On Wednesday, we showed up to our Organizational Behavior class with bags packed for a Thanksgiving weekend in Beijing. Our professor is great. With a background in management, its studies, and a bit of human resources, he is very engaging and optimistic. An avid traveler, he was very excited for us and offered a few suggestions for things to make sure and see. Of course, he recommended the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, but he also recommended certain sights that stay a bit ‘under the radar’.
In Chengdu, catching a taxi isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do in the early afternoon. There are dozens of taxis, but little other public transportation. And, being a city of 10 million people, you can imagine walking isn’t really an option… especially when you are going to the airport. Our buddy Greg, a full-time Chengdu student from Texas, told us what to say to the taxi driver: “Fay ji ji chang” (probably not how it’s spelled in our alphabet, but that’s how I remembered it). So, after 30 minutes of hunting down an available taxi, I told him that and he somehow understood me.
We arrived at our hostel in Beijing at around 8 p.m., which was located right next to the Forbidden City. Located in the center of Beijing, we dropped our backpacks off and walked around and found some dinner. Afterwards, on the way home, we walked past an interesting street food stand. Some people may be grossed out by some of the offerings at this stand, so just ask me if you’re really interested. I’ll just say that different countries have different tastes. When we got back to the hostel, we went to sleep in preparation for our Thanksgiving day…
We met in the hostel lobby at 8 a.m., packed with camping gear, and met our guide for the Great Wall trip, named Cheney (Chenny). We took a bus 2 hours north to an unrestored section of the great wall. We hiked up to the wall, where we would begin our 12 km hike along the wall. As you can see from this photo, this part of the wall is not your usual tourist destination. In fact, we wouldn’t see any tourists all day.
We hiked through some gorgeous areas, which really gave us a perspective of how old the wall is (14th century). After about 6 hours, we ran into a local lady that was friends with Cheney. She said that we wouldn’t be able to camp where we wanted to, because there had been a forest fire nearby a few days before and there were patrols walking that section at night. So, knowing how much it meant for us to camp on the wall, he told us he had a good idea for another section. After walking past a few more towers, we hiked down the hill to our bus. Our bus then drove us an hour to a tiny village (population of 20 or 30 people), where we would have our Thanksgiving dinner. I must say, the dinner didn’t quite match what we got in the states. It was simply a bowl of white rice and a few Chinese vegetable dishes. After that, it was time to hike up the hill to the wall. Because it was about 9 p.m, we would have to use flashlights to hike up a trail with sleeping bags and tents to get to the wall. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, it was about 22 degrees… Fahrenheit.
We somehow made the hike up the thin trail to the top in about 40 minutes, and we set up our tents with little flashlights. I was impressed: every pair of us were able to set up our tents without asking for assistance, and some people had never camped before. That night, someone had brought up a small bottle of rice wine. Those who have tried it will probably agree that it does not taste too delightful. Nonetheless, it did a great job warming us up. Below you can see everyone sitting as closely together as possible to keep warm.
The next morning, Friday, I woke up at about 5 a.m., and got up because it had gotten a bit too cold to sleep. I threw on all of my layers as quickly as possible and did a series of jumps and runs to warm myself up. Anyone who saw me probably thought I looked a bit crazy (below). Everyone got up by about 6 a.m., and we all caught the sunrise. Our guide was especially happy, because he had survived the night, and this was the coldest time of the year he had ever camped on the wall.
At 6 a.m., I imagined what I would be doing if I were back Memphis (4 p.m. on Thanksgiving). I couldn’t help being bummed out by the fact that I was missing Thanksgiving dinner with the family. Ever since I began leaving the house for college and living on my own, Thanksgiving became one of my favorite holidays of the year, as I would get loads of delicious “home-cookin’”. Then I thought, “Well, if I’m not going to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner, I can’t imagine a better way to spend it.” At Breakfast, which happened about the exact same time people in the U.S. were eating their Thanksgiving dinners, I tried to enjoy my bowl of lightly-flavored noodles.
Today’s hike would last only about 6 km, and we would end up at a restored, tourist section of the Great Wall. The hike was nice. Today’s bit, pictured above, was overgrown with trees. Having been to the Great Wall twice in the past, I had never seen anything like the parts I had seen for the past two days. However, by the end, we saw our first tourist, and shortly after we had approached the restored section. The restored section was neat, because you could see exactly how big the structure was when it was built. It was insane to think about how many people it must have taken to build such an enormous structure at that time and how tough the job must have been.
We got back to Beijing around 5 p.m., where we dropped our stuff off and headed for the Silk Market. For those who have not heard of or been to the Silk Market, it is one of the most interesting shopping experiences you can encounter. It can also be extremely overwhelming, as each floor of the 5- or 6-story building has probably one hundred stalls, and each stall is competing for your business. The market sells everything: clothing, luggage, electronics, sunglasses, shoes, art, and everything in-between.
I didn’t really need anything, but it is fun to go just for the sake of bargaining. Everything for sale is negotiable, and the sellers usually ask for about 10-times the amount they are willing to receive. You may walk up to a stall trying to sell you a jacket for $200, and walk away paying only $15. Just to give you an example: I was walking down one of the rows when a woman tried to stop me and sell me a pair of gloves. I stopped, politely, after she grabbed my arm, and I listened to her offer.
“Wonderful leather gloves,” she said. “Cheap price.”
I said, “How much?” I didn’t need or want gloves, but I was only being polite.
After telling me she would give me discounts because I was her friend, and she ‘loved Americans’, she said, “800 Yuan, just for you.” Exchange rate at the time was about 6 Chinese Yuan for every $1.
I replied, “I thought I was your friend?” She then handed me a calculator and asked me to write my price. I wrote 100 Yuan.
She laughed and said, “No way! I lose money! OK, how about 780 Yuan?” I said no thanks, and began walking away. She hunted me down, and, after several attempts at making a deal, she got all the way down to my initial 100 Yuan. I didn’t really want the gloves, but I couldn’t say no after she had done all that work. So, I took the gloves, which proved useful in China’s cold weather for the next few weeks.
Beijing is a very interesting place. It is the political capital of China, and has gone through some major transformations over the past ten years ago. When I went with my father eleven years earlier, we saw bicycles everywhere. Now, you will see twice as many cars, and much fewer bicycles. While this shouldn’t be too surprising, as China’s economy has been on the rise, it was still shocking to see exactly how far the country has come. This was an exciting weekend, perhaps the best to date. Camping on the Great Wall was definitely one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Other sights in Beijing included the Forbidden City, the Olympic District, and a few Buddhist temples.
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