Finally, the trip drew near to a close. Aside from the Warriors, Xi'An really doesn't have a huge amount more to offer. It has two pagodas, the drum and bell towers, and the city walls. I had already seen the drum and bell towers the night before, so I slept in a bit on purpose to kill some time, then took a bus out to the Big Goose Pagoda.
The Big Goose Pagoda was cool, but not because of the pagoda itself. The pagoda was walled in, and you had to circle around to the back to pay a fee to go up and see it. I thought it was cool because around the walls, there is a series of giant water jets, and I happened to get there just as it was turned on. The fountains are not on all day. I got there at noon, and it just so happened that at noon, they turn them on for what I call a water dance. The jets all shoot out at different angles and heights, all to several different songs, varying from classical, to what I'd call parade music, to very Chinese style music.
Once the performance was over, I circled around back, walked up to the entrance where you pay the admission fee, knelt down, and just snuck a picture of the pagoda, then moved on. China's got lots of pagodas, the insides are all the same, and I don't need to worry about paying to go to each one of them. I moved on to the next pagoda, called the Little Goose Pagoda.
This one was somewhat hidden, and I had passed it by quite a bit while walking. Finally, after doubling back quite a ways, I found it, and the pagoda wasn't visible at all. The walls around it are very far spread out, and they've turned the surrounding area into a park. So I was forced to pay to go in, just to see the pagoda, but I'm glad I did. This one, once in the park, was free to climb, which is unusual. It also had a bit of interesting history to it, and the view from the top was nice.
Finally, I had exhausted all the sights but one: The city walls. The city walls are a special sight, because many Chinese cities had large walls built around them, but none of them are still around. Xi'an's are still maintained, although the city has grown beyond the walls themselves.
I had about 2 hours before the train left, and I was considering walking from the South gate to the North Gate where the train station is, but I didn't want to risk being stuck on the city wall and discovering that it was going to take too long to walk there. So I took a bus to the North Gate, and went onto the City Wall from there. I regret this for many reasons.
First off, it's clear that the Southern section of the wall has more to see. That end of the city has been made much more natural looking, and there are things to look at. The North end is boring, and all you see is poor housing and the train station. Even further, the North end was under construction. They were restoring some of the towers at the North Gate. And yes, even worse than that is the enormous amount of money they want just for you to climb up and look around. It's 40 yuan to get up, and most people rent bikes as well, so another 20 yuan, and I pity anyone who buys any water or ice cream while up there. Suffice to say, it's an expensive way to kill some time. I walked far enough to see a main gate, as they have 3 signature towers at each gate, and a corner, since they build a tower at each corner in order to keep an eye out along the whole wall.
The only other thing I found remotely interesting about the city walls was the poor housing. I hadn't found a good perspective before to take pictures of this kind of thing, although I had tried. I've wanted pictures of the numerous solar panels they use here, just to show people back home. One thing I really like about China is how they use a lot of solar power. They do it for free electricity, not to save the environment, but it's something you don't notice unless you look for it. They have the panels covering every roof top, and they use them to heat their water. I don't know if others find it interesting, but it's one aspect of living in China that I really like.
Finally, once climbing down the precarious ladder, I still had time to kill, so I bought a beer and found a Muslim restaurant by the train station. What was funny is that just about all Muslim restaurants serve the same thing. However, I had stumbled upon a vegetarian Muslim restaurant. I asked for beef, they told me no. I asked for lamb, they said no. I kind of stuttered and hesitated, not knowing what was going on, so I asked if they had rice. They did, and the lady suggested I have vegetable fried rice, and thats when I looked around, saw no meat, and saw nothing on the menus saying meat (I know the Chinese characters for beef, lamb, and meat). Despite the lack of meat, it was quite delicious, and had an unusual spiciness to it I don't get back in Wuxi.
The train ride back was boring, as I had a soft sleeper. It was at this time I decided I would only get hard seats from here on in, despite the lack of bed. They're cheaper, and they're so much more interesting. I ended up reading about half of the Lonely Planet's Guide to China, which I borrowed from Jessica, then going to bed. It was an uneventful train ride home, although there was a small girl I enjoyed playing with a bit who was calling me Ge-Ge (Big brother) by the end of the ride.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Xi'An: Night Time
Once the tour dropped us off back at the hostel, I dropped off my "expensive" Warriors, and came back downstairs. I was hungry, and Xi'An has some famous meals, so I asked the tour guide if she knew of the names. Rather than just tell me the names, and send me to an obscure restaurant, she really impressed me. She said she was getting on the same bus anyway to go home, so she'd take me to the Muslim Quarter (a large section of Xi'an where the majority of the residents are of Hui minority, largely Muslim).
She took me there, and I told her my impressions of China, and the tour, and she seemed quite happy. She pointed out a nice area where I'd find lots of shops, and gave me names of a few dishes I should try. I asked her what local beers they had, as I always like to drink the local beer at each city I go to. It's cheap, and usually has a slightly different taste. She told me the name, but I later found out it's a German brand, and that Xi'an has no local brew. The dishes were quite good, but way too filling! The main dish was a soup, filled with some kind of special bread, bean noodles, and a bit of meat. It was good, but there was mostly just bread, and so I couldn't finish it. I had become stuffed on all the soup-soaked bread. I had them bag another dish I'd tried, another bread which was spicy and had a kind of red sauce on it. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat anymore.
Afterwards, I stumbled upon a night market, and since today was actually Jessica and my one-year anniversary (yes, I know, I was away travelling and I'm horrible), I looked around for something Jessica would like. Markets are mostly filled with crap, so I didn't know what to get her. At one point, a vendor started speaking English with me, trying to help the other vendors sell to me. I found out her (English) name was Becky, and I had a fantastic time talking to her.
To sum her up in one word would be: Cute. She chatted with me long enough at the other vendor's shop, and eventually realized I wasn't interested in any of the crap, so she pulled me over to her own shop. She kept showing me things that Chinese girls would like, or really cheap jewelery, so I kept telling her my girlfriend wouldn't like that type of thing. The reason I say "Cute" is because each time she showed me something and I said no, she would put on a child-like pouty face, and pretend she was upset because I "hated" her things.
I laughed out loud each time she did it, and I had a blast chatting with her. Finally, I told her I was interested in one little thing, a container made of china (supposedly), and the lid had a mirror in it. I suspect it is meant to hold rings, earrings, etc. but I had other ideas for it, and the outside was nicely decorated in a very Chinese style. She offered me a decent price, and said it was because we were friends now (yup, the "friend price"). I laughed, and I told her I liked her, so I'd give her half that.
Again, she whips out the pouty face, but I knew the price I gave her was fair. I changed the subject many times, and let her keep coming back to the sale (very frustrating for her, funny for me). I'd chat with her about anything, then she would go back to the trinket and give me a lower price, to which I'd always reply with my original offer. Finally, she pouted again, and yelled "Why won't you haggle?".
At this point, I had her down to only 5 yuan above what I was offering, and I told her an English lesson usually costs 100 yuan an hour. Surely, she can afford to drop 5 yuan more, since in my eternal graciousness, I was teaching her English for free. This was a horrible ploy I was using, and it is very much rooted in Chinese strategies I had learned along the way. She retorted, still with the cute face on, that she was teaching me English, and I answered "Maybe, but I've forgotten it all. I'm very stupid." with a wink. I got the trinket for my price, but it took having to give her my msn address so she could keep practicing English.
I really don't mind, since over the last few weeks, I had developed a rule that I will only buy from people I like. The most common thing I've noticed is that when you don't like someone, it's usually because your instinct is telling you you're getting ripped off. I've gotten overcharged before, even that day (remember the 3 yuan Warriors?), but only by people I didn't like, or felt uneasy about. Anyone I've chatted with who was friendly, or someone I've had fun haggling with, hasn't overcharged me by more than 5 yuan.
I thanked her, and left. I went to see the bell tower and drum tower, although I didn't want to go up. I was happy I did it at night time, because they were all lit up, and quite beautiful at this time of night. During the day, I suspect they would've looked almost identical to those of Beijing's. Afterwards, I headed back to the hostel and turned in early.
She took me there, and I told her my impressions of China, and the tour, and she seemed quite happy. She pointed out a nice area where I'd find lots of shops, and gave me names of a few dishes I should try. I asked her what local beers they had, as I always like to drink the local beer at each city I go to. It's cheap, and usually has a slightly different taste. She told me the name, but I later found out it's a German brand, and that Xi'an has no local brew. The dishes were quite good, but way too filling! The main dish was a soup, filled with some kind of special bread, bean noodles, and a bit of meat. It was good, but there was mostly just bread, and so I couldn't finish it. I had become stuffed on all the soup-soaked bread. I had them bag another dish I'd tried, another bread which was spicy and had a kind of red sauce on it. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat anymore.
Afterwards, I stumbled upon a night market, and since today was actually Jessica and my one-year anniversary (yes, I know, I was away travelling and I'm horrible), I looked around for something Jessica would like. Markets are mostly filled with crap, so I didn't know what to get her. At one point, a vendor started speaking English with me, trying to help the other vendors sell to me. I found out her (English) name was Becky, and I had a fantastic time talking to her.
To sum her up in one word would be: Cute. She chatted with me long enough at the other vendor's shop, and eventually realized I wasn't interested in any of the crap, so she pulled me over to her own shop. She kept showing me things that Chinese girls would like, or really cheap jewelery, so I kept telling her my girlfriend wouldn't like that type of thing. The reason I say "Cute" is because each time she showed me something and I said no, she would put on a child-like pouty face, and pretend she was upset because I "hated" her things.
I laughed out loud each time she did it, and I had a blast chatting with her. Finally, I told her I was interested in one little thing, a container made of china (supposedly), and the lid had a mirror in it. I suspect it is meant to hold rings, earrings, etc. but I had other ideas for it, and the outside was nicely decorated in a very Chinese style. She offered me a decent price, and said it was because we were friends now (yup, the "friend price"). I laughed, and I told her I liked her, so I'd give her half that.
Again, she whips out the pouty face, but I knew the price I gave her was fair. I changed the subject many times, and let her keep coming back to the sale (very frustrating for her, funny for me). I'd chat with her about anything, then she would go back to the trinket and give me a lower price, to which I'd always reply with my original offer. Finally, she pouted again, and yelled "Why won't you haggle?".
At this point, I had her down to only 5 yuan above what I was offering, and I told her an English lesson usually costs 100 yuan an hour. Surely, she can afford to drop 5 yuan more, since in my eternal graciousness, I was teaching her English for free. This was a horrible ploy I was using, and it is very much rooted in Chinese strategies I had learned along the way. She retorted, still with the cute face on, that she was teaching me English, and I answered "Maybe, but I've forgotten it all. I'm very stupid." with a wink. I got the trinket for my price, but it took having to give her my msn address so she could keep practicing English.
I really don't mind, since over the last few weeks, I had developed a rule that I will only buy from people I like. The most common thing I've noticed is that when you don't like someone, it's usually because your instinct is telling you you're getting ripped off. I've gotten overcharged before, even that day (remember the 3 yuan Warriors?), but only by people I didn't like, or felt uneasy about. Anyone I've chatted with who was friendly, or someone I've had fun haggling with, hasn't overcharged me by more than 5 yuan.
I thanked her, and left. I went to see the bell tower and drum tower, although I didn't want to go up. I was happy I did it at night time, because they were all lit up, and quite beautiful at this time of night. During the day, I suspect they would've looked almost identical to those of Beijing's. Afterwards, I headed back to the hostel and turned in early.
Xi'An: Alone With The Warriors
I woke up often along the ride, and didn't sleep much at all. At one point, in my exhaustion, I almost got off at the wrong stop, until the guy I was chatting with the night before stopped me and said "This is not Xi'an". I perked up, looked around and quickly realized most people were still sitting, and I laughed at my idiocy. I kept falling back asleep until someone actually batted my shoulder, saying "Xi'an! Xi'an!". I couldn't have been the only one that tired, however. The lady next to me kept snuggling into my shoulder, using it as a pillow. She'd wake up every once in a while, realize what she had done and apologize profusely. I didn't really care, so I'd tell her not to worry about it. However, when I said it, she'd go right back onto my shoulder and keep sleeping. I found it quite comical. Apparently, broad foreigner shoulders make a good pillow. Her husband wasn't terribly impressed though...
Once off the train, Chris and I met up. Xi'an was supposed to be a very hot area, but it was raining, so Chris was actually complaining of being cold. We went to the ticket office, and argued a bit in line about when we'd be leaving. Chris wanted to buy tickets for the end of the day, whereas I wanted to stay in Xi'an for two days, as I knew the Terracotta Warriors would take a day on their own. Chris was determined to leave that night, so he said I should just stay an extra day on my own, but that he would be leaving that night. I was free to leave when I like as well.
So I bought a ticket for the next day, at 5:30 PM. Chris asked for a train that night, but everything had been sold out. Here's where it gets really fucked up. Rather than just take the train with me the next day, he lost his temper, both at me, and the ticket lady. Another man, with fairly good English, was trying to translate for Chris, but he wouldn't hear it. Chris ended up buying a standing ticket in hard seat to go to Wuxi in two hours. He went all that way, from Beijing to Xi'an, only to immediately leave Xi'an without seeing anything. Even now, I still can't understand it.
I was rather surprised, and told him I didn't know what to do if we only have two hours, so we sat and had some soup at a nearby restaurant, and I went off on my own way. I got to the Xi'an hostel, checked in, and asked fearfully if there was still tours being offered to the Terracotta Warriors. Fortunately, she said yes. The tour left at 10 AM. I had gotten there at 9:45! I was very lucky, and I ran upstairs to drop off my bag, and came down to get on the bus just in time.
The tour was nice, and the Terracotta Warriors were very cool, but the rooms they were kept in were very dark, so a lot of my pictures show almost no detail, or they're blurred. I'm fairly upset about that part. I don't know how much help the tour guide was at giving us history details, but she was nice, and I enjoyed chatting with her in between the sights, both in Chinese and English. I also met some Canadians who had been in China for about 2 weeks, and we had a fun conversation about our Tim Hortons cravings. Most of the tour, I spent chatting with a German and his Chinese girlfriend, as he was a lot of fun, and she was very cute. He and I had very similar views on China, and the same sense of humour, so we paired up for most of the trip. We exchanged a lot of Chinese vocabulary as well, as well as some swear words.
Learning swear words is surprisingly educational about a culture, for reasons I can't really explain. You just seem to understand what's important, and what is viewed as low in a culture. Telling someone to fuck off in Chinese translates literally into English as "Go to your mother" or the extra vulgar "Go to your mother's dick". Also, in Chinese, most comments related to tofu can also mean prostitution. Knowing what words are insulting, or allude to sex really reveal why some things are the way they are. I found the same true when I was learning French.
The other advantage to knowing the words is so you don't accidentally say them later on. Chinese tones can change the meaning of a word so quickly. The pop, Sprite, can easily become "Water-cunt", which I discovered the hard way. My German friend told me of a story where at a store, he meant to ask for a bag to put his purchases in, and accidentally told the cashier "Could you hand me my testicles?". Chinese is fun, but sometimes, it's frigging hard.
Swearing aside, beyond the Terracotta Warriors, we were also taken to the typical factories where they try to sell us stuff. It's how they generate more income. This tour took us to a factory where they make Terracotta Warrior rip offs. You could buy a little one for 50 yuan, or a huge, lifesized one for over 10 000 yuan. I almost bought one of the little ones, and would have for 30 yuan, but resisted, and just took pictures of them instead.
I'm glad I resisted it too, because once we had finished at the Warriors site, we saw more ripoffs, probably from the same factory, in little boxes. The whole box was being sold by random vendors inside the site for anywhere from 50 yuan to 100. On my way in, I heard a lot of 100 yuan, and I resisted. When we were leaving, I heard one guy say 50 yuan, so I talked him down to 35. I didn't haggle very hard, because I was falling behind my group, and I didn't really care if I got it for 30 or 35.
Here's the bitch. I catch up to the group, and one guy says "What did you pay for it?" I told him, and he said "The same guy just offered it to me for 20 yuan..." I was a good sport about it, because crap like this always has a huge markup, just as souvenirs do in Canada or any other country. I laughed it off, and said oh well. It gets worse. We're walking along, me with my 35 yuan warriors, he with two boxes, one he paid 30 yuan for, the other 20 yuan... and the price keeps dropping. Once we left the Warriors area, and were walking down the street, we saw a ton of vendors, all with the same pirated set. We heard a lot of 20 near the exit of the site, but then someone said "Hey, I just heard 10..." and we all groan, because we had all bought it for at least twice that. Then someone said 5 yuan... Finally, by the end of the road, we had vendor after vendor selling it to us for 3 lousy yuan. About 45 cents Canadian!
Even so, I was a good sport about it, as I haven't gotten ripped off much in China, and paying 7 bucks for something that was about 45 cents isn't nearly as bad as some of the situations I've avoided. Besides, in Canada, they'd still sell for more than 7 bucks in any souvenir shop. It's more funny to me than anything, especially after what I'd been through in Beijing. If you're white, you will be ripped off in China. It may not happen right away, but eventually, they'll get you.
Once off the train, Chris and I met up. Xi'an was supposed to be a very hot area, but it was raining, so Chris was actually complaining of being cold. We went to the ticket office, and argued a bit in line about when we'd be leaving. Chris wanted to buy tickets for the end of the day, whereas I wanted to stay in Xi'an for two days, as I knew the Terracotta Warriors would take a day on their own. Chris was determined to leave that night, so he said I should just stay an extra day on my own, but that he would be leaving that night. I was free to leave when I like as well.
So I bought a ticket for the next day, at 5:30 PM. Chris asked for a train that night, but everything had been sold out. Here's where it gets really fucked up. Rather than just take the train with me the next day, he lost his temper, both at me, and the ticket lady. Another man, with fairly good English, was trying to translate for Chris, but he wouldn't hear it. Chris ended up buying a standing ticket in hard seat to go to Wuxi in two hours. He went all that way, from Beijing to Xi'an, only to immediately leave Xi'an without seeing anything. Even now, I still can't understand it.
I was rather surprised, and told him I didn't know what to do if we only have two hours, so we sat and had some soup at a nearby restaurant, and I went off on my own way. I got to the Xi'an hostel, checked in, and asked fearfully if there was still tours being offered to the Terracotta Warriors. Fortunately, she said yes. The tour left at 10 AM. I had gotten there at 9:45! I was very lucky, and I ran upstairs to drop off my bag, and came down to get on the bus just in time.
The tour was nice, and the Terracotta Warriors were very cool, but the rooms they were kept in were very dark, so a lot of my pictures show almost no detail, or they're blurred. I'm fairly upset about that part. I don't know how much help the tour guide was at giving us history details, but she was nice, and I enjoyed chatting with her in between the sights, both in Chinese and English. I also met some Canadians who had been in China for about 2 weeks, and we had a fun conversation about our Tim Hortons cravings. Most of the tour, I spent chatting with a German and his Chinese girlfriend, as he was a lot of fun, and she was very cute. He and I had very similar views on China, and the same sense of humour, so we paired up for most of the trip. We exchanged a lot of Chinese vocabulary as well, as well as some swear words.
Learning swear words is surprisingly educational about a culture, for reasons I can't really explain. You just seem to understand what's important, and what is viewed as low in a culture. Telling someone to fuck off in Chinese translates literally into English as "Go to your mother" or the extra vulgar "Go to your mother's dick". Also, in Chinese, most comments related to tofu can also mean prostitution. Knowing what words are insulting, or allude to sex really reveal why some things are the way they are. I found the same true when I was learning French.
The other advantage to knowing the words is so you don't accidentally say them later on. Chinese tones can change the meaning of a word so quickly. The pop, Sprite, can easily become "Water-cunt", which I discovered the hard way. My German friend told me of a story where at a store, he meant to ask for a bag to put his purchases in, and accidentally told the cashier "Could you hand me my testicles?". Chinese is fun, but sometimes, it's frigging hard.
Swearing aside, beyond the Terracotta Warriors, we were also taken to the typical factories where they try to sell us stuff. It's how they generate more income. This tour took us to a factory where they make Terracotta Warrior rip offs. You could buy a little one for 50 yuan, or a huge, lifesized one for over 10 000 yuan. I almost bought one of the little ones, and would have for 30 yuan, but resisted, and just took pictures of them instead.
I'm glad I resisted it too, because once we had finished at the Warriors site, we saw more ripoffs, probably from the same factory, in little boxes. The whole box was being sold by random vendors inside the site for anywhere from 50 yuan to 100. On my way in, I heard a lot of 100 yuan, and I resisted. When we were leaving, I heard one guy say 50 yuan, so I talked him down to 35. I didn't haggle very hard, because I was falling behind my group, and I didn't really care if I got it for 30 or 35.
Here's the bitch. I catch up to the group, and one guy says "What did you pay for it?" I told him, and he said "The same guy just offered it to me for 20 yuan..." I was a good sport about it, because crap like this always has a huge markup, just as souvenirs do in Canada or any other country. I laughed it off, and said oh well. It gets worse. We're walking along, me with my 35 yuan warriors, he with two boxes, one he paid 30 yuan for, the other 20 yuan... and the price keeps dropping. Once we left the Warriors area, and were walking down the street, we saw a ton of vendors, all with the same pirated set. We heard a lot of 20 near the exit of the site, but then someone said "Hey, I just heard 10..." and we all groan, because we had all bought it for at least twice that. Then someone said 5 yuan... Finally, by the end of the road, we had vendor after vendor selling it to us for 3 lousy yuan. About 45 cents Canadian!
Even so, I was a good sport about it, as I haven't gotten ripped off much in China, and paying 7 bucks for something that was about 45 cents isn't nearly as bad as some of the situations I've avoided. Besides, in Canada, they'd still sell for more than 7 bucks in any souvenir shop. It's more funny to me than anything, especially after what I'd been through in Beijing. If you're white, you will be ripped off in China. It may not happen right away, but eventually, they'll get you.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Beijing to Xi'An: From One Tourist Trap to the Next
Once I had finished playing around at the Silk Market, I headed out to the West Train Station. Chris had managed to get a soft sleeper, but they didn't have enough beds for both of us. I was quite poor anyway, so I volunteered to take a hard seat for the long train ride. I paid a third of what he did, but I was going to have to sit, without a bed, from sometime around 5 PM until 8 AM the next day. Oh well.
I sat down, and the social aspect of the hard seat cars kicked in. Within minutes, I had already begun a conversation with two girls who knew English, and with some help from them, I was also chatting with the other people in my area. I love that about hard seat. Not long after the train started moving, Chris text messaged me from 8 or 9 train cars up saying to meet him in the diner car.
Walking up 8 or 9 hard seat cars is a bitch. It's a tiring task, because you have to dodge all the Chinese people with standing tickets, and walk around them in an aisle that is really only wide enough for one person. By the time I had made it to the diner car, I was actually exhausted. Even worse, the door was locked to prevent any hard seat people from getting into the diner car. This was probably just to allow the soft sleepers a chance to get tables first, since they clearly have more money.
I finally got Chris' attention through the window, and he had someone let me in. I had my typical beer, with no food, as I try to eat before I get on the train. Train food markup can be quite harsh. Chris and I chatted for a while, while he ate and we sipped our beers. I was mainly eavesdropping on an American family sitting in another booth, listening to their impressions on China, and what they had paid for random things they bought in China. I thought it was quite clear that they had a lot of money, just from the names of hotels they were staying at, and what they had purchased.
Eventually, the father went back to the sleeper car, and the kids (our age) came over and joined us. We had quite a time, just talking about China, or the differences between China and back home. They also went to Atlantic City quite a bit, so we had a good conversation about gambling as well. It turns out one of the girls had been living in the south of China for about a year, and she was about to go back to the US, so the rest of the family came out and they were all touring China's main attractions together. Personally, I don't think the rest of the family is getting a realistic view of how China really is, but this is an opinion I have of many travellers, and I try not to voice it much. Actually living here shows you so much more about the Chinese.
We stayed in the diner car for so long that the waitresses were getting pissed off at us. This was because at around 11 PM, they start selling the diner car seats to people with standing tickets. They kept telling us to get out, or pay 30 yuan to stay. We pulled the old "Stupid Foreigner doesn't understand" trick, and managed to stay for quite a long time, and we even got them to serve us one more round of beer, even though they had stopped serving about 2 hours ago. Finally, we got tired of pretending we didn't understand (or in the case of three of the Americans, actually not understanding) so we all went off to our beds/my seat.
I got back to my seat, and fortunately, most of my new Chinese friends were still awake, so I got to chat quite a bit. I wanted to get a card game going, but the game they knew was slightly different in a lot of ways from the version I had learned in Beijing. What ended up happening is I got distracted by a third Chinese person who spoke English, as to my amazement, he had almost no accent. The others played cards with my deck for a few hours, then packed it up and went to sleep.
At one point, Chris came back to my hard seat with the two American guys, who were clearly quite hammered. I had been chatting quietly with the remaining people who were awake in the car, and they showed up yelling in excitement, and waking a lot of people. They were quite excited to see the "poor section". I made fun of them a bit in Chinese, since they knew absolutely none, and the Chinese people in my area laughed quite a bit, but once the Americans and Chris returned to their sleepers, everyone quickly fell back asleep.
I spoke to the new guy and one other girl for quite some time, until I realized suddenly it was 3 AM. I asked them if they were tired, they claimed no, but as soon as I came back from the washroom, they had already fallen asleep. This was fine, as I knew I should try to sleep anyway. Those two had really fascinated me, though. The guy had lost almost all of his Chinese accent while speaking English, just from watching American movies, and the girl rendered me speechless. She had actual, well informed opinions about world wide problems. Most Chinese won't even give you an opinion about whether or not a certain food/drink is tasty. She was well read in Western books, and she knew of Supersize Me, Fast Food Nation, and of Michael Moore. Needless to say, I was very impressed. That was one of the most interesting conversations I'd had with a Chinese person to date.
I sat down, and the social aspect of the hard seat cars kicked in. Within minutes, I had already begun a conversation with two girls who knew English, and with some help from them, I was also chatting with the other people in my area. I love that about hard seat. Not long after the train started moving, Chris text messaged me from 8 or 9 train cars up saying to meet him in the diner car.
Walking up 8 or 9 hard seat cars is a bitch. It's a tiring task, because you have to dodge all the Chinese people with standing tickets, and walk around them in an aisle that is really only wide enough for one person. By the time I had made it to the diner car, I was actually exhausted. Even worse, the door was locked to prevent any hard seat people from getting into the diner car. This was probably just to allow the soft sleepers a chance to get tables first, since they clearly have more money.
I finally got Chris' attention through the window, and he had someone let me in. I had my typical beer, with no food, as I try to eat before I get on the train. Train food markup can be quite harsh. Chris and I chatted for a while, while he ate and we sipped our beers. I was mainly eavesdropping on an American family sitting in another booth, listening to their impressions on China, and what they had paid for random things they bought in China. I thought it was quite clear that they had a lot of money, just from the names of hotels they were staying at, and what they had purchased.
Eventually, the father went back to the sleeper car, and the kids (our age) came over and joined us. We had quite a time, just talking about China, or the differences between China and back home. They also went to Atlantic City quite a bit, so we had a good conversation about gambling as well. It turns out one of the girls had been living in the south of China for about a year, and she was about to go back to the US, so the rest of the family came out and they were all touring China's main attractions together. Personally, I don't think the rest of the family is getting a realistic view of how China really is, but this is an opinion I have of many travellers, and I try not to voice it much. Actually living here shows you so much more about the Chinese.
We stayed in the diner car for so long that the waitresses were getting pissed off at us. This was because at around 11 PM, they start selling the diner car seats to people with standing tickets. They kept telling us to get out, or pay 30 yuan to stay. We pulled the old "Stupid Foreigner doesn't understand" trick, and managed to stay for quite a long time, and we even got them to serve us one more round of beer, even though they had stopped serving about 2 hours ago. Finally, we got tired of pretending we didn't understand (or in the case of three of the Americans, actually not understanding) so we all went off to our beds/my seat.
I got back to my seat, and fortunately, most of my new Chinese friends were still awake, so I got to chat quite a bit. I wanted to get a card game going, but the game they knew was slightly different in a lot of ways from the version I had learned in Beijing. What ended up happening is I got distracted by a third Chinese person who spoke English, as to my amazement, he had almost no accent. The others played cards with my deck for a few hours, then packed it up and went to sleep.
At one point, Chris came back to my hard seat with the two American guys, who were clearly quite hammered. I had been chatting quietly with the remaining people who were awake in the car, and they showed up yelling in excitement, and waking a lot of people. They were quite excited to see the "poor section". I made fun of them a bit in Chinese, since they knew absolutely none, and the Chinese people in my area laughed quite a bit, but once the Americans and Chris returned to their sleepers, everyone quickly fell back asleep.
I spoke to the new guy and one other girl for quite some time, until I realized suddenly it was 3 AM. I asked them if they were tired, they claimed no, but as soon as I came back from the washroom, they had already fallen asleep. This was fine, as I knew I should try to sleep anyway. Those two had really fascinated me, though. The guy had lost almost all of his Chinese accent while speaking English, just from watching American movies, and the girl rendered me speechless. She had actual, well informed opinions about world wide problems. Most Chinese won't even give you an opinion about whether or not a certain food/drink is tasty. She was well read in Western books, and she knew of Supersize Me, Fast Food Nation, and of Michael Moore. Needless to say, I was very impressed. That was one of the most interesting conversations I'd had with a Chinese person to date.
Beijing: The Silk Market
I had a great time at this place. It was so blatantly inflated that I laughed out loud at every shop I went to. I was teasing the vendors, pretending I knew no Chinese, then springing it out on them after they talked about me in front of me to show I understood, or to show I knew what the real value of the item was. There were a few angry vendors, but nothing horrible. They are also extremely aggressive, trying everything to get you to come to their store.
One thing I was not prepared for was that they are physical about it. I would joke with a vendor about a price, or laugh at their price, and they would grab my arm and pull me into their store. They wouldn't let go of my arm until a sale was completed (or in my case, I told them sternly not to touch me). The first time someone grabbed me, I was shocked, and didn't know how to react. If I were trying to haggle with someone, but I gave up or couldn't find anything I wanted, they would grab me and pull on me or my backpack to bring me back in the store. I didn't know how to handle it at first, but I quickly learned a quick, serious face with the firm statement "Don't touch" works quite well.
Everything else was pure fun. I tried at four different shops for the same fake Armani belt. In Wuxi, I bought a belt very similar (my prized "Caivin Klein" belt) for 15 yuan. Here, they were offering a starting price of 400 yuan! I would laugh and tell them I live in China, I know what it's worth, and they would say "Oh, I'm just giving you a joking price" and lower it to 150-200 yuan. That's when I'd make my offer of anywhere from 10-20 yuan and they would be quite upset. A trend I've noticed is that it seems that Beijing's bottom line is clearly higher than Wuxi's. Things are legitimately more expensive in Beijing. I believe a belt like what I was going for wouldn't be sold for less than 25.
After the first belt shop wouldn't haggle below 100 yuan, I went to the second, and told him flatly: "I live in Wuxi, I know how much this is worth. Don't give me a "joking price" or I will leave. Give me a real price." He offered me a price of 250, so I laughed and walked away. The third shop insisted that it was real Armani, and that it was real leather. I got her to admit it was fake very quickly (her admission was "Well, of course it's not real!" in a very frustrated tone), but I never got her to admit it was vinyl. I exposed it as vinyl quickly, however, since I managed to talk her down from 150 to a sudden drop to 50 yuan. I then informed her of how much real leather belts sell for (definitely more than 50 yuan), and she became fairly hostile towards me, because just like the rest of Beijing, they don't like foreigners who know what proper prices are. The last shop was the funniest. I told her the same as I did the second shop, but she listened! She told me not to say anything out loud (because then other foreigners would hear what a real price is) and her initial offer was 50 yuan! I was amazed I had gotten someone to give me a somewhat realistic starting price, and so I haggled with her seriously for a while. However, she wouldn't go below 25 (her "rockbottom" price was 30, but she went down to 25), and I told her despite the fact that I can get it in Wuxi for 15, I'd buy it for 20 from her because I like her (which was honest). She told me she couldn't go any lower, and when I said that was fine, I'd get it in Wuxi, she suddenly turned angry and said "I don't care!". I was disappointed, but no matter. I love to haggle, so it was a good experience for me.
Another funny situation I got thrown into in the Market was on a stairway. Someone had turned the stairs from the first floor to the second floor into a shop, with scroll posters all over the walls. I asked how much one cost, and got a very unreasonable price, and just decided against haggling at all. She demanded I not leave, and that I haggle with her, so I told her I just wanted to know the price, and I'm just looking. She yelled "You can't look for free!" and grabbed my arm, so I twisted out of the grip, and laughed "I can't look?!" while walking away.
There were some really funny sales pitches too. They all yell at you to get your attention, and they point out things in their shops they want you to buy. Most of the time, it's crap I either don't want, or have too much of, so for entertainment's sake, I would give them reasons I couldn't buy it, and some of their retorts were awesome. I'll list some below:
Vendor: Come buy a shirt!
Me: I have a shirt. *I point to my Canada-bought t-shirt*
Vendor: But that shirt is poor quality! Look, it's awful! *While stretching out the stomach of my shirt*
(My personal favourite)
Vendor: Come buy my shoes!
Me: I have shoes. *Point to my feet*
Vendor: But your shoes are ugly! *Makes a disgusted face*
Vendor: Come buy my stuff!
Vendor: Come buy my shirts!
Me: You only have women's shirts.
Vendor: Buy for your girlfriend!
Me: I don't have one...
Vendor: Buy for your mother!
Me: I can't, she is too fat!
Vendor: Is ok! I have XL!
Me: Oh, that's too small for her...
*Vendor makes a very surprised face, is clearly speechless*
Vendor: Come buy my scarves!
Me: I have one. *Point to a t-shirt I had covered in water earlier and put around my neck to keep cool in the sun*
Vendor: That's not a scarf, that's an ugly shirt!
(After refusing to go into their store, this one pointed to a poster in my hand I bought elsewhere)
Vendor: How much you pay for that?
Me: 20 yuan (almost an honest answer, but I had a Chinese customer tell me that's what it was worth before I talked to the vendor)
Vendor: *Scoffs* 20?! I could buy 10 of them for that price! (Clearly a lie)
Me: Good for you! I'm proud of you. *Big, friendly smile*
(Being humble and happy for her really pissed off the vendor)
I don't know how they expect to sell me things when they inform me of how crappy all my currently owned stuff is, but I burst out laughing when I heard it. The guy who said my shoes were ugly said it in such a disgusted tone I had to laugh, and I told him it was a good sales pitch and gave him the thumbs up before I left.
My last silk market story (Sorry, I just love to tell stories about shopping in China) was for a scroll poster - the same one in my hand during that last vendor taunting example. I found someone willing to give me a decent price, but she haggled really hard. I was having a really hard time getting her to go cheaper than 30, and she even resisted the walkaway trick, where you pretend to be so discouraged, you give up on the whole purchase and walk out of the store until they call you back and agree to your price, or at least give you a better price. She let me walk out of her shop, and I didn't know what to do, because if I went back to her, she'd know I would pay her price, so I stopped at the next shop over, and pretended I was interested in something else.
Finally, she called me back over, and she started haggling again, saying 25 yuan. I insisted I should get it for 20, and she was so frustrated that she slapped my hand. My hand was out, and open palm up, (I move my hands a lot when I talk - part of the Sign Language effect) so she effectively high fived me when she slapped my hand out of frustration. I laughed out loud, and I told her in Chinese that in Canada, what she just did was a good thing. I showed her a real high five, and she couldn't help but smile when she realized why I was laughing. It was so entertaining to me, and such a surprising thing for her to do out of frustration, that I stopped haggling and I just paid the 25 yuan.
The Silk Market was full of adventures, and if someone were thinking of going, I would highly recommend it, but only after learning what things are actually worth in China. You'll get taken for a lot of money if you don't. Seeing someone pay 50 yuan for pearls was painful. Just because something's expensive in your country does not mean it's expensive here. What she bought was worth about 10 yuan. Real pearls are dirt cheap here. Same goes for silk. Silk is less than a dollar CAD per metre here. For the love of God, foreigners, stop paying so much money just because it's still cheaper than back home. You're giving us a bad image!
One thing I was not prepared for was that they are physical about it. I would joke with a vendor about a price, or laugh at their price, and they would grab my arm and pull me into their store. They wouldn't let go of my arm until a sale was completed (or in my case, I told them sternly not to touch me). The first time someone grabbed me, I was shocked, and didn't know how to react. If I were trying to haggle with someone, but I gave up or couldn't find anything I wanted, they would grab me and pull on me or my backpack to bring me back in the store. I didn't know how to handle it at first, but I quickly learned a quick, serious face with the firm statement "Don't touch" works quite well.
Everything else was pure fun. I tried at four different shops for the same fake Armani belt. In Wuxi, I bought a belt very similar (my prized "Caivin Klein" belt) for 15 yuan. Here, they were offering a starting price of 400 yuan! I would laugh and tell them I live in China, I know what it's worth, and they would say "Oh, I'm just giving you a joking price" and lower it to 150-200 yuan. That's when I'd make my offer of anywhere from 10-20 yuan and they would be quite upset. A trend I've noticed is that it seems that Beijing's bottom line is clearly higher than Wuxi's. Things are legitimately more expensive in Beijing. I believe a belt like what I was going for wouldn't be sold for less than 25.
After the first belt shop wouldn't haggle below 100 yuan, I went to the second, and told him flatly: "I live in Wuxi, I know how much this is worth. Don't give me a "joking price" or I will leave. Give me a real price." He offered me a price of 250, so I laughed and walked away. The third shop insisted that it was real Armani, and that it was real leather. I got her to admit it was fake very quickly (her admission was "Well, of course it's not real!" in a very frustrated tone), but I never got her to admit it was vinyl. I exposed it as vinyl quickly, however, since I managed to talk her down from 150 to a sudden drop to 50 yuan. I then informed her of how much real leather belts sell for (definitely more than 50 yuan), and she became fairly hostile towards me, because just like the rest of Beijing, they don't like foreigners who know what proper prices are. The last shop was the funniest. I told her the same as I did the second shop, but she listened! She told me not to say anything out loud (because then other foreigners would hear what a real price is) and her initial offer was 50 yuan! I was amazed I had gotten someone to give me a somewhat realistic starting price, and so I haggled with her seriously for a while. However, she wouldn't go below 25 (her "rockbottom" price was 30, but she went down to 25), and I told her despite the fact that I can get it in Wuxi for 15, I'd buy it for 20 from her because I like her (which was honest). She told me she couldn't go any lower, and when I said that was fine, I'd get it in Wuxi, she suddenly turned angry and said "I don't care!". I was disappointed, but no matter. I love to haggle, so it was a good experience for me.
Another funny situation I got thrown into in the Market was on a stairway. Someone had turned the stairs from the first floor to the second floor into a shop, with scroll posters all over the walls. I asked how much one cost, and got a very unreasonable price, and just decided against haggling at all. She demanded I not leave, and that I haggle with her, so I told her I just wanted to know the price, and I'm just looking. She yelled "You can't look for free!" and grabbed my arm, so I twisted out of the grip, and laughed "I can't look?!" while walking away.
There were some really funny sales pitches too. They all yell at you to get your attention, and they point out things in their shops they want you to buy. Most of the time, it's crap I either don't want, or have too much of, so for entertainment's sake, I would give them reasons I couldn't buy it, and some of their retorts were awesome. I'll list some below:
Vendor: Come buy a shirt!
Me: I have a shirt. *I point to my Canada-bought t-shirt*
Vendor: But that shirt is poor quality! Look, it's awful! *While stretching out the stomach of my shirt*
(My personal favourite)
Vendor: Come buy my shoes!
Me: I have shoes. *Point to my feet*
Vendor: But your shoes are ugly! *Makes a disgusted face*
Vendor: Come buy my stuff!
Vendor: Come buy my shirts!
Me: You only have women's shirts.
Vendor: Buy for your girlfriend!
Me: I don't have one...
Vendor: Buy for your mother!
Me: I can't, she is too fat!
Vendor: Is ok! I have XL!
Me: Oh, that's too small for her...
*Vendor makes a very surprised face, is clearly speechless*
Vendor: Come buy my scarves!
Me: I have one. *Point to a t-shirt I had covered in water earlier and put around my neck to keep cool in the sun*
Vendor: That's not a scarf, that's an ugly shirt!
(After refusing to go into their store, this one pointed to a poster in my hand I bought elsewhere)
Vendor: How much you pay for that?
Me: 20 yuan (almost an honest answer, but I had a Chinese customer tell me that's what it was worth before I talked to the vendor)
Vendor: *Scoffs* 20?! I could buy 10 of them for that price! (Clearly a lie)
Me: Good for you! I'm proud of you. *Big, friendly smile*
(Being humble and happy for her really pissed off the vendor)
I don't know how they expect to sell me things when they inform me of how crappy all my currently owned stuff is, but I burst out laughing when I heard it. The guy who said my shoes were ugly said it in such a disgusted tone I had to laugh, and I told him it was a good sales pitch and gave him the thumbs up before I left.
My last silk market story (Sorry, I just love to tell stories about shopping in China) was for a scroll poster - the same one in my hand during that last vendor taunting example. I found someone willing to give me a decent price, but she haggled really hard. I was having a really hard time getting her to go cheaper than 30, and she even resisted the walkaway trick, where you pretend to be so discouraged, you give up on the whole purchase and walk out of the store until they call you back and agree to your price, or at least give you a better price. She let me walk out of her shop, and I didn't know what to do, because if I went back to her, she'd know I would pay her price, so I stopped at the next shop over, and pretended I was interested in something else.
Finally, she called me back over, and she started haggling again, saying 25 yuan. I insisted I should get it for 20, and she was so frustrated that she slapped my hand. My hand was out, and open palm up, (I move my hands a lot when I talk - part of the Sign Language effect) so she effectively high fived me when she slapped my hand out of frustration. I laughed out loud, and I told her in Chinese that in Canada, what she just did was a good thing. I showed her a real high five, and she couldn't help but smile when she realized why I was laughing. It was so entertaining to me, and such a surprising thing for her to do out of frustration, that I stopped haggling and I just paid the 25 yuan.
The Silk Market was full of adventures, and if someone were thinking of going, I would highly recommend it, but only after learning what things are actually worth in China. You'll get taken for a lot of money if you don't. Seeing someone pay 50 yuan for pearls was painful. Just because something's expensive in your country does not mean it's expensive here. What she bought was worth about 10 yuan. Real pearls are dirt cheap here. Same goes for silk. Silk is less than a dollar CAD per metre here. For the love of God, foreigners, stop paying so much money just because it's still cheaper than back home. You're giving us a bad image!
Beijing: The Land of Liars and Cheats - Day 3
The sun rises extremely early in Beijing, and since my new, upgraded hostel room had *gasp* a window, I woke up before my cell phone alarm went off. Chris and I would be meeting the girls from the night before for the hutong tour at 10 AM, and I had lots of time to kill. I went over to the lounge, and since I heard from other foreigners that their breakfasts were good, I gave it a shot. Their menu was funny, in that it was clearly geared for foreigners, not Chinese people. The breakfast menu was listed as such:
American Breakfast:
Eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Toast
British Breakfast:
(Whatever foods the British tend to eat)
French Breakfast:
(Same idea, but France-oriented)
etc...
None of it was remotely Chinese, which made me overjoyed, since as I've lamented before, Chinese breakfast sucks. It's heavy, it's greasy, and it feels like you've just eaten a rag soaked in motor oil when you're done. Even more exciting, as I waited for my food, I cautiously eyed the coffee machine they had. I saw unground, full coffee beans! The machine would grind the coffee beans, then brew the coffee fresh, exactly enough for one cup. I finally had access, for the first time in the two-plus months I'd been in China, to fresh, delicious coffee. It was so good, and I wanted to make amends for losing my temper the day before, so I approached them with the friendliest face I could make, and told them how good the coffee was.
Once Ve-Ve (the Chinese girl giving the tour) showed up, I went downstairs to wake Chris. She was quite early (9:30), and I knew Chris probably had another rough night, so I wasn't surprised he wasn't upstairs yet. I knocked on his door, and it took him quite a while to answer. Finally, he opened the door, and told me to go without him. Apparently, he had seduced a 16 year old Thai girl also staying at the hostel. Chris is older than me. I wasn't impressed. I went upstairs and broke the news to Ve-Ve, trying to be subtle, since I knew the Chinese are more conservative than us. One night stands would not be a subject I was going to approach with this girl I didn't know very well. I simply informed her that Chris was out drinking very late the night before, and that he wouldn't be joining us.
She was fairly upset, and I think it was clear she either didn't want, or wasn't supposed to be doing tours for only one person. Fortunately, I had been talking to a nice American couple who hadn't seen the hutong yet, and they took a liking to Ve-Ve, so they joined me. The three of us took the hutong tour, and I was quite happy I spent the extra money to have someone come and explain the history. Looking around the hutong myself would have been quite boring. Riding a rickshaw, and having someone explain it all was much better.
Ve-Ve also helped me out a bit after the tour was over, going beyond what she was supposed to be doing, by explaining the history of the drum and bell tower (which was supposed to be an additional charge). Rather than pay the extra 50 yuan to see it with the rickshaw and tour guide, I had her point me in the right direction, and she explained why they were there, and some interesting facts. Beijing was slowly getting a bit better.
By the time the tour was over, Chris still hadn't gotten out of bed, so I moved on to the next thing I wanted to see. I had covered all the major sights, so I decided to try something different. I went to an art museum. The Chinese art was quite beautiful, and I enjoyed it quite a bit (no pictures allowed though), but my favourite part was their take on Western art. I am by no means a great art conoisseur, but apparently, neither are the Chinese. Each floor of the museum had a different style, and the Western styles typically were made up of the centre section, with real Western art from some artist or another, and the wings, which were mostly made up of the Chinese sad attempts at copying the style. My favourite was the French Surrealist floor. The centre was fascinating, and the art was amazing, but the wings were a joke. The Chinese are good at many things, but thinking outside the box is not one of them. They're normally very conservative thinkers, so surrealism was clearly a bit beyond them. I laughed out loud more than once at their surrealist "art".
The last stop of the day was the silk market. It wasn't only a market for silk, it was just a large building, with 5 floors, on Silk Street, clearly geared towards foreigners. The majority of the shoppers were foreigners, and the prices reflected it. These were some of the most outrageous prices I had seen yet, with some real bold liars selling the crap. Most of the stuff there wasn't worth more than 20 yuan, and this is where I developed my Law of Chinese Shopping:
Everything in China falls in two categories. Category A is made up of goods that are not worth more than 20 yuan (30 yuan for clothing). These items should not be purchased in a store. They should be purchased at a market, where the vendor does not need to pay extra expenses like rent for the shop, or electricity, etc. By doing this, you've lowered the bottom line, and therefore can buy the item for cheaper.
Category B is made up of goods that are worth more than 100 yuan. These are items that should be bought in a store, to decrease the chances you get a fake, or poor quality item. These items shouldn't have a large markup on them, and will generally have prices marked on them which are fair enough.
If you are shopping for Category B a lot, you are probably in China for the wrong reason. Going to China is not something you do to spend a lot of money. If you think the item is worth anywhere from 0 to 100 yuan, it's a Category A, and won't be worth more than 20 (30) yuan. If you're paying 80 or 90 yuan for something, you're probably paying the foreigner discount. Do not be amazed when you discover that something you bought for 80 yuan is later priced at 20 or 30 yuan.
The Silk Market part got quite long, so I separated the post here. It continues in the next post (Beijing: The Silk Market)
American Breakfast:
Eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Toast
British Breakfast:
(Whatever foods the British tend to eat)
French Breakfast:
(Same idea, but France-oriented)
etc...
None of it was remotely Chinese, which made me overjoyed, since as I've lamented before, Chinese breakfast sucks. It's heavy, it's greasy, and it feels like you've just eaten a rag soaked in motor oil when you're done. Even more exciting, as I waited for my food, I cautiously eyed the coffee machine they had. I saw unground, full coffee beans! The machine would grind the coffee beans, then brew the coffee fresh, exactly enough for one cup. I finally had access, for the first time in the two-plus months I'd been in China, to fresh, delicious coffee. It was so good, and I wanted to make amends for losing my temper the day before, so I approached them with the friendliest face I could make, and told them how good the coffee was.
Once Ve-Ve (the Chinese girl giving the tour) showed up, I went downstairs to wake Chris. She was quite early (9:30), and I knew Chris probably had another rough night, so I wasn't surprised he wasn't upstairs yet. I knocked on his door, and it took him quite a while to answer. Finally, he opened the door, and told me to go without him. Apparently, he had seduced a 16 year old Thai girl also staying at the hostel. Chris is older than me. I wasn't impressed. I went upstairs and broke the news to Ve-Ve, trying to be subtle, since I knew the Chinese are more conservative than us. One night stands would not be a subject I was going to approach with this girl I didn't know very well. I simply informed her that Chris was out drinking very late the night before, and that he wouldn't be joining us.
She was fairly upset, and I think it was clear she either didn't want, or wasn't supposed to be doing tours for only one person. Fortunately, I had been talking to a nice American couple who hadn't seen the hutong yet, and they took a liking to Ve-Ve, so they joined me. The three of us took the hutong tour, and I was quite happy I spent the extra money to have someone come and explain the history. Looking around the hutong myself would have been quite boring. Riding a rickshaw, and having someone explain it all was much better.
Ve-Ve also helped me out a bit after the tour was over, going beyond what she was supposed to be doing, by explaining the history of the drum and bell tower (which was supposed to be an additional charge). Rather than pay the extra 50 yuan to see it with the rickshaw and tour guide, I had her point me in the right direction, and she explained why they were there, and some interesting facts. Beijing was slowly getting a bit better.
By the time the tour was over, Chris still hadn't gotten out of bed, so I moved on to the next thing I wanted to see. I had covered all the major sights, so I decided to try something different. I went to an art museum. The Chinese art was quite beautiful, and I enjoyed it quite a bit (no pictures allowed though), but my favourite part was their take on Western art. I am by no means a great art conoisseur, but apparently, neither are the Chinese. Each floor of the museum had a different style, and the Western styles typically were made up of the centre section, with real Western art from some artist or another, and the wings, which were mostly made up of the Chinese sad attempts at copying the style. My favourite was the French Surrealist floor. The centre was fascinating, and the art was amazing, but the wings were a joke. The Chinese are good at many things, but thinking outside the box is not one of them. They're normally very conservative thinkers, so surrealism was clearly a bit beyond them. I laughed out loud more than once at their surrealist "art".
The last stop of the day was the silk market. It wasn't only a market for silk, it was just a large building, with 5 floors, on Silk Street, clearly geared towards foreigners. The majority of the shoppers were foreigners, and the prices reflected it. These were some of the most outrageous prices I had seen yet, with some real bold liars selling the crap. Most of the stuff there wasn't worth more than 20 yuan, and this is where I developed my Law of Chinese Shopping:
Everything in China falls in two categories. Category A is made up of goods that are not worth more than 20 yuan (30 yuan for clothing). These items should not be purchased in a store. They should be purchased at a market, where the vendor does not need to pay extra expenses like rent for the shop, or electricity, etc. By doing this, you've lowered the bottom line, and therefore can buy the item for cheaper.
Category B is made up of goods that are worth more than 100 yuan. These are items that should be bought in a store, to decrease the chances you get a fake, or poor quality item. These items shouldn't have a large markup on them, and will generally have prices marked on them which are fair enough.
If you are shopping for Category B a lot, you are probably in China for the wrong reason. Going to China is not something you do to spend a lot of money. If you think the item is worth anywhere from 0 to 100 yuan, it's a Category A, and won't be worth more than 20 (30) yuan. If you're paying 80 or 90 yuan for something, you're probably paying the foreigner discount. Do not be amazed when you discover that something you bought for 80 yuan is later priced at 20 or 30 yuan.
The Silk Market part got quite long, so I separated the post here. It continues in the next post (Beijing: The Silk Market)
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Beijing: The Land of Liars and Cheats - Day 2
Who wants to guess if I made it up early enough to go to the Great Wall? Getting to the hostel at 5:30 AM, falling fast asleep with nothing more than a cell phone alarm to wake me was... unwise, to say the least. I woke up at 8:15 AM, 45 minutes too late to catch the bus. I got very angry, and ran upstairs to the lounge, where everyone getting on the bus would have met. The bus was long gone, and I took out my frustration on the receptionist, which I later felt bad about. I yelled at her for a bit, mainly because she lied to me by saying they tried to find me, but couldn't. Since Chris was also still sleeping, I knew that they didn't check the rooms or try and wake me, so I was just angry she tried to tell me otherwise.
At this point, I was only concerned about two things: Getting my money back, and finding a way to the Great Wall. The anger I was taking out on the poor receptionist did accomplish some of that. In my ranting and raving, I blamed them, and said they couldn't find me because they kept changing what room I was in (their records still said I was in the original room), and that they were liars for telling me they tried to find me to wake me. I ended up getting my money back, and Chris and I headed out to Tiananmen Square, since nearby were a few travel agencies that offered tours to the Wall.
Hungover, angry, frustrated, and very thirsty, I set out to find someone advertising a bus. I found one lady, and asked her if she went to Simatai. There are four sections of wall, and the closer they are to Beijing, the more touristy and restored they are. Badaling is the closest and very fake, and Simatai is the furthest out, and supposed to be very much original, and very hard to scale. We wanted to go to Simatai. The lady lead us way out into some backroads, and showed us a bus. I thought this was good, and we were making progress, but as she tried to sell me the tickets, I asked again, does it go to Simatai? The answer was no. She laughed and said we wouldn't be able to go to Simatai. I told her fine, I wanted to go to Jinshanling, the second furthest out, and she said ok.
They charged us the same price the hostel would have, so I felt ok about it, but I had that feeling something was up. I didn't trust them, and I've found that my instinct is often correct about people trying to scam me. I was right. They took us to Badaling, and a bunch of other places we didn't want to go to. All in all, I spent an hour and a half at the Great Wall, when we had dedicated an entire day for it. The bus left the Wall and took us to all sorts of crappy places, including a very run down amusement park. I had already been to Suzhou's park, so I didn't care to blow any money there. Instead, I bought a pack of cards outside the park for 3 yuan and chatted/played with the guy who sold me the cards. It was probably the highlight of my day.
All in all, the Great Wall was not impressive. I had built it up in my mind to be a great sight, but the experience was quite ruined by finding out I had been scammed, seeing how touristy it had become, and being hassled by the bitch who sold me the tickets. I discovered through the day that she basically hated me, because I was being visibly miserable, and I couldn't understand her accent. She was just angry because I didn't speak fluent Chinese.
Once the tour (from 10 AM to 7 PM!!!) ended, Chris and I went out to the Square again, as it seems to be the place to go to get anywhere. While in the Square, another vendor ran up to us, and for what felt like the millionth time, offered us Mao watches for "friend price". I was tired of being hassled to buy utter crap, so I decided to fuck with the guy. When he ran up and yelled "Mao watch! Look! Mao Watch!", I yelled excitedly "Really?! A Mao watch?!" and the guy became visibly excited, and clearly thought he had found a sucker to pay too much for his junk. He answered just as excitedly as I did, saying "Yes! Yes! I have Mao Watches!" and so I crushed all his hopes with an answer of "That's great! Because no one else has them!" then quickly changing my face from super-excited to clearly not caring and walked away from him. The disappointment on his face was priceless. It was mean, but a necessary evil to relieve some of the anger brewing inside of me.
At this point, we were quite hungry, and we were in the mood for pizza, as neither of us had had Western food in a long time. While walking around, looking for a pizza place, we were approached by two girls about our age who spoke fairly good English. My instinct went off again, thinking "Oh great, another person's going to try to sell to us". Beijing is full of two types of people: Those who talk to you in order to directly sell you something and rip you off with ultra-inflated prices, and those who talk to you to gain your trust, then ten minutes into the conversation, they drop that they're a tour guide for something, and for "only" 200 yuan, they'll take you to it.
However, these girls seemed nice, and they told us they were students, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. After the day I had, I wanted so desperately for something to cheer me up and redeem Beijing. Up until that point, Beijing had been nothing but anger for me. We chatted, and they said they knew of a nice pizza place, and that they'd show us to it. It turned out to be a long distance away, but it was quite good. It was a pizza/Western food buffet, so it had all sorts of meals we'd eat back in Canada. Watching the Chinese eat it is beyond comical. They don't like pasta because they don't put sauce on it (sauce was available, they just don't know enough about pasta to serve themselves properly). They eat pizza with a fork and knife, and stare at US when we eat it with our hands like the barbarians we are.
There was a catch, though. In the cab on the way there, our new student friends turned out to be... tour guides. Go fucking figure. Still, they were nice enough, and they only brought it up when I mentioned I wanted to see the hutong area (old, real China - hutong means old alleys). So at least they only brought it up after finding out I wanted to go there anyway, rather than just telling me I should go with them to something I have no interest in (or have already seen). They also got us a "friend discount", which was nice, but I knew I could have haggled the same (or a better) price on the street. The normal charge is 180 yuan, we got a price of 120 yuan.
Once we got back to the hostel, Chris went out drinking again, whereas I couldn't drink more than half a beer, and I went to bed somewhat early. Chris seemed to be less interested in seeing the sights of Beijing, and more interested in finding a girl and getting drunk. Seeing as how I can do that in Canada, and I have a girlfriend (and in China), I had no interest in repeating the night before. I can now say I've seen Beijing and Shanghai night life, they're the two biggest cities in China, and the two with the most night life available in China, and I'm more than satisfied.
At this point, I was only concerned about two things: Getting my money back, and finding a way to the Great Wall. The anger I was taking out on the poor receptionist did accomplish some of that. In my ranting and raving, I blamed them, and said they couldn't find me because they kept changing what room I was in (their records still said I was in the original room), and that they were liars for telling me they tried to find me to wake me. I ended up getting my money back, and Chris and I headed out to Tiananmen Square, since nearby were a few travel agencies that offered tours to the Wall.
Hungover, angry, frustrated, and very thirsty, I set out to find someone advertising a bus. I found one lady, and asked her if she went to Simatai. There are four sections of wall, and the closer they are to Beijing, the more touristy and restored they are. Badaling is the closest and very fake, and Simatai is the furthest out, and supposed to be very much original, and very hard to scale. We wanted to go to Simatai. The lady lead us way out into some backroads, and showed us a bus. I thought this was good, and we were making progress, but as she tried to sell me the tickets, I asked again, does it go to Simatai? The answer was no. She laughed and said we wouldn't be able to go to Simatai. I told her fine, I wanted to go to Jinshanling, the second furthest out, and she said ok.
They charged us the same price the hostel would have, so I felt ok about it, but I had that feeling something was up. I didn't trust them, and I've found that my instinct is often correct about people trying to scam me. I was right. They took us to Badaling, and a bunch of other places we didn't want to go to. All in all, I spent an hour and a half at the Great Wall, when we had dedicated an entire day for it. The bus left the Wall and took us to all sorts of crappy places, including a very run down amusement park. I had already been to Suzhou's park, so I didn't care to blow any money there. Instead, I bought a pack of cards outside the park for 3 yuan and chatted/played with the guy who sold me the cards. It was probably the highlight of my day.
All in all, the Great Wall was not impressive. I had built it up in my mind to be a great sight, but the experience was quite ruined by finding out I had been scammed, seeing how touristy it had become, and being hassled by the bitch who sold me the tickets. I discovered through the day that she basically hated me, because I was being visibly miserable, and I couldn't understand her accent. She was just angry because I didn't speak fluent Chinese.
Once the tour (from 10 AM to 7 PM!!!) ended, Chris and I went out to the Square again, as it seems to be the place to go to get anywhere. While in the Square, another vendor ran up to us, and for what felt like the millionth time, offered us Mao watches for "friend price". I was tired of being hassled to buy utter crap, so I decided to fuck with the guy. When he ran up and yelled "Mao watch! Look! Mao Watch!", I yelled excitedly "Really?! A Mao watch?!" and the guy became visibly excited, and clearly thought he had found a sucker to pay too much for his junk. He answered just as excitedly as I did, saying "Yes! Yes! I have Mao Watches!" and so I crushed all his hopes with an answer of "That's great! Because no one else has them!" then quickly changing my face from super-excited to clearly not caring and walked away from him. The disappointment on his face was priceless. It was mean, but a necessary evil to relieve some of the anger brewing inside of me.
At this point, we were quite hungry, and we were in the mood for pizza, as neither of us had had Western food in a long time. While walking around, looking for a pizza place, we were approached by two girls about our age who spoke fairly good English. My instinct went off again, thinking "Oh great, another person's going to try to sell to us". Beijing is full of two types of people: Those who talk to you in order to directly sell you something and rip you off with ultra-inflated prices, and those who talk to you to gain your trust, then ten minutes into the conversation, they drop that they're a tour guide for something, and for "only" 200 yuan, they'll take you to it.
However, these girls seemed nice, and they told us they were students, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. After the day I had, I wanted so desperately for something to cheer me up and redeem Beijing. Up until that point, Beijing had been nothing but anger for me. We chatted, and they said they knew of a nice pizza place, and that they'd show us to it. It turned out to be a long distance away, but it was quite good. It was a pizza/Western food buffet, so it had all sorts of meals we'd eat back in Canada. Watching the Chinese eat it is beyond comical. They don't like pasta because they don't put sauce on it (sauce was available, they just don't know enough about pasta to serve themselves properly). They eat pizza with a fork and knife, and stare at US when we eat it with our hands like the barbarians we are.
There was a catch, though. In the cab on the way there, our new student friends turned out to be... tour guides. Go fucking figure. Still, they were nice enough, and they only brought it up when I mentioned I wanted to see the hutong area (old, real China - hutong means old alleys). So at least they only brought it up after finding out I wanted to go there anyway, rather than just telling me I should go with them to something I have no interest in (or have already seen). They also got us a "friend discount", which was nice, but I knew I could have haggled the same (or a better) price on the street. The normal charge is 180 yuan, we got a price of 120 yuan.
Once we got back to the hostel, Chris went out drinking again, whereas I couldn't drink more than half a beer, and I went to bed somewhat early. Chris seemed to be less interested in seeing the sights of Beijing, and more interested in finding a girl and getting drunk. Seeing as how I can do that in Canada, and I have a girlfriend (and in China), I had no interest in repeating the night before. I can now say I've seen Beijing and Shanghai night life, they're the two biggest cities in China, and the two with the most night life available in China, and I'm more than satisfied.
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