Beijing

November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving my dear friends and family!

I must start off by first apologizing. I realize it has been nearly a month since I last posted, much too long. Things have become stressful and busy, and combined with my laziness, I have not found the time to write a blog. Since this is my journal while I am here in China, I’m quite sad knowing that there will be many details I have forgotten that I will not be able to include. I regret having put off my blog.

Now that my confession is over, lets get started! This post will be about my Beijing trip at the beginning at this month, and then I will post another blog about what has been happening here in Shanghai since my return.

Beijing...where to start?! Well, lets start at the beginning. Adu and I left Monday evening. We checked the weather and it was supposed to be cold in Beijing and I didn’t really have a good jacket, so in the afternoon Adu and I went shopping to get me something warm. I got a nice sweater and vest -  good brand and good price too. Actually, I got the same sweater as he did, just a different color, so we’re all matchy - haha kind of dorky, but cute. You’ll see them in the pictures below. 

Before our journey

After shopping and lunch, Adu and I headed to the train station. As we boarded the train, I realized why these tickets were so much cheaper than others. They were seat tickets, in a hard-seated, crowded, stuffy train full of lower to middle class Chinese people. I was most definitely the only foreigner and probably one of the only few foreigners who has ever traveled in that type of train. You wouldn’t believe how many looks I got being the only white person on a train like that. Man, what an experience. The train left around 8 pm and arrived in Beijing about 10:00 am the next morning. It took 14 hours to Beijing by slow train, and man, were those 14 long hours. The seats were pretty uncomfortable, wood with very thin fabric covers and not reclined in the least bit. I didn’t think I was going to get any sleep that night, but somehow we managed. They kept the lights on all night (I have no idea why) and the people that couldn’t sleep felt the need to talk very loudly. It also smelled because Chinese people don’t care about smoking laws. Yeah, what an experience. I slept on Adu’s shoulder and we were able to get a couple hours of sleep on the train. Adu finally got the courage to hold my hand while we were on the train, so that’s kind of cute. 

The train

The next morning we arrived in Beijing and took the bus to the Hutongs (I’ll explain these later) to find our hostel. I discovered on this trip that Adu is not a great planner, nor very responsible. We went to find the hostel and turns out it had moved, so we asked around and went to the new location. After walking around for quite a while, we discovered that it had completely shut down even after moving locations. We tried to find another hostel or hotel, but were unsuccessful. So, Adu called his aunt and she came to meet us.

Ok, so the Hutongs are these small little alleys and neighborhoods that are super traditional in Beijing. These tiny little houses are connected together and inside a little courtyard and then they’re connected to other little neighborhood-like courtyards with these tiny little streets in between. Some so small you could barely drive a car though, or not at all. These houses are so small they don’t even have bathrooms. So on every block and most corners are public restrooms for everyone who lives in the hutongs. No toilets or sinks or showers, just holes in the ground with two walls on the sides, but no doors. I felt a little uncomfortable squatting over a hole with no door where people could see me, but I got used to it. 

Bike tours in the hutongs

hutongs

         You just have to get used to things like that when traveling. Adu’s aunt and uncle live in the hutongs so we met up with his aunt after not being able to find a hostel. We first went back to their home to have a rest. It was so cool, and so small. As you walk in the door, the kitchen sink/only sink/shower was to your right. By shower, I mean there was a drain on the floor and a shower head on the cement wall and  a curtain you could pull around to keep it from splashing on the washing machine and rest of the room. To the left was another small curtain, which had their “kitchen” – which was really a small, portable stove and some shelves. There they also kept some food to store, but no fridge. In that room was also the bed of his cousin. The next room was the bedroom/TV room/computer room/dinning room/living room. His aunt and uncle’s bed took up most of the room, with just enough space for the desk and computer with the TV on the dresser. There was a small space in the room where they would bring out their little fold out table for dinner and sit on the edge of the bed and use the computer chair to complete their dinning room set. Talk about humble living. I guess living in the hutongs is pretty expensive actually, but it’s very small and very cramped. So, we rested at their home for a while with his aunt. She took us out for lunch at a near by restaurant and then we headed in search for a hostel.

 I couldn’t understand why we were walking around instead of calling or looking online, but I guess they’re not really used to that. It was quite cold, I was still very tired, and then it started raining and we had no umbrella, so I was starting to get a little frustrated. We kept going to hotels but I kept on insisting we find a hostel. Adu felt that expressing any matter of opinion wouldn’t be respectful to his aunt and I couldn’t communicate with her. Hotel after hotel turned us away -  why? Because they wouldn’t accept foreigners. Beijing is really weird like that. We could find one hotel that would accept me but it was really expensive. We finally went back to his aunt’s house after walking in the cold for over an hour and I got on their computer and found a hostel in about 5 minutes. We took a taxi over to the hostel and were a little disappointed when we realized they lied to us over the phone. They said both foreigners and Chinese nationals could stay there, but then they changed their mind when we got there saying that Chinese nationals were not allowed, only foreigners. After some talking with them, they agreed we both could stay, but not in a community room, we had to get our own room. That of course cost much more, but I was so sick of looking for a place to stay, so we finally checked into a room. We napped and showered and then went out for a bit of adventuring.

Outside the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City

                  Adu and I grabbed a taxi and headed to Jingshan Park, near the Forbidden City. It was already starting to get dark so we couldn’t stay long, but we did enjoy some old people doing Tai Chi, as well as hiked up to some of the lookouts. There were some great views up on the hill where we got to see the city lights as it got dark. It was pretty cold, but had a great view of the Forbidden City so it was worth it. We hiked back down in the dark and headed back to his aunt’s house again. This time his uncle and cousin were there and they were just preparing dinner. They don’t speak any English, so I felt a little awkward, but they were very nice. We had a lovely dinner and I could tell how happy Adu’s uncle was to see him. We stayed for a while but we were pretty tired from walking all day and not having gotten much sleep the night before, so we hopped on the bus and headed back to our hostel for the night.

                  The next day we had a warm, delicious breakfast at a small shop near our hostel where we enjoyed some porridge and red bean moon cakes. I have found while living in China that I do quite enjoy red bean. After breakfast we headed to Tiananmen Square. It’s hard for me to describe my feelings that I had while at Tiananmen Square. I will just say that I liked being there, although I felt so solemn. There are a few museums around the square but we didn’t go to any of them, being short on time. Actually, we wanted to go inside the Mao Memorial but no bags are allowed and we both had backpacks and no place to store them; pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I mostly enjoyed just pondering and feeling connected to the spirits of those who died in the protests at Tiananmen Square. I really wanted to ask Adu about what he knew of the protests, but also didn’t want to offend him, nor shatter his world by telling him. Most Chinese people do not even know of the protests of 1989. I later asked him, after our trip, but he didn’t know about the protests and what happened there. He was confused and curious when I asked him, but not wanting to make things uncomfortable, I told him to talk to Lincoln and Sara about it because I knew that they knew. We stayed a while at the square and then headed over to the Forbidden City, which is right across the street. 

The Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City

More of the Forbidden City

More in the city

Wow, what to say about the Forbidden City...we were there most of the day as it is huge. Ancient buildings (a lot that have been rebuilt due to natural destruction or wear) surrounded by walls that seem to go forever. It was really cool, but very long and I’ll be honest, the buildings all look the same after a while. There were some guards there and I saw a guy stand next to him as his friend took a picture. The guard didn’t care and did nothing while his picture was being taken with this Chinese national. So, naturally, I wanted one too! But because Beijing is really weird and hates foreigners, the guard stopped us and refused to let us take a picture. I guess he told Adu that no foreigners could take a picture with him, only nationals. Ok, ridiculous, right? So whatever, we went over to another guard and I stood behind him as Adu tried to casually take a picture of us without the guard realizing.

Sneaking a pic with the guard

There was a lot of amazing architect in the city and some cool museums you could go in. Other main buildings were like temples that you couldn’t go in, but could look in and try to take a picture. I say try because they had small openings with a gate you could see in and these were always so crowded with people also trying to get a glimpse and a shot.

Contemplating the view

At the back of the city was a huge garden, I guess where the Emperor’s wives would stay. The trees were so old and so amazing, probably one of my favorite parts of the city. There was a pond that people would throw coins in for good luck that probably had more than a thousand Yuan in there. We spent half the day in the city and then finally left because we were so hungry but the food inside is so expensive and our Oreo’s just weren’t cutting it. We came out the other end of the city where I soon ran out of money giving to all the beggars. We also stopped to take some 

pictures by the beautiful water surrounding the city.

The crowded garden

Amazing trees

Quite a tree

                  After the Forbidden City, we got lunch and enjoyed walking around Beijing. I bought a few little things in some shops we passed and we stopped in a park/gym. They have these little parks that look like playgrounds for kids, but they’re actually public exercise facilities for the community, mostly the adults. They had Ping pong tables, bad mitten nets, some tables to play cards, and other equipment for exercise that looked a lot like playground equipment. Some old men were playing Hacky Sack, which is like a feathered sort of shuttlecock called Jianzi. The men even invited me to play, but after one try and failing, they laughed and played among themselves as I just watched. Adu played bad mitten with some little kids until it got too dark.

That night, Adu wanted to treat me to the traditional dinner of Beijing, their special fried duck. His uncle called though, to invite us for dinner. Adu told him he wanted to treat me this dinner and so his uncle responded with “Great! We’ll meet you at the restaurant!” Haha it was great. So we met up with his aunt and uncle and cousin again for dinner. They treated us and it sure was delicious!

After dinner we said goodnight to his family and we went to explore the Hutongs. There we did some shopping and enjoyed the nightlife. There were so many bars and every single bar had a live band or singer. Ever bar we passed had people outside trying to persuade us to come in and eat and drink there. These bars and hutongs were around a big lake so we got to enjoy the beautiful view of the lake and all the city lights around. It was pretty noisy though with all the music clashing together. We also got these traditional fruit kabob’s covered in sugar – super delicious. Oh, we also had these people come up to us to ask for directions. We were a little confused at first because they looked very Chinese but were asking if we spoke English. Apparently they were Japanese (but you really can’t tell a difference by looking) and couldn’t speak any Chinese and were quite lost. Adu knew the area pretty well so he sent them on their way. I think it’s funny how much the Chinese dislike the Japanese and vise verse, but even they can’t tell each other apart. After a lovely evening of walking through the hutongs, we grabbed a taxi back to the hostel. We had planned to go to the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square that morning but had slept in so we planned to go the next morning.

                  So the next morning we got up around 5:00am to get to Tiananmen Square by sunrise. We should have gotten there earlier though because there were so many people, we could hardly see anything. They stopped traffic during the ceremony and had the soldiers/guards (not really sure) raise the flag as the national anthem played. Adu translated the anthem for me so I could understand the words. It was lovely, but I do appreciate our government the more I get to understand the Chinese government. After the ceremony, we enjoyed the Square a little longer, as I didn’t want to leave. I don’t know why I liked it so much there, but I really could have spent the whole day just sitting on the ground in the square. We had places to go and things to see though, so we headed to find a place for breakfast. We had to walk a ways, but found a place with warm porridge and scones.

After breakfast we took a shortcut back through a park to get to the buses near the square. We took a bus over to some more buses where we were almost ripped off, but then found the real buses we could take up to the Great Wall. It was a one-hour ride so we slept a little on the way. We got there around 11 am and it was pretty cold so I had to buy some gloves before we started our journey – which I later left on the bus on the way home, what a bummer. As soon as we got on the wall, Adu wanted to do some yoga. He did a headstand and soon a foreign couple came up to take pictures of him, asking him to hold the pose longer. Then the guy wanted Adu to teach him, it was pretty fun. While they were taking pictures I was sitting over on the wall when a cute Chinese girl came up to me confessing she had taken my picture and if that was ok. Very sweet, because most Chinese will take pictures of me all the time, not caring if I say it’s ok or not. I said it was fine and we went on our way to enjoy the Great Wall of China!

                  The Great Wall was pretty much exactly what you would think, but smaller probably. Or at least I imagined it would be bigger. It was very crowded and I’m sure there wasn’t a brick on there that didn’t have tons of names carved into it. It was a pretty cold day, but not too bad. It sprinkled for a little bit, but never rained enough to get out our umbrellas. Because of the weather, there was a nice fog that actually looked really cool and added a cool effect to the whole scene of the ancient wall. Because it was cold there were less people than usual, or so Adu said, but still quite a few people. So many people were asking to take pictures with me, or just took them without my consent, I felt like a celebrity. Here’s a fun video I took of Adu and me at the highest look out tower on the Great Wall. I taught him the slang words “swag” and “swagger” by the way :)

(Video goes here mom, thanks!)

We spent a good few hours on the wall, also stopping to eat snacks when we got hungry. We definitely got tired as parts of the wall are quite a hike! I wish I could explain just how ridiculously steep some of these stairs were! Unreal. Our legs were definitely feeling it. Near the end where everybody was exiting, you could keep going for a while before they blocked it off again, so Adu and I decided to hike the extra way and back again. It was really nice and peaceful with almost no people. We were really glad we hiked the extra bit because it was the only place that wasn’t so crowded with people. Adu did some more yoga and we sat quietly, enjoying the view and the whole atmosphere. It was such an interesting feeling being on the wall. Adu described it as feeling like a part of the wall, but I didn’t want to be any part of the wall. The wall was such a perfect symbol for China, trying to keep things out. I enjoyed being on the wall and it was a very cool experience, but I had a unique feeling being on it, I don’t really know how to describe. When we hiked to the last look out tower before we had to turn back, we rested for a while and I could tell that Adu wanted to kiss me then. I wouldn’t let him though, as I figure it will just make things complicated and kissing really isn’t necessary. I like him, but I go home soon, and my feelings for him aren’t that strong, he’s mostly just a really cool friend.  

On the way back we exited through a bear park where they kept black bears in these tiny little pits, it was kind of depressing actually. But they could climb up on these decks and you could throw apples to them as they were really close. It was kind of fun, but mostly depressing. The bus we got on to go home was the last one to go down so we had to wait a long time to make sure no one got left behind. I slept again on the way back as I was quite tired from hiking around all day.

That evening we headed back to Adu’s uncle’s house for dinner again. They were so sweet and wanted to have us for dinner every night – such great people. That night they served us a lot of great dishes, and also two not so great, but interesting dishes. One called “100 year old eggs” (when translated from Chinese) that are basically raw eggs that have rotted and been rotting for several months, almost a year. Then they peel them and eat them as is. They are blackish orange and gooey and so disgusting. I didn’t want to try them but they all really wanted to see what I thought of them. The first bite was tolerable, but then I wanted to puke for the rest of it. I barely choked it down – ugh! The other not so good dish was some sort of intestine. The flavor wasn’t too bad but I could not stand the texture, it made me gag. The rest was really good though! And it’s fun to try new things, right?

The next day was our last day and we wanted to take it easy. We slept in a little, and I tried to call mom via Skype before we headed out. She wasn’t around but I responded to some emails in the mean time. As I was sitting out in the lobby to pick up the wireless signal, I noticed some commotion over at the front desk. It was some foreign guy trying to talk with the lady at the desk and soon they came over by me to use the phone. He wanted her to call someone for him and translate because he didn’t speak Chinese. This man was European, not sure where from exactly, maybe Ireland. He was quite drunk and I could still smell the alcohol on his breath. Soon he started talking to me, explaining he had met some Chinese woman the night before and he wanted to call her for a good time, but she was no longer in Beijing, or so she said, so he was pretty upset. He then told me about his life and how rich he was and his travels and how he recently divorced. I listened and chatted with him a little bit. I mentioned that I like traveling and have a few more places I want to go after I finish college. He then went on to tell me that he could pay for all my travels and I didn’t need to finish school and I could go with him and he was a real man and I don’t need a boy, I need a real man in my life! Haha, it was pretty funny. I ended the conversation and told him I had to get back to my “boyfriend”, just as an excuse to get away. Interesting conversations with drunk people...haha.

Adu and I packed our bags and left them at the front desk to pick up later before heading out. We then went to the Hutongs that are mostly for the foreigners for shopping. I did lots of Christmas shopping there and we enjoyed the old-town Beijing feel.

After shopping we headed back to his uncle’s for lunch. I kept asking about when we were going to leave for the train station and go get our bags and things and that we should be an hour early, but Adu insisted being only a half hour early would be fine. His uncle wanted to take us to the train station, but I was getting a little frustrated because he was just playing some stupid computer game. I was annoyed but decided to trust Adu and his uncle and that everything would be fine, so I took a nap in the mean time. Finally his uncle made us some lunch and then we headed back to the hostel to grab our bags. The bus didn’t take us very near to our hostel and we couldn’t grab a taxi! It was so frustrating! We finally got one but we were already running way late. We ran and grabbed our bags but then we couldn’t find the tickets! Ugh! So we were looking and looking but had to hurry back out to the taxi. We kept looking for the tickets on the way but were not successful. It didn’t matter though, because we arrived at the train station minutes after our train left. Words fail to express how upset and angry I was with Adu. I had insisted we be there early, but he refused to tell his uncle to stop playing video games and to hurry up, because that would be disrespectful or something. So there we were, I had work the next morning, and we were not on the train home. We talked to the ticket offices and there wasn’t a single seat on any train that could get me back to Shanghai in time for work the next morning.

I called Christine so frustrated, explaining our predicament. The only way was for me to get a plane ticket or possibly a fast train, but both of those still didn’t arrive in Shanghai until almost 9am and that was the time I was supposed to be at work. She said it was ok, that my first two classes could be covered, but I really needed to be there for my third class, as no one would be available to cover it. I promised I would be back in time, but I doubted my promise. I would not even look at Adu at this point, but I would certainly talk to him, just so I could tell him how mad I was. I didn’t yell at him, but it was difficult not to. His uncle was there still with us, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t understand what I was saying, but he could tell how angry I was. I was so frustrated because I hate not being able to keep promises and I hate not being responsible, like being late for work. I was so mad and probably said a few hurtful things to Adu that I shouldn’t have. We tried everything, and soon we called his aunt who suggested she had a friend who worked for an airline. She called her friend and she was able to find me a plane ticket back to Shanghai but it didn’t leave until about 6:30am the next morning, arriving around 8:50am. Yes! It was something! So we grabbed it, costing me 600 Yuan more than I planned on spending for this trip. Adu wasn’t in a rush to get back, so we just bought a ticket for me. His uncle insisted on us finding a hotel or going back to his house to rest for the night but I refused. I wanted to go to the airport right then and no later, even though that meant spending the whole night in the airport. I refused to let anything else get in the way of me getting back to Shanghai.

I thanked Adu’s uncle for his offer and kindness and hospitality, and then Adu and I went on our way to the airport. Adu didn’t have to go with me, but he insisted. We spent the whole night in the airport. I Skyped with mom and read some scriptures, so that helped me calm down a bit. We tried to get some sleep in the airport, but weren’t so successful. Around 5:30am I went to board my plane to head back to Shanghai. The shuttle that took us out to the plane was taking forever as we waited for some guy, but then security wouldn’t let him through and we watched from through the window as a security guard shoved him down to the ground and threatened to taze him – pretty intense. I don’t know what happened, but he definitely didn’t get on the plane with us. We left a little late so we arrived a little late, but I was able to get some sleep on the plane and they served us a warm breakfast, so that was nice. I was praying that I could quickly find a taxi back to work so when I guy came up to me asking if I needed a taxi, I assumed it was an answer to my prayers! ...Too bad it was just a guy ripping me off though. It wasn’t a real taxi, but a personal car. He took me to work and then tried to charge me like 200 Yuan, even though a regular taxi would only be about 40, maybe 60 at most. I was so mad, and so was he when I refused to pay 200, but I still ended up paying 120 Yuan. Ridiculous. I got there just as the 10:15 class was about to start, so I was sure Jessie would still cover it for me like planned, but she insisted I take it. This class is a pretty crazy class and originally Yo yo’s so I’m not so familiar with the kids. I was so tired and couldn’t even concentrate on anything, still being so frazzled from everything that had happened the night before. It wasn’t a great class, but I got through it.

Adu stayed in Beijing a few more days and even bought some treats for me (as I forgot to buy them for my co-workers while there), so I guess he didn’t mind losing the tickets and missing the train. Speaking of, I found the tickets when I got home. They were in my scriptures. I couldn’t understand it. I had checked my scriptures probably 3 or 4 times, and I swear they were not there. It doesn’t really matter though because we would have missed the train anyway. So now I just have them for a lovely memory. The trip was really good, except the last day, which was really crazy. I’m sure I learned something from it though, I just can’t figure out what.

I’ll post again soon about everything that has been happening since my return. I can’t believe I come home so soon! Less than three weeks! Wow, it still hasn’t hit me. See you all soon!

Love,

Alyssa Nicole Escalante