Even though we left Mongolia less than a week ago, it feels like its been months. We embarked on our lightening fast tour of China on Tuesday, September 20th and moved around nonstop for literally the entire week. A different bed every night. We left the the Mongolian guesthouse (to the delight of our hosts) at 8:00am and arrived at the airport, which wasn’t even open when we arrived! Yes, that’s right, the Ulaanbaatar airport isn’t open 24 hours a day. We had to wait for an hour and a half until the international departure section opened up.
It was a short, painless flight to Beijing, which was an intense awakening compared to our low-key Mongolian experience. The airport is GIGANTIC. Everything in China is just so big. We were herded through customs and baggage claim, where we met our first tour guide, Julia. And so began our cattle-like tour through China. From the moment we stepped on the tour bus, I felt like a mindless puppet, moving my head left and right to see the sights out the bus window, hearing our upbeat guide spew facts and figures about China’s recent economic boom and Olympic success. It was an official government tour, which might explain the patriotic enthusiasm. It was a little eerie to be honest.On the bright side, it was a welcome relief to finally see green grass and trees after a month in a leaf-less city. The orderliness of Chinese culture was also immediately apparent, especially in the incredibly well behaved highway drivers. Everyone was driving at a reasonable speed! And waiting their turn to merge! It was delightful not to feel like we were about to get sideswiped every time we changed lanes. On the flip side though, Beijing struck me as having creepy, mechanized feel to it. It was like everyone was a peg in a really, really big machine. Everything seemed regulated, which it probably is to some degree. At least a lot more than Mongolia.
We got to the hotel about an hour later, and our next order of business was to find food. We visited a really cool, but not very authentic, street food block called the night market.
Lots of skewers of unique proteins, noodle dishes, fruit, dumplings and soup. But as you can see, this too was pretty touristy. Everyone wore matching hats and aprons, and each stall was decorated with the same red lamps. The tourists were just audience members watching a show. But the food was pretty good nonetheless. The best part of the night was walking a few blocks to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City for a quick look at everything lit up at night. They were beautiful, and also WAY bigger than I expected.
The next day was crazy: the Ming dynasty tombs, a jade factory, and the Great Wall. The Great Wall was indisputably the highlight. It was absolutely magnificent. I feel so lucky to have been able to see it in once in my life.
All the sights in China were interesting but to be honest, they often didn’t make an impact on me because they were so overcrowded with tour groups. I felt like one of a billion others to have been in these places, and I was often not even motivated to take photos. It was comical; every spot we went to was filled with dozens, even hundreds of other groups like ours, their guides holding up bright colored flags above the crowd to keep everyone together. Thank god we didn’t have to wear matching hats or outfits like many others.The next day was just as jam-packed as the one before. We were up early to pack for our overnight train to Xian that evening. And it was back in the big bus for an official tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Again, the size was overwhelming. There were large government buildings scattered throughout, one of which was Mao’s mausoleum. We learned that the mausoleum is open to the public for only 3 hours every morning, so naturally it attracts a large crowd. There were hundreds and hundreds of people standing in a line that snaked around the entire building, waiting to catch a glimpse of his mummified remains. Again, kind of eerie. The vast majority of these visitors were domestic. Also eerie: the hundreds of cameras positioned on the light posts sprinkled throughout the square. I was warned against photographing them by a friend after this picture was taken. Oops.
Across a 6-lane highway was the Forbidden City, which greets its guests with a gigantic portrait of Mao smack-dab in the center of the red south entrance wall.
The Forbidden City was immense. Tremendous, ornate wall after tremendous, ornate wall. It seemed never-ending. It was really interesting to be able to look into some of the buildings and see the historically preserved sleeping quarters of the former emperors and their concubines. Towards the north side, we walked through a beautiful, serene rock garden. It was a LONG tour, and eventually it became hard to appreciate the beauty of the place while being squeezed and pushed by the thousands of other visitors.
Next stop was the Silk Market, a 6-story department store filled with rows and rows of vendors selling knockoff designer everything. Shoes, clothes, sunglasses, jewelry, makeup, purses, movies, watches, etc., all up for bargaining. Sounds like my bag, right? Wrong. I hated just about every minute of it. I started by joining my friend Veronica, who is an excellent haggler and had been to the market before, at a denim stall. By the time I got there, she had a silly rapport going with the vendor, and had picked a pair of knockoff designer jeans to buy for 200 Yuan, or about $30. I quickly got talked into trying on a pair myself, and before I knew it, Veronica had moved on and this smooth-talking vendor was showing me on her calculator how much money I was saving on these pants. But there was no way I was going to buy a pair of pants that I didn’t really want from the first stall I walked by. I’m too much of a shopper to give in that easily. There was no way I could ever hope to fit them into my backpack anyway. I attempted to politely decline and promised to come back later after I had looked around, which I quickly learned was a mistake. Show no weakness or uncertainty at the Silk Market! Our conversation went as follows:
Vendor: What? Why would you do that to me? I though we were friends? I went and got these pants from the back room for you. They fit you, right?
Me: Yes.
You like them, right?
Yes.
Well then I don’t understand. Why would you do that to me? I got these all the way from the back room for you. I’m giving you a deal. I just don’t understand.
Those of you who know me well know that I am a huge bargain shopper. I don’t buy the first thing I see, ever. I always shop around, talk myself into things and out of things, buy stuff and return it a few days later. I wasn’t in the right mindset for this place at all.
Vendor: Why would you do that to me? My boss will be angry. I could lose my job. You like them, right? So then why do you want to look around? I give you a good price. You tried them on and you like them. I don’t understand. I already put the pants in a bag, and we agreed on a price. Its bad luck to take these out of the storeroom and not sell them. I’m going to get in trouble with my boss now. I might be fired because of you. Why would you do that?
This went on for what felt like 3 or 4 minutes. Somehow, she convinced me that I was the one who owed her an apology. How twisted is that? And the worst part is that I apologized…and I felt bad! She actually made me feel guilty. But I didn’t give up! As I started walking away from the stall, she grabbed my arm and shouted at me to come back. She quickly lowered the price by 50 Yuan. She shouted “Hey lady! Come back lady!” until I was out of earshot. It was actually kind of traumatic. Little did I know, this was just the beginning.
The same thing happened at a shoe stall. I tried a few pairs on, which seemed harmless. Trying on a pair of shoes shouldn’t rope me into anything, I thought. But a similar shouting match ensued as soon as I tried to walk away without buying. It was exhausting, and kind of embarrassing. I did eventually end up buying some, and I probably paid too much. No matter what, I would have walked out of there feeling bad about something, either paying more than I should have, or feeling guilty that I had put some vendor’s job in jeopardy.
Luckily we had a traditional Peking duck dinner to look forward to after the shopping disaster. But that ended up being pretty disappointing too. Maybe I was just in a carry-over bad mood from the market. Or maybe I was being a food snob. I don’t know.
We were told we were being taken to an authentic Chinese restaurant, known for its Peking duck. Unfortunately, it was nothing but another multi-floor, banquet hall style tourist restaurant, much like the ones we had been carted around to the previous days. A stereotypical chef in a French chef’s hat wheeled into our private dining room with a tiny, pre-cooked duck (not nearly big enough to feed our whole group) to carve tableside. It all tasted very cafeteria-like to me. But I’m also a pretty big snob when it comes to restaurant food. My countless hours spent watching the Travel Channel and Food Network have gone to my head. But the food in China was MUCH better off the beaten bath, so I feel justified.
My happiest memories from all of China were from our free day in Shanghai, which was our third and final stop of the tour. Between Beijing and Shanghai came Xian for one night, which is honestly a haze of sleep deprivation mixed with visions of terracotta warriors in my brain. Not noteworthy. But Shanghai was much more enjoyable. No more tour guides or cafeteria food!
I set out in the afternoon with Connie, Greg and Monica for a day of exploration in the largest contiguous city in the world! My only requirements: a good, authentic Chinese meal, and a cheap haircut. We found a cute little “one woman show” restaurant for lunch, but were out of our league a little bit when it came to ordering. Thankfully, Monica had taken two semesters of Chinese back on campus, so she could help us out a little bit. But this was the first time I literally had to order from someone who was completely unfamiliar with English. Somehow it worked out and we got a picture with the chef/owner (haha).
After lunch we walked through an extremely cool antique market with tons of communist era memorabilia, antique jewelry and trinkets. It was a blast to look through, and I regret not buy anything L.
But my spirits were lifted after my awesome haircut! My friends were nice enough to stroll into a little salon on a street corner with me, and help me choose a style from one of their magazines. No verbal communication necessary! I was pretty nervous, I’ll admit. That was the most I’ve sweated during a haircut. But it turned out GREAT! I honestly think it’s one of the best hairstyles I’ve ever had. And it doesn’t even look like the picture I pointed to, as far as I can remember. That stylist just knew what I needed.
To top if off, later that night I had the best meal in all of China, and possibly the best meal of the trip so far. My friends decided to sit down at a run-of-the-mill fast food shop near our hotel, but I was feeling curious so Audrey and I ventured on to find something more interesting. We came across some food carts that had set up shop literally in the middle of an intersection, and were cooking up wok-fried noodles and grilled meats and veggies. I created my own noodle stir-fry with rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, chilies and greens, and it was AMAZING. Spicy and fresh, but not too greasy or heavy. I also had a grilled corn on the cob, covered in what tasted like Indian spices. It was unreal. And way cheaper than anything else we could have found. We sat on some 12 inch plastic stools at a plastic kiddie table and ate our noodles out of plastic bags. I ate it up. The whole thing. It was a wonderful, unforgettable day, and a great way to end the week.
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