Travels with Rita-Beijing

2005-05-09 - 10:08 p.m.

My adventures on this particular journey began before we left the Zhengzhou area. I had said my goodbyes and had ridden the “schools” bus to Zhengzhou.

With me were my regular travel companion Rita (who will be leaving for a position in the states this June) and her student guide Michael, one of my husbands usual student guides, Dean, and another fellow teacher Sylvie who was meeting her brother in Beijing to camp on the great wall. We journeyed to Zhengzhou on the “teacher’s” bus. This bus usually drives the teachers who live in Zhengzhou and commute to Xinzheng to teach at SIAS. So we crowded onto the bus, me with a very large suitcase, and we rode in to Zhengzhou. My suitcase was the second largest I own. I had decided that this time I was going to have enough room for anything that I may decide to get. I will come to my purchases later (I didn’t buy them on the first day after all) but I did want to point out the size of my suitcase because it was a bit of a dog during the travel portions of our trip. My suitcase has wheels Thank goodness). So we rode in to Zhengzhou at about 6pm and our train was scheduled to leave for Beijing at 10pm. We had plenty of time so of course we were going to walk to a restaurant for dinner and then catch a taxi to the train station. So we go to dinner. It was actually quite good and not too expensive. I tried a new dish that consisted of a shredded beef in vinegar that I would pick up with the chopsticks and place inside a pita like bread with a little shredded lettuce. It was quite a treat. After dinner we decided to walk off the meal a little before we would catch the taxi.


On our walk we found a small cell phone in a hello kitty cell phone case. Cell phones are everywhere in China. Some of the students own two or three. They always update their cell phone. Some students wear the same outfit all week, but they carry the latest in cell phone technology. The cell phone was laying in the street blinking. I was about to pick it up when the student guides warned me not to. They explained that there are many rude” people who would trap a person so that they would have to “pay” for picking up someone else’s items. “If someone leaves money lying on the street, especially a large bill it is probably a trap. You find 100 and they tell you that you owe 1000 for picking it up” The guides were really worried about it being a “trap”. I told them that it did not matter. We could always tell them we were taking it to the police and do so if there were a problem. They seemed stunned by the idea and agreed that if it was a trap, taking the cell phone to the police would certainly deal with it. So we picked up the cell phone (Which had been lying in the middle of the road the whole time). I opened it up and the guides exclaimed that it was new, very new. It had the latest features, they were very impressed.

I laughed and told them to call the numbers on the phone list and see if they could find the phones owner. Again they were surprised by the idea. (they often are surprised by things I feel are common sense, but I just remind myself that there is no such thing as common sense” here or anywhere else…) And they promptly began to call down the list. The very last number allowed them to get in touch with someone and the next thing we knew a family on mopeds rode up to collect the phone. A man, a woman, and a child…Two mopeds, mom and the child rode together). They then began to invite us for dinner. We refused, they offered to take us out for drinks, and again we refused. They tried to encourage us to ask for any reward. We told them that we needed to catch our train and needed no reward for a simple good deed. Our guides decided that this action on our part would lead to a good luck filled trip. Dean parted ways just before the train station (giving us a sincere goodbye and good luck for our trip) and went on to his families’ home in Zhengzhou. We continued on to our train.

We ended up walking the entire way to the train station. As we neared the train station it got very crowded. My suitcase was large but not too bad to deal with because of the wheels but at one point I knocked over a bike (It was in the middle of the path to the entrance). The man dealing with the bikes began to yell rude things to me. I handed my suitcase to Rita and picked up the bike, returning it to its improperly parked position and simply chose to ignore the man. I figured if he wanted to have a rotten day he could keep it to himself, I was still going to have a pleasant trip.

And we got to the waiting room of the train about 4 minutes before the gates opened. We were near the front of the line and we were able to walk right to the train and get on. We got on the train with very little difficulty (I needed a little help getting my suitcase from the platform onto the train and from the seat to the overhead bin…but over all only a little difficulty), and we settled down for the 7 hour train trip. For about 5 hours we played cards. Michael had taught us a card game that is a Chinese version of poker that consists of using two decks of cards and playing certain patterns against each other.

This game is a lot like poker and war combined. I have a tendency to have a bad poker face so instead of trying to hide it I have been learning to play it up so it seems exaggerated and people never know whether I really have a good hand or I am just faking it. Soon Sylvie dozed off, so we moved to just one deck of cards (two decks for four or more people, one for three or less) and we continued to play. Then Michael dozed off so I put away the cards and Rita and I took out books and began to read. Then Rita dozed off and she dropped her books, so I put on a pair of headphones and began to listen to music while I read.

Now you are probably thinking to yourself one of two things. First, why did everyone doze off, weren’t they worried about thieves? Second, why didn’t you doze off Christine, weren’t you tired? First, yes they worry about thieves, but everyone tends to sleep lightly and it seemed that almost everyone on the train was asleep. Second, I was exhausted by the time Beijing rolled around, but I have never been able to sleep on trains or planes (at least not very well) and I tend to be very paranoid about thieves so I was wide awake until we got to Beijing. (Watch the movie "world without thieves and see why I am so paranoid" ) We had several stops on the way to Beijing, but we got there pretty quick. We got off the train okay and we walked out to the taxi queue in the hopes of getting to our hotel.

And low, the taxi driver, perpetual morons and thieves every one. I despise dishonest taxi drivers more than anything else I have found. At least purse snatchers are not dishonest about what they are doing.

Anyway, we got into a taxi and told him our destination. He hemmed and hawed and lied about not knowing how to get there (every taxi driver knows where the night market is and if they tell you they don’t they are lying and you know it). So it was a good thing we had brought a map and knew how to get there. Rita had been to Beijing before so she nipped him through our guide and got us to the hotel. It was now going on about 7am. I was tired but I figured I could make it to the hotel. So we pull up to the road the hotel is on and the driver takes us in the wrong direction. So we get out and begin the walk to the hotel. As we get closer to the hotel I am feeling more and more relieved, soon I will be able to close my eyes and rest. We find the hotel and… Yes the room is available (we did have reservations) but it will not be ready until noon. Yes, noon.

We leave our bags in the locker at the hotel while we go for a walk until noon so that the room will be ready. We walked the night market (which was closed) and onto the famous walking street. I saw the famous foreign book store (a great selection of books, if you are in China and you need books I highly recommend the bookstore off the walking street) and an incredibly mall like mall. We walked up and down the road, looking at stores that were still not open and restaurants that were just getting ready. We first walked over to see if the Starbucks was where Rita remembered it. The building was still there but she found that it had been closed because there was another one near bye. And so began the search for Starbucks. Now, I am really not a fan of coffee. I have had coffee and I find that the bitter soaked bean really has no appeal for me. I am okay with hot chocolate, and I don’t care if it comes from Starbucks or anywhere else, but since Rita was after a cup of coffee, Starbucks was our goal.

On the way down the walking street we found a chopstick store. Rita has a thing for Chopsticks (at this point I was like the walking dead…have you seen Shaun of the Dead? I really felt I must look like his mother. Looking like the walking dead without even trying to) so she stopped in a store. I walked in. Heard the slow playing music and looked at the dim lights and realized I was going to crash on my feet if I stayed still for even one minute in that dull room. It may even have been an exciting store, but I was out of it by then. So I left. I walked out the door, down the steps and right up to the little covered patio area where the workmen were getting ready to build a little service oriented store. (I think it was a drink stand, but they were still building it and sometimes  you just can’t tell). So I stood there and stared at the workmen. And wouldn’t you know it, a young Chinese man walked over to me to strike up a conversation in English. We spoke slowly and quietly. He said hello, I said hello. He asked me about the shopping; I politely told him it was a lovely store. Then he told me to make sure I was back on the bus at 3. I didn’t want to miss the bus. My husband has previously worked in the mental health field and I do know the signs when I see them, but I had been so tired I didn’t even notice that he was mentally ill until he began to remind me to be back on the bus. I was just too tired. So, I agreed that we had to be back on the bus at 3 because “no, we don’t want to be left behind!”

By this time, Rita was done in the shop and Michael had come out. He spoke to the young man in Chinese and he said something about Institutions before we moved on down the walking street. It was afterwards that I realized that the mentally ill patients (who lingered throughout the walking district and for some reason thought I was one of them or one of the staff…okay, yeah, I know I looked that worn down…) spoke Chinese and Better English than most of my students in Xinzheng. Much Better English. I don’t know what kind of  sign this is, but it is certainly a sign of something.

We continued to peruse the chopstick stores. I don’t understand chopsticks stores. I mean yes, the tourists are going to buy the fancy chopsticks that can’t be used for anything except display, but a whole store devoted to chopsticks that can’t be used. That would be like creating a whole store for a bunch of unusable spoons. “What do you mean its called flatware? Yeah, but you use it don’t you? Now don’t tell me you would buy a bunch of dishes just to put into a cupboard. Yes, I understand that it is worth a bunch of money but why would you want a set of dishes that you can’t use? No, never mind, I don’t need to understand. I will just keep using the plastic plates I bought at K-mart 10 years ago.”

Finally noon rolled around and we went back to the hotel. I felt like someone was trying to mold my body out of clay, with me still in it. Not a great feeling. I was so tired I just knew that there was going to be something wrong. And there was. The room was not quite ready. They still needed to clean it. So we stood there for 20 minutes while they finished cleaning up the room. Then we gathered our luggage and trudged up to the top floor. Yes the top floor, room 605, and I set down my luggage, put my head on the pillow and fell fast asleep. And I slept until 6pm. I don’t remember anything except putting my head on the pillow. When I woke up I realized that I was hungry. Rita and Michael were also hungry. So we voted to go out to eat. Oh, we could have eaten at the night market which was pretty much just outside our window, but no we wanted to drive over to where the friendship store is in Beijing to make sure that our date of arrival was not totally wasted, and while we were in that neighborhood we would be able to find some kind of restaurant. Okay okay, so we went to the friendship store. This is a giant store where a bunch of people make craft items and village items and such tourist desirables and they get together in a sort of co op and sell the items at a slightly higher price to tourists

Long story short (this story is far too long to be short), we did not exactly find what we wanted (Not at those prices…you got to be kidding me. If I want it that bad I will make it myself thanks) so we went looking for a place to eat And this is what I like to call Mrs. Jones' Wild Ride, or the hunt for the elusive meal. We found a restaurant. It was Japanese food and Michael did not want to eat Japanese food. Now this is not that surprising considering the attitude of things right now. There is a very large anti Japanese sentiment considering the problems with the Japanese history books not mentioning the rape of Nanjing. I wouldn’t mention it either before High school level. It is not a nice subject, but of course the idea is that the Chinese think the Japanese are hiding the truth from another generation of children and I don’t know how much is true and how much is the propaganda of this side and the propaganda from that side. Regardless, we did not go to the Japanese restaurant. But there in the distance we see a sign for Thai food. And we walk. And we walk. And we walk and walk and walk. And ….The door of the Thai food restaurant is chained shut. It seems that not many people in Beijing like Thai food. Okay fine, there has got to be another restaurant. There is… and I took one look at the prices and walked out. And we walked and we walked and we walked. Everywhere we went there were either no restaurants or there was nothing that we wanted to eat. Finally we found a restaurant that had good food and was open (by this time it was going on 11pm and everything was closed or closing).

Yes, we found a place to eat. And no you are not going to find this funny at all. Oh no, there is nothing funny about being in Beijing and choosing to eat dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. Oh no.

It cost the same as it would to eat in the states at the Outback Steakhouse.

And I had a steak and it was good. I also had a glass of cranberry juice. Both of these items are difficult to get or enjoy in the part of China that I live in. Steak is almost always too expensive, too small, and too unappealing. And there is no such thing as cranberry juice in China. There just isn’t. It was good. We went back to the hotel and I went back to bed, feeling very worn out and satisfied with the lovely meal. While we were eating at the outback steakhouse Jong Pong Fei (Michael’s Chinese name) wanted to “check to make sure that you are not a machine like in a sci-tech movie” (his words not mine) so he used his cell phone to see if there was an inferred port. Don’t ask.

The next day we got up and went looking for breakfast. We found the Starbucks and Rita got coffee; I got a hot chocolate and a frosted raisin cinnamon roll. That morning we went to Starbucks. At the same time there was a fancy tea ceremony going on at the mall. This is the Chinese version of the Tea Ceremony. One woman makes the tea while two other women prepare the ingredients. The women wore traditional costumes including the wigs with the intricate ornaments. Then we walked to the Forbidden City. We walked the moat of the Forbidden City. We entered the gates of the Forbidden City. We spent most of the day trying to walk from one end of the Forbidden City to the other with out food. Yes, we forgot to bring snacks with us. We enjoyed the beautiful buildings; we loved the koi fish (called Li Yu in Chinese) and the ponds. While we were at the Forbidden City, Michael wanted to play the practical joker, so every time he got ahead of us he would hide. Then he would ask Rita where’s the camera.” She tried to tell him that it was not a funny joke, but he continued throughout the day.

We delighted in the gardens and we were horrified at the price of water and food. So we walked out of the Forbidden City and went looking for food. Rita said it was a problem that we kept starving Jong Pong Fei. It felt suddenly like our entire trip was going to be a journey for food. We crossed Tiananmen Square. It was large and crowded. I took pictures. We found a famous shopping district. We finally found a restaurant and we ate well. First we went down the long alley and ate a dish called Crispy beef which I liked, Puff Fried Eggplant which motion sickness. That basically means that I can die from the condition if it is not treated. Basically I spent a 14 hour flight with a bag around my face. It is not as bad as it sounds. I never disturb my neighbors and I don’t lose control, I simply know better than to travel without one of those little baggies. (Sometimes I pack a Ziploc…they make it even more polite for my neighbors. I am really aware of the necessity of being polite when I am puking my guts out.

China) and uses more than one mode of transportation, I am prepared for all parts. (Deer does everything) but finally I found the motion sickness pills. They had one set of pills. Rather than try to pussyfoot around, I simply asked for the strongest medicine that they have. They directed me to a different counter (I was speaking through Michael at this point) and they bring out a box with two patches in it. It looks exactly like the medicine I use (except it is all in Chinese and is made by a different company and it is a slightly different color) so I decided to buy one box We left the shopping street and went back towards Tiananmen.
There we found a Baskin Robbins like store that had ice cream and coffee as well as meals. For dinner we had ice cream and waffles. At the restaurant with the Baskin Robbins logo we found waffles and Ice cream. Michael had never had waffles before and since they were served with butter and syrup we treated him to a real American meal, at 9pm. When we stood up to leave He picked up my wristwatch from the couch. I saw him pick something up but did not know what it was.

I asked him to see what he had grabbed but he refused and Rita argued with me to stop picking on Michael. Later he teased me so that I would have to guess what important item was missing. I told him that I had my camera, my video camera, my pictures of the kids, my passport and other identification cards, and a whole long list of things that were important. He held out the watch and I told him it wasn’t important. He told me that when he had stolen it from my husband he had said that it was very important and that I would kill him for losing it.

I laughed and said it was a cheap watch I had found from a friend … Cat had owned the watch many years ago and left it at our house. When she had moved away (never to contact us again) she left it behind. No offense, I like Cat a lot but it is not that important of a watch I didn’t care that much so it wasn’t fun for him tease me and he gave it back. I have dealt with bullies before, take the wind out of their  sails and they just back down. He gave me the watch. So any way, we had a nice dinner, went out and took a taxi back to the hotel and went to bedThe next morning we had to leave early to make the tour bus to the great wall. We had chosen to go to the Great Wall at Simatai. Now, according to my out of date Lonely Planet guide book, and since it is 5 years out of date I don’t really lay any blame on the book, the trip to the Great Wall should take about 2 hours from the city limits. Well this is the Labor Day holiday which brings a whopping 1 BILLION people to Beijing which makes traffic alone an ample adventure. And of course the tour bus hit a taxi (Rita thinks it was planned because it meant we were stopped right at a place where some of the indigenous Tibetans were selling their wares).
The Tibetans reminded me greatly of the traditional Navajo. One girl looked just like she had stepped off of the cover of National Geographic Magazine. Baby and all. On the drive, in addition to hitting the taxi our driver almost took out a pedestrian. Of course that guy had been standing in the middle of the road waving down the bus. I think he might have intended to rob the bus. I am not sure. Regardless, we had an interesting ride. The driver also cursed continually in Chinese. Kind of like a sailor. You don’t want to know what he said about the pedestrian’s mother…I don’t want to know either. On the road to Simatai we were serenaded by a visiting minority from Tibet. He climbed on the bus after we hit the taxi and road out with us to the wall. I thought he (and the guy he was with) was a little odd. When everyone else on the bus fell asleep (again with the sleeping, what is it with these people?) I put on a little Lincoln Park and bopped along… (Lincoln Park is a little industrial and a little loud, and it helped me stay awake. For this I am grateful) While I was enjoying my music the minorities began to look around the bus.

Okay, I don’t tend to be prejudice but paranoid is paranoid and I readily admit that I am paranoid of everyone, any color, any race, any sex.If I am carrying money, I don’t want ANYONE to take it away from me, so I watch EVERYONE. So of course I notice when the minority Tibetans begin to gaze around the bus. First of all they were sitting several seats in front of me so in order to gaze around the bus they had to lift up above the seats and look back towards me.

In addition, they were some of the only non-lowai people on the bus. So of course I am going to notice when they begin to scan the bus…repeatedly. And I began to watch their hands. The person behind them was snoring (I know because he had leaned his seat back and his head was practically in my lap…not really but my knees sure thought so) And when one of them began to move his hand backwards in such a way that it looked like it was aiming for the sleeping mans pocket, I riveted my attention to it. My paranoia complete I glance up at the mirror.I notice that the two men are still scanning the bus. And they see me looking right at them.

The hand moves out in a sort of stretch and it goes back to the lap of its rightful owner. Now I am not saying that he was going to steal from the sleeping man. I don’t know that for sure. I am just saying that it sure looked like it from the angle that I was at. Later on he told the driver that he was going to sing for the foreigners and he sang songs o fhis native land. No offense, I like traditional music as much as the next guy, but it just doesn’t go well with the music I had been listening to. We took a short cut. At some point the traffic on the road to Simatai just ground to a stop, but not our bus, oh no. He drove off the road to this dirt path and through a village around the “short cut”. So we got to Simatai. And it only took 6 hours. And I knew that I was not going to be able to

make it up the wall and back down in the two hours we had before the bus was going to leave to take us back. So Rita and I discussed it over a meal at the Lonely Planet restaurant at Simatai (food isn’t bad but the hygiene leaves much to be desired…but for me every place is like that) and decided we would take the cable car up to the train, the train up to the bottom of the wall and the stairs up to the high point of Simatai. This is exactly like the pictures (which will be added to my web page later this summer…Updates in June) Anyway, we went up the wall, back down the wall, and rode the bus home. We stopped at a small restaurant down the road from the hotel in the hopes of ordering “Peiking Duck” and it was the worst meal I have ever had. It was also way too expensive. So after bad duck we went back to the hotel
to bed.

Chrissy


2011 Note-  This was written by Christine and was meant to have a continuation, but it never was written.