You would think that Eric and I would have learned from our Yangzhee river
cruise that the Chinese have a different idea of "fun" than we do. But I
guess it takes a few times...
But let me step back first - I haven't yet mentioned our trip to the Great
Wall. We decided to go to the Simitai section, described as "the most
dangerous section" of the Wall to visit. Not many tours go here, so it
required us to take a very early cab from our hotel to the "backpacker"
hotel. Everything started great - a bus full of cheery, young, white kids
(and Eric and me, not so young). They even handed out free t-shirts to
everyone - what a bonus!
But then 15 minutes into the three hour ride, we heard a sound that one of
the young guys on the bus described sounded like "running over a peasant on
a bicycle and having him and his bike wrap around the axle". Well, the bus
pulled over pretty quickly, and the driver and his friend started assessing
the situation (luckily no peasant, just a bad axle or something). First it
was going to be 10 minutes, then a half hour. By this time the bus-load of
white kids is piling out of the bus and standing on the side of the freeway,
all in a neighborhood that doesn't see many white people. We were quite a
sight. Well, after a while, the driver's buddy tells us in very broken
English that they are getting the part from another bus, and it will be
here in 15 minutes (why the other bus couldn't come....)
So the crankshaft or whatever it was does finally arrive, and Eric helps the
bus driver carry it across 3 lanes of traffic, and it takes another half
hour to put it on. But low and behold, it works, and we are off to the
wall, only two hours behind schedule.
So we get to the Wall, and it really is stunning. So as we start walking
up, I tell Eric to not take any pictures - instead lets take them on the way
down, when we know what the good vistas are. Well, fortunatley, Eric did
snap one picture, because within 10 minutes it started raining, and the fog
that came in brought the visibility down to about 30 feet. We could barely
see in front of us, much less the Wall.
But we trudged to the top -tower 14 (which is 3 towers further than the
signs say to walk - pretty scary), and then on the way back down we got
lucky and the rain stopped and it started to clear. We have pictures of fog
clinging to one side of the wall, with clear skies on the other side - I
hope they come out, because it was spectacular!
Of course it wouldn't be China without someone hanging on us the whole way
up and the whole way down, trying to sell us a book or postcards. At the
end, when we wouldn't buy anything, she insisted we pay her for beingour
guide - like we didn't know what direction to go!
But this wasn't our bad Chinese tour - that happened in Qingdao. We flew
from Beijing there,due to no room on the train. I was the biggest baby on
the flight, with my head in Eric's lap for the entire hour and a half
flight. I only came up for air to collect our Mao Tse Tung pins from the
stewardess - the Chinese man sitting next to us took such pity on me that he
gave me his Mao pin as well.
So Qingdao was actually quite nice - pretty beaches, and cool clean Yellow
Sea water to swim in - not to mention the Tsing Tao beer! Our hopes for
being there for the beer festival were dashed, though - it turns out it was
to start the day after we had to leave to get back to Hong Kong. We met a
man who works for the city, and he said we weren't missing much - oh well...
We were quite an attraction at the beach. Again, virtually the only white
people there - and the only people with body hair! Eric had a woman who
wanted to swim back and forth with him three times and meet her husband
afterwards; people took pictures of our "American" sandcastle; people
plopped down in the sand next to us to practice their English or steal the
shade from our umbrella.
Oh, but that bad tour...
We wanted to go to Lao Shan, a "holy" mountain, as well as the source of the
Tsing Tao beer spring water. The tour book said we could go and hike up and
it was really beautiful nature. Explaining to you what really happened will
probably leave you confused, so we thought we could put the day in terms you
will all understand:
You decide to take a bus tour to Muir Woods, and pay the bus driver $25. On
the 45 minute ride there, the bus stops twice in Fisherman's Wharf, first at
a shop that is trying to sell you pearls, second at a shop that is trying to
sell you jewelry (and they give you 15% discount coupons as you leave the
bus to buy the stuff that is 400% overpriced!). You then head off to Muir
Woods, where at the gate the tour guide asks you for another $60 to pay for
the entrance fee to the park. You look out the window, and see that the
entrance fee is only $30 per person, but when you ask about it, you are told
the extra $30 is to go in and see special sites within the park.
So you drive into the park, and do get 1 hour to hike up to a waterfall.
Unfortunately, the path in is so packed with people that you move like
cattle, and the trail is surrounded on both sides with vendors selling
everything from squid-on-a-stick to seashells to rocks to more pearls. And
incidently, the falls are not really even in Muir Woods,either.
After the waterfall, you now think you are going to go and hike - you ask
the guide if you can go and hike in Muir Woods, and he tells you no, that it
has been closed to the public - the military are there now. But you point
to a cable car in operation at the top of a distant hill, and the tour guide
only brushes it aside while all the others on the tour bus just laugh at the
silly Americans, even though they themselves won't be going to Muir Woods
either.
They then drive you closer to Muir Woods, only to pull off and have lunch in
a resturaunt with more pearl shops. You then get shown through a rock
museum (or was it a gift shop?) and a small ugly temple,and then get piled
back in the bus and leave the park.
What a wasted day.
So we then flew out of China and back to Hong Kong. It was interesting
reflecting on our month there - we saw so much and learned so much about
this country we knew so little about before. We were both so glad to have
seen it, but I must admit that I was glad to finally go.
We are now in Thailand for two weeks (waiting for the monsoon to pass in
Nepal) - we will send you an update of our adventures here shortly.
Sue and Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment