temple itself, so why I was unable to find my group boggles my mind a bit. But I did stop and take a photo of this guy, who has a cousin doing the same shtick in Central Park:
Alas, I may have had no group, but that did not stop me from taking one of the better self-pictures I have taken:
You can’t go inside of it, so the best you can do is take pictures of yourself in front of it, and I made sure that I did that and I did it well.
Out in back of the temple was a large group of people that were cutting stones with old, dull tools. I figured that they were either prisoners, or did not do well in school and the government relegated them to that job. On second thought, the prisoners would not be treated that well…
Aside from walking around and taking pictures, there is little to do at the Temple of Heaven, especially after losing your group. So as I walked back out, I walked out of what would most likely be the last time I am in Beijing for at least a while. I’d like to come back once they figure out the pollution and traffic and human rights issues, but I don’t know that I’ll be waiting around for a short time for that.
For the rest of the day, it’s all about travel. We’re heading to the airport for the approximately two-hour flight (a short one) to Xi’an. What would we find in Xi’an? Well, more pollution. The reappearance of the ubiquitous Magnum bar. And aside from the greatest archeological find of the 20th century, we would find the story of the Foreign Delegation. A story that is one for the record books.
But first, we’ve got to get there.
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