Well, the start of the second week finds me pretty well exhausted; we've been moving non-stop since I got here last Saturday(or Friday, in Seattle time). We've watched several movies, toured parts of the old city, shopped at anenormous antiques market filled with tourists, etc. etc. etc. The past coupleof days I've been kind of keeping to myself. My body's starting to rebelagainst the sudden change in diet (although it wasn't so dramatic, since I ate mostly rice and veggies before I came), the upside-down sleeping times, and the stress of being around so many people ALL the time. I'm normally pretty congenial, but I need my alone time. And I just haven't been getting it.
We went to the Great Wall yesterday. Frankly, Richard Nixon's infamous quote("It sure is a great wall") pretty well sums it up. It is pretty cool, though,and quite a tickler for the imagination to think that you're walking on astructure that was there before Jesus. That's pretty old. And I'll tell you what, that sucker is STEEP. In some places there's a good 60% grade at least, I'd be willing to guess steeper in some areas. Sometimes it looks like it just goes straight up. And there were so many people! At one point I was trapped against a wall inside a guard house, pressed at from all sides by a flowing river of people, unable to move. Once outside I actually cried; I think I just narrowly missed an all-out panic attack, as absolutely claustrophobic as I am.
That's one thing about the Chinese: they really aren't afraid to shove you. I'm not sure it's so much that they're rude, but when you live in a city this large you get used to just going before someone else does. That and I'm sure that the fact that I'm a foreigner doesn't help much. For the most part they've become pretty accepting of a blue-eyed stranger, but there are still a few people who look at you distrustingly. And of course there are always those who will jack aprice up 500% because they think you don't know any better, which of course you usually don't. I'm embarrassed to think of all the times I've probably been taken. They always get a little surprised, though, when I start speakingChinese, and once I start haggling in their native tongue the price usually drops pretty dramatically. Either way, they're still a pushy people. I've hadpeople cut in line in front of my five or six times at the grocery store (which is pretty much every time I've gone). And you should see the way they drive!
This week I have:
1. spent an exhorbitant amount of money on shamelessly tourist-oriented crap
2. been hit on by a guy with a camel at the Great Wall, who told me in Chinese that he thought I was very beautiful, and whose friend followed me up the walltelling me the camel-guy wanted to kiss me
3. become a tourist attraction at the Wall in my own right: people wereliterally lining up to have their picture taken with me
4. slaughtered the Mandarin language more than any tourist ever had a right to
5. interpreted for a German family who didn't know how to order dinner and
6. not slept, studied, or done anything else even remotely useful, except forgorge myself on Chinese food. And, of course, shop, although whether it's actually useful or not could probably be debated. Here's hoping everyone at home is happy and in good health. I can't wait to get home so that I can get some pictures posted for everyone to see.
Zai Jian!
Monday, August 30, 2004
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Hello (finally) everybody!
Sorry for the delay in posting. I can't get onto the blogger website from theinternet cafe here in China (local controls or something?) so I'm having to e-mail the posts to John and have him post them for me. It's been quite a week- I can't believe I've been in China for a week, how's that for wild - and rightnow I'm a little tired.
My first couple of days here were pretty difficult. After THE LONGEST FLIGHT INTHE WORLD, and of course one on which my vegetarian meals were never ordered soI had to go fifteen hours without eating, I finally got into a very quietBeijing airport. Then the airline lost my luggage. Then I somehow got scammedinto a taxi ride to my hotel that cost 450 RMB (about $50). The actual runningrate should be somewhere closer to 100 RMB. I went for two days without any ofmy things, and although things are remarkably cheap here - and I do mean CHEAP -the Chinese just don't seem to make underwear in my size.
But I finally got my luggage back a couple of days later, thank goodness, andthings have kind of been looking up since then. China is an amazing place; ourhotel is right on Lake Houhai, Beijing's latest hip night spot - who knewBeijing had hip night spots? - and it's a really beautiful neighborhood. Itbacks up to one of the oldest neighborhoods in Beijing, rows of courtyard housesthat you'd probably recognize from Kung Fu movies called Hutongs, which has beenreally fascinating. Some of these houses are 600 years old. I've never seenanything 600 years old. Unfortunately one of the biggest hot-button issues hereis that these neighborhoods are quickly disappearing as Beijing makes a bee-linefor modernization. Every day we see crews demolishing houses, and a streetnever has the same buildings two days in a row.
We went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square on Monday, which was trulyone of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. Especially the ForbiddenCity, which is awe-inspiringly vast and ornate in spite of the fact that it'skind of crumbling away. I kind of get the sense that the Chinese are in such aflux right now that they just don't know what to do with themselves. Trying tofind a balance between modernization and their own identity can't be easy,though to tell the truth they've been struggling with it in one form or anotherfor a couple of centuries now. These days it's just taking a different form, onethat's sort of hectic and stressed out because of the fast-approaching Olympics.
One final note before I bore everyone to death: the food here is seriously todie for (which is a good thing, because when you buy stuff on the street you'renever really sure what you're going to get). I really think that AmericanChinese food is ruined for me now; how will we ever go back to Bamboo Garden?
Ha ha.
Love to all of you,
Becca
My first couple of days here were pretty difficult. After THE LONGEST FLIGHT INTHE WORLD, and of course one on which my vegetarian meals were never ordered soI had to go fifteen hours without eating, I finally got into a very quietBeijing airport. Then the airline lost my luggage. Then I somehow got scammedinto a taxi ride to my hotel that cost 450 RMB (about $50). The actual runningrate should be somewhere closer to 100 RMB. I went for two days without any ofmy things, and although things are remarkably cheap here - and I do mean CHEAP -the Chinese just don't seem to make underwear in my size.
But I finally got my luggage back a couple of days later, thank goodness, andthings have kind of been looking up since then. China is an amazing place; ourhotel is right on Lake Houhai, Beijing's latest hip night spot - who knewBeijing had hip night spots? - and it's a really beautiful neighborhood. Itbacks up to one of the oldest neighborhoods in Beijing, rows of courtyard housesthat you'd probably recognize from Kung Fu movies called Hutongs, which has beenreally fascinating. Some of these houses are 600 years old. I've never seenanything 600 years old. Unfortunately one of the biggest hot-button issues hereis that these neighborhoods are quickly disappearing as Beijing makes a bee-linefor modernization. Every day we see crews demolishing houses, and a streetnever has the same buildings two days in a row.
We went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square on Monday, which was trulyone of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. Especially the ForbiddenCity, which is awe-inspiringly vast and ornate in spite of the fact that it'skind of crumbling away. I kind of get the sense that the Chinese are in such aflux right now that they just don't know what to do with themselves. Trying tofind a balance between modernization and their own identity can't be easy,though to tell the truth they've been struggling with it in one form or anotherfor a couple of centuries now. These days it's just taking a different form, onethat's sort of hectic and stressed out because of the fast-approaching Olympics.
One final note before I bore everyone to death: the food here is seriously todie for (which is a good thing, because when you buy stuff on the street you'renever really sure what you're going to get). I really think that AmericanChinese food is ruined for me now; how will we ever go back to Bamboo Garden?
Ha ha.
Love to all of you,
Becca
Thursday, August 19, 2004
I'm leaving tomorrow!
Well, it's the nineteenth of August, the day before I leave. I'm VERY excited, but at this point I'm feeling a little nervous about being away from John this long. We all know what happened the last time we were separated for any length of time...
I think that everything's packed and ready to go, but who knows? When you're travelling there's always at least one thing you forget; it's Murphy's other law. I hope to keep this blog updated with all of the events from my trip, and hopefully some pictures as well if I can figure out how to make the Chinese-language computers work, so keep checking back!
Becca
I think that everything's packed and ready to go, but who knows? When you're travelling there's always at least one thing you forget; it's Murphy's other law. I hope to keep this blog updated with all of the events from my trip, and hopefully some pictures as well if I can figure out how to make the Chinese-language computers work, so keep checking back!
Becca
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