I hadn't had the money at the time to book my train ticket with all the other teachers so I ended up flying out on sunday morning by myself to meet them all there. My flight left at 8am and I had to be there at 7am. Taking an hour to get there that meant I woke up at 5:30. Except I didn't really wake up per se. I gave up on sleep because I was too excited and just stayed up all night.
I walked outside at 6am into complete nothingness. Had I just died? All you could see was cloudy white air and maybe a few feet in front of you. I assumed this was morning fog and, when mixed with Wuhans usual pollution haze, offered a view distance of about 5 feet. The few taxis that were on the main road were driving so slow you could walk faster than them. I was glad to be leaving this grey depressing place for the capital of China. But as most things in my life it was not without random bad luck obstacles. The fog/pollution/end of all mankind fallout was so thick that my plane was grounded on the runway for about 2 and a half hours. Awesome. Perfect start to a day. If I didn't make it to Beijing before noon or so all the other teachers there would most likely be off sightseeing without me and not at the hostel. Making it difficult to find them. Eventually though, I sighed a breath of relief as my plane lifted off and I was off the Beijing.
I landed in Beijing at about 1pm. So much for making it before noon. I quickly called all the teachers but no one seemed to pick up. Looks like I was going to have to find my way to the hostel on my own. Before leaving i had written down basic directions and a hilarious kindergarten map of the area I would be staying in. Very confused and lost in the airport, I somehow managed to find the bullet train that took me to the subway line and eventually to where my hostel was near Tiannamen Square. While riding the train through the city, I looked out the window in wonder. Is that a BLUE sky I see? are those TREES? Is this lady on the intercom speaking in ENGLISH? Was I even still in China? I swear I had just gotten off in Scarborough and was heading into downtown Toronto. What is this madness. I made my way to the crowded Beijing subway. When I say crowded I mean crowded. This was China National Week and apparently, pretty much every asian was headed to the capital. Facing my second obstacle of the day, I realized my subway stop was not even functioning as the train just blew right by. I got off anyways and decided to walk to my hostel using my crayon map.
Beijing is a beautiful city. I had expected it to be dirtier and more polluted than Wuhan but I was definitely wrong. This was a vacation from the China I knew. Everywhere had english signs. When I bought water she spoke english to me and said have a nice day. I was beaming as I checked into my hostel and set out to find the rest of the teachers, who were at the Beijing Silk Street doing some shopping.
I'm going to have to say that the silk market in Beijing is every womans dream and every mans nightmare. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Street.
6 floors of everything you can even think of buying, all bunched up into tiny stalls. People yell at you when you pass them, asking if you want this or that. Armani, Gucci, Prada, Luis Vitton all either incredibly cheap or flat out amazing fakes. Everything you buy comes with a wonderfully addicting game to go with it, the bargaining game. The "Whos a Cheaper Asshole" game. The girls were all having a heyday. They had already perfected the art of bargaining and were getting things that were at first 1500 kuai, down to about 100 (which is about $15 canadian.) Myself I wanted to leave the place about 3 minutes after being in it. But the girls were in for the long haul so I decided to make a few purchases. I bought a swiss army knife, a poker set and some Nike Air running shoes (150 kuai!) for the 10k Great Wall hike we were doing in the morning. Apparently I was not very good at "Who's A Cheaper Asshole" and the other teachers laughed at the prices I got the stuff for. Except the shoes. Which i brought one of the expert females with me to purchase.
Later on we went to a Western restaurant and i had my first real pizza and beer since i've been in China. But I was exhausted and ended the night early. We were getting up at 6am to go hike the Great Wall Of China.
We all hopped on the bus early Monday morning. The tour would be taking us about 4 hours out of the city to a section of a wall rarely travelled by tourists and far more authentic. What some people don't know is that the main part of the wall you see in pictures and as the tourist attraction is not even a real part of the wall. It was restored and made to resemble the original wall, they even made it wider so as to fit more people on it, meaning more Kuai from tourists. As I will learn theres not much real left from ancient China.
On the way there I was pleased to enjoy an episode of southpark. Last thing I had expected. It was the one where they hire the Chinese guy to build a wall to keep out the Mongolians. It was fitting and hilarious. When we finally arrived I strapped on my new Nikes and got ready for one of the hardest hikes of my life.
I had no idea the stamina it was going to take to climb this thing. In pictures it seems so straight and casual but not this part. It goes straight up a mountain by way of steep, broken, stone steps and some parts none at all. Your always climbing, but that meant the view got better everytime you looked back and what a view it was. The view from the Great Wall is breathtaking. For the first time in China I was in awe of something natural. The endless green mountains and the wall snaking for miles out of view, I enjoyed every minute of the hike besides the fact I was huffing and puffing, so out of shape, as the air got thinner. I yelled and threw rocks off the great wall and tried to picture Mongolian hordes attacking from the other side. The thin air was for sure getting to me. At the halfway point of the hike you get to the part of the wall that hasn't been restored for 500 years. It was grown over with shrubs and trees for the most part and others were just a thin line of concrete where you have to walk across. I though back home this would never be allowed without some sort of safety rail and was happy the Chinese don't really care all that much for safety. After the 3 hour hike was over I was exhausted and inspired at the same time. Also starving. After carving my name into the one of the wonders of the world, we headed home to have Peking Duck for dinner. It was delicious.
The next day I went to the Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. Which was equally packed with tourists. This blog is already way too long so instead of explaining the history behind the place i'll just post a link for anyone interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City. All i have to say about the forbidden city is that while being beautiful and massive, not much of the real architecture is authentic. Most of it was restored. But It was still badass walking on the same forbidden ground the emperors of China walked on for hundreds of years. After a long 5 hour walk around Beijing I took a much needed nap and planned the next leg of my journey.
This is where things got interesting. A few of the teachers decided that instead of going back to Wuhan and doing nothing for 4 days they would take a train to Shanghai and spend the rest of the vacation there. Unfortunately for me they failed to mention this to me and had already booked the tickets well in advance. I scrambled to get a ticket booked but all the trains were booked up. The person at the hostel told me there was another option but usually they don't even bother offering it to foreigners; Standing class. You see on China trains you can get Soft Sleeper (the most expensive, offering a nice comfy bed) Hard sleeper, Soft Seat and for the poor or unfortunate few, standing class. You have a ticket on the train but no seat and you are forced to stand/sit/kneel/crouch in the aisle of the soft seat cars. This was a 13 hour overnight train. I figured screw it, I'm in China. What other chance would i get to do something like this. Also the ticket was only 150 kuai (the same price as my running shoes). I took it. The chinese people working at the desk and the other teachers around all looked at me crazily "are you sure!?!" they asked.
It can't be that bad? right?
I would soon find out.... to be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment