Meeting Mao

Yesterday, I came face to face with Chairman Mao. It was a really creepy experience. He was in a quiet, dimly lit room, surrounded by tall, glass walls, while his glass coffin occupied the middle of the room. He looked a little waxy, but the sight still shook me in my boots. The Forbidden Palace is HUGE. I knew this before, but my god, I mean it's big. We walked up the the concubine's rooms, which was near the man-made hill. The architecture there is absolutely stupefying, although I prefer the undone nature of the old paintwork. It represents the neglect of the Palace throughout the years. Speaking of concubines, I found it interesting that the Emperor had about 30,000 beauties (aged between 14-40), which he selected from official families or others (if they were beautiful enough). Again, Cixi is an amazing character in Chinese history; the lady was a hard core bitch. To avoid another disappointing dinner, Trey, Fred, and I went to a Beijing supermarket and stocked up on American-like snacks (e.g. PB&J, Oreo's) for dinner. Altogether, the stuff cost only 150 yuan, or about 20-25 US dollars! I still can't get over how generally cheap goods are. The only meal so far I have really enjoyed was the arranged one we had tonight in Chengde. It's just...greasy, oily, and fatty. So, I was famished by tonight. Today we left early for the Great Wall (Chang Cheng) and hiked for about 2.5 hours. The steps vary in height and intensity. The scene was absolutely beautiful. A very pushy woman kept following me, trying to sell me a book on the Wall. While I enjoyed getting to practice what little Chinese I know, it was both sad and aggravating. Eventually, I had to pull, "Bu yao!". Another woman followed us to our bus and kept trying to get our attention through the bus window. It was pitiful. I am such an easy target for local people, for I am about as far from Chinese as someone can get. We were all so tired today (with the heat and the climbing and the past two days of non-stop walking), but we went to a minority college in Chengde after the Great Wall to meet some students there. We spent a little time conversing in both Chinese and English, which was fun. I've just forgotten so many vocabulary words, that I makes real communication a little rough. The aforementioned dinner was delicious (the sweet corn and cucumber dish, oddly enough), but there are still "po-ho" (the toilets I described earlier) all around. I am so blessed to have a western toilet in my hotel room. Right now, we're staying in a four star Chengde hotel, which has it's own karaoke room, bar, and an elevator! (I have rightfully treated myself to all three of these features.) Still, however, wireless internet is really hard to come by, which leaves me at the mercy of rare ethernet cables and others' computers. I guess I just assumed that China would have better and more convenient internet access. On a lighter note, I saw two cute cats today (one, a long-haired black cat, the other, a tabby) and a strange creature that looked like a tiny hummingbird, but had antennae. Also, big sunflowers. I mean big. I have so many beautiful photos to share, but again, I'll have to wait until we get to Tianjin in about a week or so. Chengde is so beautiful; tomorrow, I think we tour the mountainside and the pagodas and Buddha temples around. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get to experience the city of Chengde, for the hotel is atop a hill and a good motorbike drive away from the liveliness and colorful building night lights. The motorbikes are so bad ass, and I wish I could at least rent one for a day! It's late now, so it's bedtime since we have yet another 7:30-8:30am morning. Here's a fun Chinese language fact of the day: wong(3)ba(3) means "internet bar", while wong(3)ba(4) means "son-of-a-bitch". You see- pronunciation is SO SO VERY OMG important!

Discovery

So, I'm in Beijing, currently posting from an internet bar within the city. Tsinghua University's hotel does not have internet access, which is troubling but gives me the opportunity to experience this smoky, "Adults Only" niche. The hotel, where we'll be for the next few nights, is an interesting place. There's no air conditioner or elevator (and I'm on the fourth floor), but it does have a fantastic shower. The provided hair dryer looks like a vacuum cleaner appendage, but at least the room has a real toilet and complimentary toilet paper. That's right- average bathrooms here contain sink-in-the-floor toilets and a waste basket, which means you have to carry around your own tissue. Was I supposed to know about this? It definitely makes not-so-fun activities interesting. The flight to Seoul was long, but very nice. Korean Air is a hip airline, employing attractive, nurturing, and young people to take care of you. They know exactly when you will be hungry or thirsty, and take such good care of you. Their processed food is actually pretty tasty, too. However, getting here took a long time, and I arrived cranky and sleep deprived to a dark, rainy Beijing. Thus, I didn't appreciate much last night. Today, however, the group went to lovely places and learned fascinating facts. We started out with a tour of Tsinghua University, which is the most prestigious in all of China. We strolled the campus and walked along its outskirts to see the life that the campus has. Today was also Teacher Appreciation Day. Cute. Next was lunch, which for me consisted of greens, mifan (steamed rice), cha (tea), and bread. I'm not yet at the hunger stage where I'll eat tons of grease and some meat. Everyone ordered a dish, and we shared everything on a rotating table top. There was a basket of pumpkin fries at lunch, which were delicious but so greasy that by the end of lunch, a grease puddle had collected on the table under the basket. Disgusting. (And it was getting bigger). Normally they don't give you napkins, either, so once again, I'm glad I brought portable, multi-usage tissue. We endured a long, but informative lecture about Confucius in front of his statue near Tsinhua's campus. Zhao laoshi is so deeply intrigued by his influence on ancient and modern-day China; it is very sweet to see him sharing this all with us. He is trying to convince us that we need to pay attention because we will be having a test later on, that this trip is not solely for travel, but I don't buy it. We went to the Summer Palace and saw some marvelous architecture! It was astounding, and the story of Cixi was also new and interesting. I took so many pictures that'll be available once I can get my computer hooked up to an internet source. Anyway, during our tour, a creepy local man kept following our group and taking pictures of me and other female peers. To escape, I stuck close to big, tall Richard. I browsed an antique shop within the Palace and then rode a bus through the crowded streets of Beijing to this very internet bar. Next, I'm going to get dinner and shop around the city. To me, the biggest safety threat right now is not being mugged, rather being struck by a car and possibly being really injured. Here, drivers- not pedestrians- have the right of way, so if you're in the road, you're basically just a speed bump. People won't slow down for you most of the time. There are lots of people on bikes that just share the road, which is so damn crowded in the early evening it's ridiculous. Yes- there are a lot of people here. And there is so much culture to see and experience. Time for dinner!