Travelling day sixteen - and the tour goes random

Our day started at 6 am when we were picked up for our $8 tour to the Great Wall. We had chosen to go with a local tour, mostly based on price. We knew we would not understand any of the Chinese, but we had Kerryn our trusty translator with us, so not to worry. Our expectations were pretty low - mostly just hoping to see the Great Wall. The tour was advertised from 7 am to 6 pm.

Off we went on the bus. Breakfast profiteroles in a bag.

Our tour guide - let's call her 'Miss Hannigan' ( Annie reference....) gave us an hour and fifteen minute monologue without drawing breath all in Chinese as we drove through the thousands of apartment buildings that make up the suburbs of Beijing. There were strict instructions about what time to be back at the bus and how much to pay for souvenirs. Into a microphone. It was fairly strident.

We arrived at the Great Wall before all of the major tour buses. The wall was great. And long. And an amazing feat of engineering. It took only 10 years to buiand with 700 000 workers and 300 000 soldiers to make them work. We climbed up to the first watch tower, which Gabby informs me was 855 steps (she counted). What a view! The steps were uneven and worn, so I clung to the handrail on the way down and went at nanna pace.

After a Chinese tourist toilet experience - lining up in front of individual cubicles and using the hip and shoulder to gain position, and guarding a toilet for the girls - we were ushered off to our next tour stop. We were shown a jade factory and told how they make jade, then saw all the different things you could buy made from jade. And Miss Hannigan gets a commission when the tour buys something. We did not buy any jade. We were given a stern look.

Back on the bus and driven to another shopping experience. The crazy supermarket. We were swept along in a tide of Chinese desperate to buy glaced fruit and dried Beijing duck. By this time we were the only foreigners around, and we were well off the foreigner tourist path and deep into machine-like Chinese tourism. We did not buy anything from the Ikea-mazed market. We were given another stern look. We were giving each other bemused looks. We were plying the children with snacks.

At the beginning of the tour Miss Hannigan had indicated that the included lunch was not very good. When we got to the lunch part of the tour we realized she was correct. It is fortunate that we all enjoy plain rice. The other dishes were stirfrys. Of some sort. And a sorry looking whole fish. We didn't eat much lunch. A stern look. I bought many bananas from a stall outside.

Back on the bus and then we were driven to another stopping point. Many tour buses had converged on this place at the same time and it was super busy. I am grateful for Gab's red hair - she is easy to spot in a crowd of Chinese. It was a wax museum of the Emperors of China from the 12th century to the 16th century. It was quite fascinating, with some descriptions even in English. The girls even got to dress up in clothes from the time period and have their photo taken. Which may possibly make it into some promotional brochure - 'even red haired foreign girls come here!'. Some of the wax displays were quite graphic - battle scenes, emperors with concubines, famine victims, torture chambers and enemies of the emperor being burned in a pot. The girls recognized some of the Forbidden City from yesterday so they had a bit of context. It is interesting to come to a country and know very little of the history - they have no reference point for the stories and the culture.

After the wax museum (where Gab and I narrowly missed being left behind by the bus after another Chinese toilet tourist experience) we were driven again to what we thought was another Jade shop. This is where the tour got even more random. And Chris and I got the giggles. We were lead upstairs to a room with the whole tour group for a mandatory rest. With free water. And we sat and listened to a man give a very polished monologue for forty minutes about his family business. In a room with gold wallpaper and a sign saying no photos. We did not understand anything. And from the cynical expressions from the rest of the tour group they were not enjoying it even though they understood what he was saying. Then we were led back out to the bus. Why? Why did we sit in a gold room for forty minutes? Not even led through a shop? Miss Hannigan had disappeared and could not enlighten us.

We travelled back to Beijing passing the birds nest stadium on the way, which was quite cool. Then bus driver dropped us off and we caught the subway home.

I think today we had a fully cultural Chinese random experience, with extra money demanded before we were allowed to go on the Great Wall (which bumped the price up to $15 each). We did not buy the souvenir quotient expected from us.
I feel confused. And my quads will be sore tomorrow from the step climbing at the wall. I guess they are not looking for repeat business. The sheer number of people in China ensures Miss Hannigan will always find people for a random tour.


Chris' Cultural Tip - Midriffs Are Cool
I have seen more than my fair share of Chinese bellies in these past few weeks. But it isn't the sort of bellies you are thinking. It is not young girls displaying their latest piercing. Instead it is middle aged men displaying their usually ample bellies for all the world to see. You see when you get hot here a common way for the common man to get cooler is to lift up his shirt and bare his belly. So it hasn't been a pleasant sight at all, but you clearly see most hot days in China that midriffs are cool.

PS Sorry about the lack of photos - Will add them when we get home and can connect the camera to the computer - am currently blogging from the iPad which has no USB port

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