My apologies for the current lag in my posts, I haven't really been "feeling" it although there have been things happen that I know I should write about. Let me try to remember them....
These happening aren't in any particular order, I'm just writing them as I remember them. It has been 3 months since Ive arrived here and it feels like Ive been here for four times that long. I have continued to take Chinese lessons and I've fallen into a routine at work. I've even had a very special lady visit me from the states. I will re-name her Molly because I don't know how she feels about me writing about her. Molly is very special to me, we have known each other since the 8th grade and got reacquainted while I was at home waiting to leave for China. She came to visit me and I took some much deserved time off of work. Talking with some friends here, they decided it would be good for us to take a trip to Beijing to see the sights and to just get out of Jinzhou for a bit. They(my friends) basically planned the entire trip for us: train tickets, hotel, tour guide, and all we had to do is show up at the right place at the right time. It was pretty sweet of them. I was told that in Beijing that you can find whatever western food you want, so that's what we did. We were going to be eating tons of Chinese food in Jinzhou so we went on a mission to find western food that we could find nowhere else but there. Beijing is huge by the way, 20 million people. We ate Indian food (still Asian I know but not Chinese), pasta, burgers, poutine (french fries with gravy, Canadian staple), and of course pizza. We went to a pizza hut which doesn't sound too fun does it? Well, here, Pizza Huts are a fancy sit down restaurant, its kinda weird in a good way.
Anywho, to the good stuff. My friends arraigned a tour service for us to see the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are the grave sites for the emperors during the Ming dynasty. There are 13 of them but only 1 or 2 are open to the public. That place was really cool, there were a couple of temple style buildings and behind the last one was a huge mound that actually had the body/bodies in it. It hasn't been excavated yet. There was even a well area that was said to be dedicated to the concubines to the emperor. They said that the emperor had thousands of concubines and those who didn't bare him a son were sacrificed once the emperor died. They said there were hundreds.
After the Ming Tombs they took us to a jade carving facility where we tourists could spend some money if we felt like it or just look around. Some of the jade carvings there were amazing. I couldn't imagine the pressure a carver would be under. If they made a mistake, the project would be ruined and the jade wouldn't nearly be as valuable.
After that we had lunch then got back on the minibus to head to an area of the Great Wall. I don't remember exactly what section we were on but it was the highest section. Molly and I walked around for 2 hours and loved every second. It was amazing up there. You could see the wall meandering off the mountain sides in both directions. We allot of walking and there were allot of steps, some were extremely steep. At times the next step in front of you would be as high as your knees so you would have to hop up onto it. Before we got there the tour guide said "remember this was was made for the military, not for tourists." . It was a hell of a workout and the view was spectacular. Needless to say, we were spent by the end of the day. The even took us to a tea house where we got to try some amazing Chinese tea, made by people that really knew what they were doing. The didn't just teabag (hehe) some hot water and hand it over. There was even a kind if tea that looked like a ball about the size of a good size gumball. Once you put it into the hot water it would hydrate and an amazing flower would be floating in your tea. The flower was the tea. Pretty cool stuff. So after that it was time to end the tour and Molly and I were having out pizza craving. We asked the tour guides to drop us off and the closest pizza hut to our hotel. They obliged and dropped us off at this huge shopping mall and said that the Hut was inside. We ate some pizza at the fancy pizza hut and on our way out of the mall a nicely dressed Chinese lady stopped Molly and asked if she spoke English. We both stopped and talked with her for a minute, she seemed very pleasant. She then asked if we would like to have a cup of tea with her so she can practice her English and talk to us about our country. With a tad of apprehension we said "ok" and she took us down the street to this tea house that she knew about. We walked into a little store and the tea house was in the back of it, upstairs. We go upstairs and she puts us into this private room, about the size of a good sized bathroom. In this room is a table and a young lady to make the tea for us. The nicely dressed woman says that we can call her Lisa. Lisa says that she is a traditional Chinese woman and it is custom for the man to pay for the first cup of tea. I think "what the hell?" its a cup of tea. I say ok. She asks us to pick 4 teas that we want to taste from these jars to see which one we want to have a cup of. We pick 4 and the tea maker makes us a thimble sized tasting portion, all the while Lisa is telling us how she is in school getting her masters in fashion design. After we taste a few Lisa pulls out the menu and shows us that the tea was 50 yuan per taste, per thimble basically. I say "wow that's allot, we are not interested in anymore" I finally see whats happening here, its a Beijing scam. I tell her that we would like to leave and she says "ok, its a shame you have to leave so soon but at least we have this memory, ill just get the bill". She leaves the room and comes back with the bill. (Which was fishy in itself because the bill is always brought to you, you never go get it.) She slides it over in front of me and it says that I owe 700 yuan. (106 USD) I just laugh and say that I am not paying for this. She begins the argument civilly: "you said you would pay when I asked" I said "yea and after I saw your prices I retracted my offer, do you know what retracted means?" We went back and forth for a good 30 minutes. She said "fine, ill pay half". I still didn't back down. I look at Molly and her eyes are the size of dinner plates, she is scared. We are in this tiny room with a lady who is trying to take our money. Lisa comes back with "ok 300 and you can go". I tell her "I know what you are doing and I feel very taken advantage of, im not paying you!" Lisa starts yelling "How are you going to do this? In front of her? (pointing to Molly) Think about how this will make you look!!" I tell her that I am not worried about that in any way and that we would like to leave. Molly and I both stand up and Lisa blocks the door and pushes me back. She says "Fine! 200 and you can go!". I say "no way, ill give you a hundred for the tea that we drank and we are leaving". I hand her a hundered dollar bill and she says "no, 150!!" She is still blocking the door. I tell her no, she says "fine, we will call the police! Call the police!!". I am 98% sure that she is bluffing, the whole "call the police" thing is her last card to play. I say screw it and throw a fifty on the table, when Lisa goes to pick it up Molly and I move around her and bolt out the door. As we are leaving she is cursing us out like mad "F*ck you you piece of sh*t!! F*ck you!!". We get back out to the street and find the nearest cab to take us back to our hotel. Whew! That was an experience! Other than that the trip was awesome. Our hotel was really close to these 2 ancient towers and in between them were these men with these birds that would fetch. It was pretty amazing, the bird would be perched on his hand or his shoulder and he had a white marble sided bead. He would throw the bead about 20 or so feet in the air and the bird would fly up and catch it. How that bird could see a white marble in the sky on a coudy day is beyond me but it was pretty amazing. Our last night there we found a Canadian joint, we just wanted some beers and we walked in there was a big screen TV playing Anchorman and the draft beers were 10 yuan each. This is the place! We sat there and watched 3 movies while the beer was a flowin. Great way to end the trip.
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