The China Visit - Part 9
Finally, the story of our trip to the Great Wall! Plus, photos from our visit to the Great Wall have been posted here.
Friday morning Sharon and I woke up around 6:45 in the morning. I was afraid that sleeping on the ultra-hard bed in the hotel room would mean a sleepless night, but in fact I fell asleep immediately and didn’t wake up once through the night, which is somewhat unusual for me. Once we were dressed, we headed down stairs for the complimentary breakfast– a mix of Western and Chinese breakfast items, none of which were all that good.
We hired our car to pick us up at 8:00, so we made our way downstairs following breakfast, met up with the Concierge who showed us the way to our driver and car. Our driver was a young man, maybe in his mid-twenties, and we never actually learned his name. Odd considering we were basically handing responsibility over to a guy we knew nothing about, nor did we even know his name and he didn’t speak a word of English (outside of Hotel and Airport). Whatever, it’s all about the adventure really.
And an adventure it was. Sharon tried to get some rest during the drive, while I was wide awake the entire time. The only thing I wished I had asked before we left was how long the drive would take because it turned into a very odd and long drive. I had no idea it was going to be that long.
We started out hitting Beijing morning traffic on a number of their freeways, but soon there after we took streets almost the entire way. Driving through Beijing I was surprised by the sheer number of VW and Audi on the road there. Those two car brands own the road in Beijing. Other familiar name brands such as Jeep, Hyundai, Citroen, Toyota and Nissan were spied, but almost every other car was an Audi or VW and we passed numerous VW dealerships while driving through Beijing. They like their Farfegnugen. I also saw a number of Chinese brands I’d never heard of before and not a single one of them is really worth mentioning. Talk about a bland assortment of designs.
The drive itself took about two hours to get to the great wall. As we got outside the city the roads got smaller, eventually going from eight lane freeways to two lane roads, one lane for each direction. The drive was fast, very fast most of the time, so any looks at the country side I got were rather quick. I remember passing a place that had the English words “Car Wash” on a sign. It looked much more like some dude standing outside his garage with a hose and bucket, nothing like the giant car washing monstrosities we have in the States.
On the drive to the Great Wall, we passed numerous manufacturing plants, including a Whirlpool plant and an LG/Philips plant. Some of these plants were just giant warehouses in the middle of no where, while still others either had large community complexes adjacent to the main plant, or the community areas were in the process of being built. All I could think was, “Wow, that’s where all our shit is made.” Go ahead, look around at most anything sitting on your desk. I’m guessing 50% of the time you’ll discover it was made in China. (I just picked up my phone and sure enough, “Made in China” is stamped on the bottom of it.)
At one point our drive took a rather odd turn. Sharon was sleeping, or actually she was trying to sleep, and I was just sitting there wondering if we’d ever show up at the Great Wall. We were driving down this mostly open road when suddenly we came to a gate, which closed off the street. Our driver stopped and muttered something in Chinese. He looked back at me and all I could do was shrug. I got the message– he wasn’t sure what to do right at that point. Were we lost? No, I didn’t think so, but clearly the route he wanted to take was now blocked off.
He backed up a bit, drove back down the road, then turned around and made his way back to the gated thing. He looked around for a bit, at which point a Black Audi A6 came up behind us, then passed us on the right, going off road and around the gate, then back onto the road on the other side. Our driver’s solution? Just follow the guy! Turned out to be a pretty good one and a safe bet as most Audi A6s appear to be hired cars in China, so we were probably following a driver who knew what he was doing.
Except then we started to drive down this dirt road, only to find all those cars that were in front of us backing up towards us. Once again, our driver muttered something in Chinese, then backed up and continued to follow the Black Audi down another dirt road. It was super bumpy and, in fact, we were driving through some dude’s farm! It was at this point flashes of the following scenario jumped through my head: “Fuck me! The driver is going to stop this car in the middle of this field, get out and yell shit at us in Chinese, drag our asses out of the car, march us into the middle of this field and put bullets in our heads. I just know it!” Shortly after those thoughts entered my head, Sharon arose from her slumber, looked around and saw we were driving down the middle of some sort of farm field, following one other car and asked me, “Uhhhh, are we going the right way?” I wanted to scream back, “How the fuck should I know? I’m freaking out over here!” I wasn’t actually freaking out, but the moment Sharon asked the question I just shrugged and she looked away, realizing I had as little an idea as she did.
We finally got off the dirt road and turned onto nicely paved roads for the rest of our journey. Each time I thought we were getting close, another 10 minutes would pass before I thought the same thing again. It took us another half hour or so to get there, but arrive we finally did.
Sharon and I decided on visiting the Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall. You have about six or seven choices when visiting the Great Wall. Most visitors go to Badaling, which is the most heavily restored and most heavily visited portion of the Great Wall. Carrie & Jimmy suggested Mutianyu and the Living Planet guide I borrowed from a friend mentioned that Mutianyu was less heavily trafficked by tourists and also afforded the best views compared to the other sections of the wall.
When we arrived, our driver quickly shepherded us over to the ticket booth. The parking for this section of the Great Wall is located at the bottom of a very high mountain. Our choices were to either take the steps all the way up, which would have taken hours, or you could take a ski lift to the top and toboggan down, or take a gondola to the top. Not sure if we were up for the toboggan run down the mountain, we opted to take the gondola to the top. Our driver shoved his way to the front of the line, jumping in front of a line of about 20 people, yelled something at the ticket lady, then yelled at me for money, got our tickets for us and moments later we were off to catch our gondola.
On our walk up, we got our first taste of what the market at the Great Wall was like. Suddenly your hit on all sides by merchants yelling, “You buy!” or “You take my card, I remember you on way back” or stuff like that. Jimmy had warned us not to take any cards, nor to give anyone our names, because they would remember on the way back and would harass you. Jimmy opted to give about 20 different names, so on his way down he was constantly being yelled at with different names. “Fred! George! Abraham!” Sharon and I sprinted, as fast we could, up the mountain to the gondola lift, avoiding all the merchants. Well, except one. One was selling cold drinks, so I stopped, asked how much for a Tsing Tao beer. She told me 50 Yuan, about 6 bucks. Screw that noise. I walked away, she yelled, “How much you pay?” I said “8 Yuan!” “Nooooo, loooooosa money,” she yelled back in a most exaggerated fashion. She yelled, “10 Yuan,” at which point I bought my beer, put it in my back pack, and continued up the mountain to the gondola lift, passing a guy wearing an ancient Chinese suit of armor who wanted us to take our picture with him, as well as a woman who owned a camel, who once again wanted us to take our picture with it. Forget it, we’re here for the Great Wall, dammit!
The gondola ride up the mountain was loads of fun and in fact, the gondola we took had stickers on it that said British Prime Minister John Major took this gondola up the mountain in 1991. Whopeefucking doooo! I wanted to be in the one Bill Clinton took, dammit! Oh well, I guess we’ll settle for the gondola of a PM I know basically nothing about.
As we rode up the mountain, Sharon and I were given our first views of the Great Wall and we were both blown away. It’s one of those things you’ve seen countless times on television and film. Once you get there and you actually get to experience the Great Wall itself, it’s a whole different feeling. Our excitement grew as we made our way up the mountain.
The trip lasted maybe 5 minutes total. We got off the gondola, then made our way up to the Wall itself. There’s a bit of a patio area, then a very small set of stairs and a small hole in the wall that you walk through to get to the actual Wall. Once we were there, we began walking.
While I can’t speak to the style of the other sections of the wall, this one is very high up and very steep. As we landed on the Wall itself, we moved to our left and made our way to what is the highest and steepest section of Mutianyu. I believe we had seven or eight watchtowers to see, out of a total of 22 on this section of the Wall. The walk went from being relatively easy to very, very hard at times. We’d usually stop at each Watchtower to take in the view and snap some photos. Sharon and I were both really excited to be there. Overwhelmed wouldn’t be the right word, but incredibly excited would probably do it. We continued to hike around, take pictures and taking in the view of the Chinese country side.
Sharon and I stood there to take in the Wall itself, as well as the scenery. We were both kind of awestruck by the entire experience. I’d say dumb shit like, “This is awesome,” while Sharon remained quiet for a bit. Then suddenly she just let out with, “Totally wow.” That’s really the perfect way to describe being on the Great Wall– Totally Wow. That became our catch-phrase for the remainder of the trip.
While there were certainly other tourists at Mutianyu, it really wasn’t that crowded and not as crowded as I’m told Badaling gets. In fact, at points it felt like Sharon and I were the only ones on the Great Wall, a rather cool feeling. At some point while I was up on one of the watch towers, I realized that this was the most disconnected to the outside world I’ve been probably since the first time I logged onto the Internet in 1997. I had no way to contact anyone and no way to be contacted (my cell phone got no coverage at the Great Wall). Kinda liked that!
The wall itself is an impressive structure, but I’m finding it a bit hard to describe simply because, well, it’s a wall. A wall with very large bricks, some of which have been clearly replaced, while other portions look very old and authentic. It’s high, about 10-15 yards from the ground, and about 10 yards wide, getting slightly wider at each of the watchtowers. It’s not terribly ornate and the watchtowers themselves are somewhat beat up, but they still hold an incredible charm. We were allowed to walk up to the top of the first one, where we sat for a bit and took in the view.
Sharon and I continued to walk along the Great Wall. We passed by some group that was filming some music video with pairs of shoes up there. Some sort of stop motion photography. As we walked along, we’d pass numerous white people who always said hi. It was like they were saying, “Oh thank God, someone who might speak English!”
We were also passed by a group of, I believe, Japanese businessmen, six of them, all wearing slacks and polo style shirts, running the Wall towards the steepest portion at the far end. And they were yelling the entire time, at each other. Best I can guess is they were antagonizing or encouraging each other to run as much of the Wall they could and as fast as they could. They’d stop at each watchtower to wait for their friends, yelling at them the entire time. It was actually quite hilarious. At one point a group of four or five men took off towards the next watchtower, while some of them stayed behind. They got to the next watchtower and started yelling back at the rest of the group to join them, and they finally did. These guys were having so much fun and Sharon and I decided to join in on the fun.
Sharon was feeling pretty tired and run down at this point, so she said I should keep going and she’d wait there for me. So off I went, while she yelled at me from behind. I’d yell back and wave and she’d do the same. Wow, maybe those Japanese guys had something! It was strangely fun, more fun than it should have been.
As I continued walking the Wall, it got steeper and steeper, until I reached the bottom of the great climb. Now, I had already been away from Sharon for about half an hour and I wasn’t feeling 100% myself. I considered making the climb, but decided not to. It would probably have taken me another half hour to make the climb, then 10 minutes of recovery, followed by another hour just to make it back to Sharon. I really wanted to go to Tiananmen Square later in the day and felt spending more time at the Wall than was needed wasn’t a good idea. So I turned back.
I met back up with Sharon and we took the Gondola ride down, which afforded us more great views of the Wall. As we arrived at the base of the mountain, we were descended upon by loads of merchants once again. Carrie & Jimmy warned us that these people would be terribly aggressive, but I had no idea they’d be thus nuts!
As we approached the first vendor, I saw something I had to buy. My friend and CBR Columnist Matt Fraction requested I buy him one of those furry, Chinese military hats while I was in China. I’d not seen one anywhere in Hong Kong and figured I wouldn’t be able to fulfill his request. Now the very first vendor I saw had one and I knew I had to buy it. I asked the price and she said, “480!” That’s $59.18 cents, young man. I think not. After going back and forth with her, I finally got her down to 50 Yuan, or $6.16. Yes, she came down $53 and I figured I got myself the Chinese price, not the American price, and walked away rather happy.
Two stalls down I saw the exact same hat and the woman offered to sell it to me for 20 Yuan, or $2.46 American.
Dammit!
It was at that point I realized my response for most every item I was interested in had to be 10 Yuan, then I’d let them try to haggle me higher. I got “ripped” and it wasn’t about to happen again.
Sharon and I spent about half an hour shopping at the base of the Wall and we quickly discovered we should have done all of our gift shopping at the Wall. Once you got into the mode of haggling with these shopkeepers– most of whom were women– you could get some incredible deals. In fact, I ended up getting another one of those fuzzy Chinese hats for only 12 Yuan, or $1.47. No, I didn’t need it, but I figured I needed to offset the cost of the first one somehow. Or at least feel like I got one at a bargain.
Like I said, the shop keepers at the Great Wall are terribly, terribly aggressive. For those of you in the SoCal area who’ve gone to Tijuana, it’s like that, but far more aggressive. Most of them are selling the exact same merchandise, so they’re all competing with each other in a rather nasty way. If you ask about something and they tell you how much it is and you walk away, they usually try to block your path by stepping directly in front of you. If you push them aside, they’ll often grab your arm or your shit, to get you to come back. And they don’t stop hounding you until you’re about two or three stalls away.
In the Living Planet travel book they point out how you just can’t be rude. You have to make sure your actions don’t make them loose face as that’s important. Keeping that in mind, I haggled as nicely as I could, never saying anything rude. You’d constantly hear chants of, “You buy” or “Good price, you buy.” Once you gave them a counter offer they’d invariably respond with, “Nooooo, loooosa monayyyyy” very dramatically.
My favorite had to be the merchants who’d say, “Ohhh, I remember you. You say you buy. Come look.” Now, keep in mind we came down the mountain a different way than we had gone up, so there’s no way these chicks could remember me. “I’ve never seen you before!” “Oh, yes you have. You took my card. You say you buy when come back. You buy!” the lady would respond forcefully.
Probably the most classic moment of our shopping came when Sharon wanted to buy three T-Shirts from this one vendor, towards the bottom of the shopping area. Sharon asked how much and was told 3 Tee’s for 480 Yuan, once again about $58.17. No way were we going to pay the “American Price,” so we left the stall. She called Sharon back with word of lower prices. Sharon and her went back and forth a bit, at which point I walked in and found a t-shirt I liked. I asked the lady how much for four t-shirts and she said something like 4 for 400 or so. I responded with, “4 for 100!” She responded with “Nooooooo, looooosa money” and shooed me away. I walked away, and she came running back with a counter offer. I’d say no, would respond with what became my mantra “4 for 100!” She’d write down new figures on a piece of paper, 4 for 300 Yuan, 4 for 200 Yuan, etc … and then she’d hand me her pen and I’d right down “4 for 100!” At this point a small crowd formed around the two of us, watching to see how this would all go down.
About five minutes after starting with this woman, I walked away because she wasn’t coming down below 140 Yuan. She grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back. “130!” Nope. “120!” Nope. I knew I had her. “110!!!” Nope. Finally, she relented and we got the four t-shirts for 100, although as we paid her she still asked for more money. Nope, not going to do it. We paid abut $3 per t-shirt.
I bought a bunch of presents for people, some t-shirts, one piece of tapestry I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with yet, a beautifully painted wooden mask (about $2) and various other crap. Loads of fun.
A couple of notes about shopping at the Great Wall. If you buy a tee-shirt, get it two sizes too big. An XL is like a small Large. If you’re normally an XL, get a XXXL and even then that will be a bit small on you. Also, never buy from the first stall. There are hundreds of vendors there and someone will definitely make you a deal down the road. Those first vendors work hard and aggressively, but just ignore them and keep walking.
Sharon and I made our way back to the car, at which point we found our driver waiting for us near the entrance. As we walked down we passed more vendors, all selling the same stuff. Sharon heard one call out, “T-shirts for $1 American!” DAMMIT! Ripped off again.
The stalls at the bottom of the mountain had a wider assortment of product. Not just Chinese stuff and what not, but also food, vegetables, fruit, etc. One woman was screaming at me, “Come, have Chinese Pancake!” My interest was piqued, so I went to buy one. Sharon warned me against it, saying I’d get sick, but I have a pretty tough constitution and figured I’d try it.
The Chinese Pancake was cooked on a crepe maker. The woman poured the crepe mix onto the crepe pan, spread it around and made a thin crepe. On top of this she cracked a raw, brown egg, then turned the thing over so the egg would cook. She said, “Plum sauce” while holding up a small cup of sauce with a brush and I said sure. She then said, “Spicy,” holding up another small cup of sauce with a brush and I said a little, bringing my thumb and forefinger together. She spread both sauces on the crepe, then sprinkled green onions on top, and cracked some sort of deep fried dough she’d cooked earlier in the day on top of it. She folded the whole thing up, wrapped it in a paper towel and handed it to me as I handed her 8 Yuan, about $1.
It was delicious. The sauce was incredibly tasty (I could have gone hotter) and the dough was really quite delicious. Half way through eating it I realized Sharon was probably right and I shouldn’t eat all of it. So, I threw the rest away, hopped in the car and back to Beijing we went.
The drive home was completely uneventful. It was freeway driving the entire way, hitting traffic as we passed by the Airport. It took about two hours, mostly because of the traffic. I later found out when talking with the concierge that the driver took an alternate route to get to the wall because the traffic on the Beijing and outlying area freeways in the morning is a real nightmare. We left the wall around 1:00, so afternoon rush hour hadn’t begun yet.
More tomorrow, with the story of my visit to Tiananmen Square!
