Had a very frustrating time at the DQ in the same food court. Chinese Dairy Queen? Yep. I wanted a dip-cone. I really wanted a dip cone. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to read the first character in the name of the dip-cone. After confused pointing at the menu and me trying to read out the rest of the name, the counter girl pulled out a handy picture menu. Good. I pointed at the chocolate dip-cone. I put my finger right on it. Did I want a dish? She asked, pointing to the sundae above it. No, a cone. What's a dip-cone without a cone? I thought I was doing pretty well, but what did I get? A stupid plain vanilla soft-serve ice-cream. Sure it was on a cone, but what's a dip-cone without the dip? The counter-girl seemed so pleased that she had managed to communicate with the problem foreigner that I lost my nerve and walked out with my stupid non-dip cone instead of complaining. But I have never eaten an ice-cream so resentfully in all my life. What part of the picture don't you understand?! Yeah, I know it's a pretty silly thing to be angry about but what can I say? When you want a dip-cone, you want a dip-cone...
[I made myself drool about a quart looking on Google image search for a picture of some unattainable dip-cone to paste here. On second thought, I'm skipping the picture.]
And on the other hand, I should have complained, but clearly it was somehow my fault. If I had known how to correctly read the Chinese character for "wearing a chocolate skin" I would have gotten what I wanted. Somehow, this is no comfort.
So much for Saturday, a highly forgettable day.
When I woke up yesterday morning and looked out the window, it was clear and sunny and perfect. I was not going to stay in all day again, and have late-night DQ rage be my only reportable experience. I was determined to make the most of this clear, cool, sunny day on which I had no pressing work or nor any commitments. Hey, I'm in China. Why not go see the Great Wall?So that is what I did. Not for me, overpriced package tours with built-in stops and dubious tourist destinations. I'll take the city bus, thanks! On the advice of my guidebook collection, I went to a part of town I'd never been, asked several times, and finally located the proper bus-stop, not marked with anything like "Great Wall" (hey, the package tour people have to make a living somehow) but with the correct number bus and a lot of tourist-on-a-budget Chinese people toting plastic bags full of steaming hot corn-on-the-cob. I snagged a window seat for the 1+ hour bus-ride and settled in with headphones.
After about half an hour we stopped at a "Sinopec" gas station. I looked interestedly at the price of gas: 4.83 RMB/L. Unfortunately, my math skills were not up to calculating what that is in $/gallon, but it seemed an interesting figure to know anyway. My seat-mate was interested too. I removed my headphones and asked in my best effort at smooth fluent Chinese, "Would you say that's pretty expensive?" My seatmate, a Chinese guy about my age, just stared out me with his mouth open. I quickly replayed my mental tape. Did I accidentally just ask him if his head was up his ass, or some other horrendous rudeness, without realizing it? Nope, I don't think so. He regained his composure and said, "You speak Chinese!?" Oh, is that all. I never did find out whether he thought the price of gas in Beijing high or not, but I got asked a lot of questions. How long had I been here? Only two months?! How did my Chinese get so good?
This is such an incredibly standard conversation path here that I have become as used to it as I am to the one about whether or not I'm Asian. Somehow it never even occurs to Chinese people that Americans might study Chinese in America the way they study English in China. Also I think the standard at tourist spots is especially low. Anyway, other questions I got asked by this fellow and his friend (both from southern China, and seeing the Great Wall for the first time, also both perfectly polite and not creepy) were, How long was I staying? Did I believe in God? How old was I? Was it really possible to get used to living by myself? Why do Westerners like to do things by themselves (e.g., seeing the Great Wall) when it is so much nicer to do things in groups? This last one stumped me and I said maybe it was just me, but personality or something, but they assured me that lots of other Westerners had been spotted at Beijing tourist sites all by themselves. Search me. My experience usually is that the bigger the group, the bigger the inertia--it takes forever to get started, turn corners, etc. And since it's already hard and slow to get anything done in China, maybe it just seems more efficient to go it alone. But I'm just speaking for myself.
On and off we had a view of the Great Wall off in the distance, looking slender but wonderful.It took a little over an hour to get to Ba da ling, the standard tourist entry-point for the Great Wall. I had been well-prepared by my guidebook for outrageous loads of tourist crap, but it really wasn't so bad, actually pretty non-invasive with a few exceptions and even somewhat convenient (pay-toilets that were actually the type you can sit on, tasty snacks). I hiked up the road to the entrance, paid my discounted student rate (hurray!) and climbed the steps.
Okay, I admit, the Great Wall I was walking on did not date back to the Qin Dynasty of 2200 years ago, or even to the Ming Dynasty of 500 years ago. As guidebooks had warned, it has been liberally restored and I say, Thank Goodness! It was hard enough walking on it with it being fully restored and in damn good shape. Frankly I shudder to think what it would be like to walk on if it were crumbling and decrepit. I guess that makes me an old lady, but I'll leave the wild hikes to 20-something males with a death-wish. The restored wall was plenty steep and treacherous enough for me, and that's with good sturdy railings on both sides!
I went south first because there seemed to be fewer people that way. In fact, it really wasn't that crowded at all, despite dire warnings of weekend tourist gluts. Perhaps the briskness of the wind discouraged some. Not that I had the place to myself, but I could move around in perfect comfort and take whatever photos I wanted without people passing in front of my camera. The mountainside shrubs were just starting to turn red, and the air felt clean, clean air for the first time in months! It was delicious just to breathe. And, guess what, the Great Wall really is great. There is just no doubt about it, and no jaded and deflationary guidebooks can make me think otherwise. I've seen it with my own eyes and do hereby endorse it as something a person should see in their life-time if at all possible. It does not disappoint.
It's one of those rare man-made things that enhances the landscape rather than detracting--at least I think so. It emphasizes the complexity and endless endless curves of the mountains so that you see the mountains even better than you had before. And yet it is not flashy or brightly colored or bizarre looking. It is a simple line, trying as best it can to follow an easy and natural route. It was not even meant to be a work of art, but it is one.
The other thing I had been worried about was not being allowed to hike as far as I wanted. Let me assure any normal person that this is not a problem. I went as far south as I could (ending at an un-restored section undergoing restoration with the help of a troop of basket-toting equines, one horse-power each). Then I turned around and headed north, already feeling well-exercised, but still determined.I admit that along the wall at various points there were people selling tourist kitsch--postcards, plaques, paintings, "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts, shawls, quilts, mugs or key-chains with your picture on it, etc. I resisted it all without even trying...until I saw the one thing I just couldn't live without. Actually it wasn't a thing--the photo I got of it was merely secondary to my immediate (upon seeing it) and irresistible desire...to sit on a camel. Laugh at me if you want, and I deserve it. It was probably the worst and kitschiest touristy thing they had there. (Okay, the "imperial throne" next to the camel was actually the worst.) I also felt a momentary impulse of guilt toward the very polite and pure white horse that was standing patient and neglected off to the side, yet another picture prop. But it wasn't the picture I cared about. I just wanted to the experience, even if it was just for a second. The humps were covered with wiry hair that was extremely clean and not at all smelly. The camel felt really solid in a way that a horse doesn't. You didn't feel in danger of sliding off because the two humps are like the world's tallest saddle. And you can always grab on to the front one when in doubt. It's like giving someone a hug (which I am covertly doing, if you can tell from the photo). All the same, it's also much higher than most horses, so I felt mildly shaky after I came down, or maybe that was just the excitement.
I will add that I did not pay the utterly outrageous 200 RMB that was demanded of me for the very smallest size photograph. I heard 200 and turned right around because however much I wanted to ride a camel for 30 seconds, I didn't want it $25 worth. Everything's negotiable up there though, generally annoying, but in this case I got it down to less than half that. I'm sure I still got robbed blind, but seeing as I'm horrible at bargaining, I felt that I had at least made a respectable showing. And it was my one and only indulgence.
Continuing on up the north side, I bought cheap soy-sauce eggs when I was hungry and passed up "Great Wall certificates" (certifying that yes, I climbed the Great Wall) and bronzed Great Wall segment paper-weights and copper astrological pendants. I drank Britta-filtered water from my own water-bottle, hurray! At one point, the Wall is made deliberately and rather infuriatingly discontinuous, perhaps so people will have an excuse to stop. We are not talking about a stroll in the park here. It is more like doing a stair-master continuously for--in my case--about four hours. At first I felt pretty darn proud passing up all those huffing and puffing Chinese smokers. But the Great Wall will wear you out. It's just a question of how long it will take! After the discontinuity, the population dropped precipitously and also got a lot whiter. Aussies, Europeans, and your occasional extra-tough American hiking dude type, one or two discouraged Japanese, and a very very few Chinese--again, tough hiker types. 
This may be attributable to the energy-burning hill of doom, a brutal climb and a brutal descent and then nothing but more of same stretching on and on, together with the prospect of having to go back over on the return trip.Feeling like a bit of a wimp, I turned back not very much later. But here is a picture of me at the farthest point I reached. I am actually feeling much happier than I look in this picture. I'm just a bit out of breath!
It was a very hard hike back to the entrance, and still took more than an hour. Fortunately, I had some White Stripes with me, otherwise I never would have made it back over the hill of doom. (White Stripes, for you old fogies out there, is music that could motivate you to rise from the grave, or at least a really heavy and exhausted torpor.)When I finally made it down off the Wall, the sun was setting. It was getting really chilly. I walked down the street toward the bus stop--and who should be walking behind me? But two big camels, one of whom had posed with me on its back and holding its lead rein, for the princely sum of $10.
Just like a horse, the camel snatched a bit of some roadside shrubs. I inquired and was told that they lived "just down there." I would have liked to have lingered but an ominously solitary Beijing-bound bus was waiting as if waiting just for me (false impression--the bus made a big circuit all around the park, collecting passengers until it was standing-room only), so I made a dash for it. I had a nice single seat which was good because the ride back was more than two hours, and it was another two hours before I made it all the way home. A long long day! But glorious!
1 comment:
My intense jealousy is matched only by my anticipation at getting to see it with you soon! And the camel is fantastic! Perhaps if this whole academia thing doesn't work out, you and I can go into Camel herding :P
Post a Comment