Back to Beijing

My family came to visit me for the new year, and before they came, they told me they wanted to go to mainland China for a visit. My mother and I talked back and forth about where they wanted to go, and my mother was insistant upon seeing the Great Wall. Therefore, I planned another trip to Beijing.

We arrived quite late because our flight from Hong Kong was late, so we went immediately to our hotel. I had booked our flight and our hotel together as a package through a travel agency, so I knew we would be staying with a lot of tourists. When we arrived, my predictions proved true, as the hotel was filled with tour groups. Nevertheless, the amenities were nice, and we had no problems with our hotel room.

Right after we arrived, we went to find something to eat. I had told my mother that we would not eat at a restaurant with an English menu, as they would not have very good food. Therefore, we found a small place nearby, and ordered potatoes, lamb, and pork. All of the dishes were delicious, and we went to sleep that night full and satisfied.

We awoke the next morning, and the first place we went was the Summer Palace. I had been to the Summer Palace in October, and it had been just beautiful. We found a taxi to take us there and back for what I think was a bit too much, but he was a friendly man who told us a lot of the sights around Beijing as we drove. When we got there, it was extremely cold, almost too much for my family to bear. About 10 minutes after we arrived, we couldn't feel our feet. Nevertheless, we trudged through the snow (which was the first snow Beijing had had that year) to see the whole of the Summer Palace.

We walked across the bridge to Kunming Lake, which was almost completely frozen over. Many of the visitors there had climbed down and were walking across the ice. My sister and I walked around a little bit, but since my mother didn't want to climb down to the lake, we went to see the rest of the palace. When we approached the Long Corridors, which were beautifully painted corridors with pictures of stories, characters, and fantastic creatures, we met a man who wanted to explain to us all of the stories on the wall. We made it about half way through (which I understood very little of) when my family was too cold to handle anymore, so we went back to meet our cab driver.

We asked him to drop us off at the back lakes, an older area of Beijing around two lakes which was more or less untouched by the revolution (at least the architecture was, anyway). Around the back lakes area was the former residence of Soong Chingling, who was the wife of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. Her residence, given to her by Mao Zedong, was beautiful; a solitary lake surrounded by small buildings, and inside the main building her house had been transformed into a museum. She was really an incredible woman who had done a lot for her country and her people.

After this museum, my family was too cold to continue seeing more around the back lakes, so we quickly found a tea house to warm up in. We found a more upscale tea house with very sweet ladies who got us "bubble tea" (which is milk tea with bits of gelatin) and oolong tea. They stayed and chatted with us for almost an hour (I translated for everyone, as my fmaily could not speak Chinese, and they spoke very little English). They told us they were really impressed with us, as it seemed like we were a very close family. She said she saw many western people, but most of them barely talked to each other, especially the children and parents. She told me it was nice to see us getting along so well.

After drinking our tea, we went back to the hotel. My family tired and not hungry, so we got some snacks from the store and ate that for dinner. Then we went to bed.

The next morning we got up, prepared to see the Great Wall. We had tried to research methods of getting to the Great Wall, but it seemed that our only options were busses or cabs, the former being slightly inconvenient, and the latter being very expensive. We arrived at the tour bus terminal by way of public bus, which involved a lot of yelling and screaming people, and very little room. When we arrived at the bus terminal, we found out that many of the busses were not going because of the snow, and the only one we could take would also go to the Ming tombs. We didn't really want to go to the Ming tombs, so we discussed taking a taxi. The woman helping us told us a price for taxis that was slightly lower than estimates we had previously heard, so we told her we would take a company taxi.

We waited in the office for a little bit while the cab driver brought his car around. When he showed up, he was accompanied by another woman. My mother was immediately upset, since we had very little room in the car and it was a bit of a drive. They told my mom she could sit in the front, and my sister, the other woman and I squished in the back of the car. I began talking to him, and found out she was our tour guide. We certainly hadn't asked for a tour guide, so I thought this was quite strange. The driver then began asking me all the places I wanted to go, and I kept telling him that we just wanted to go to the Great Wall and back. He then began mentioning tips. I told him immediately that I knew that in China, people didn't often tip, and then I asked him if Chinese people gave him tips. He said "no, but foreigners usually do." I translated this for my mom, and she got very upset. I explained to him that since Chinese people don't tip, there is no reason we should. He then said "oh, only if you think we do a good job, it is your choice." He then told us we had to pay tolls there and back. I told him firmly that if there were any other unknown fees, we needed to be told, and he said there wasn't, so we went on.

When we arrived at the Great Wall, before we got out of the car, the cab driver told us to give him the whole sum of money up front. We told him we would give him his money when we returned back to Beijing. This began a huge argument, and he started to shove creditials and phone numbers of the company he worked for in my face. I told him I didn't know if these were genuine, and we would give him his money in Beijing. He began to yell at me, and I yelled back, until finally he said we could give him half and leave in his car our passports. I didn't have my passport, but I did have my Hong Kong ID card, so I left that with him. Frustrated and angry, we left the cab for an hour to see the Great Wall.

It was extremely cold, so we didn't want to stay long; the snow falling on the Great Wall, however, was really beautiful. The tour guide didn't come with us because we had to buy her ticket (and my mother so angry that he yelled at me that she didn't want to do anything for them) We took many pictures, walked a little bit (but not too far since the road was really slick and it took awhile to climb) and then returned back to the cab.

The cab driver on the way to the Great Wall told me we could stop for lunch on the way. We didn't really want to stop, and I told him that, but the cab driver told me abruptly that he and his partner needed to eat, so if we wanted we could wait in the car. We realized we really didn't have any choice, so we went into the restaurant, which was right next to the Ming Tombs, for lunch. I figured this place probably gave the tour guides free lunches, and also commission for whatever we bought.

In the restaurant, they put us in a small room with a table, which they did because it was the only part of the restaurant that was heated. My family didn't like the room at all, they felt like they were in a prison. A waitress came and gave us the menu; it was all in Chinese except one section, and the English part had no prices. This made me nervous, so I began looking at the Chinese part. The waitress kept trying to offer things, and asked me many times "Do you want chicken? Do you want fish?" I kept saying we liked chicken, but I continued to look at the menu. I found a beef dish for very reasonable at 14 RMB (as some things on the menu were very expensive) and told her I wanted that. She showed me what she had written down, which I didn't read because I was really tired, and we relaxed until our food came.

When our food came we got the dish I ordered, plus another bowl of what looked like very strange chicken parts. I explained that I never said I wanted that, and my mother and my sister immediately got upset again. I asked her to please take the dish away, and I would still pay for it. She said "what do you expect me to do with it." Exasperated, I gave up and motioned for her to leave. My sister couldn't even sit near the chicken dish, so I put it in the corner of the table under a napkin. We ate some of the other dish and some rice, and quickly asked for the check.

When the check came, the bill said 238 RMB. I looked up and saw my 14 RMB dish, and the eviscerated chicken cost 198 RMB! I became very upset, saying that this was very expensive, we didn't have that kind of money, and I never actually ordered it. The waitress said that she showed me that she wrote it down, and I said I didn't really look, but I never once said I wanted it. We argued for a little bit, and the waitress went to get her boss. Her boss came in and showed me the bill. She had crossed out the 198 RMB price and next to it wrote 58 RMB. My mom was willing to pay for that, but before I accepted her concession, I wanted to explain the situation, and explain why I was so angry. The woman would not even look at me as I talked, and in the middle of my sentance shoved the bill back in my face and told me "you will pay this much." I was so frustrated I just said "fine, but we are very angry." It was more than evident that she didn't care, so we just gave her the money and left.

The cab ride back to the hotel was very tense. My family was so angry at how the whole day people had tried to take advantage of us, and how we had paid so much money and had very little control over the day. The cab driver and the tour guide, however, continued to want to talk to me, and because I wanted to practice my mandarin, I talked with them. They were very interested in how much things cost in America. We discussed the price of houses, salaries for government workers, even how much a bowl of noodles would cost in America. As we neared Beijing, they asked me where I wanted to be dropped off. Originally we said back at the company office where we had began our dreadful trip, but after a few minutes my mom told me she wanted to return back to the hotel. I asked them, and they told me it would be another 20 RMB. We were so angry and tired at this point I just said fine, and they dropped us off at the hotel.

Moaning and complaining the entire way back to the room, we arrived, took hot showers, and fell asleep for a few hours. We awoke just in time for dinner. The women we had met at the tea house the day before had recommended a hot pot restaurant to us, and I really wanted to take my family to hot pot. Hot pot is originally a Sichuan dish, where a large pot of boiling soup is put in the center of the table, and customers order various meats, vegetables, and other foods to cook in the soup which everyone then fishes out with chopsticks. It turned out that the place was within walking distance of the hotel, so we set off to find the restaurant. It was a large place with many tables set up for hot pot; we picked a table, a mild chicken broth, and some meats and vegetables to put in the soup. We then sat back and relaxed a nice pot of hot pot. We ordered beef, lamb, potatoes, lotus root, flour noodles, and noodles made of sweet potato and green beans. It was some of the best hot pot I had had. After dinner, we went back to the hotel.

The next morning we checked out early, and immediately went to the Forbidden City. We quickly looked at Tian'anmen square from across the street, and began the walk through the forbidden city. Many of the halls, including the front gate, were closed for renovations, but many of the museums in the side buildings, which had been closed when I was there in October, were now open. The entire Forbidden City was meant to be completely renovated for 2008, when a large international population would arrive for the Olympics. I saw many things I missed in my first trip, including a hall of weaponry (which had familiar paintings of the Qianlong emperor in battle uniform) a hall of scientific instruments, and the imperial book collection. My sister was preoccupied taking pictures of the buildings with her new camera, and my mother was preoccupied with being cold. We then got our traditional starbucks in the gift shop, and moved towards the exit.

As we were going to the bathroom near the exit, I met a big group of travelers in a travel group from another area in mainland China. After talking for a few minutes, they asked me if I would take a picture with them. All of a sudden, I was posing for 40-50 pictures which each of the members of this tour group. I was used to people taking pictures of me, and they all laughed as each of them wanted a picture, saying things like "oh no, another one? He/she wants one too!" They soon discovered my sister, and began taking pictures with her, saying to her "You are beautiful" and "Happy New Years" (it was New Years day); it was probably the only English they knew. I laughed as I tried to move away, and finally we managed to break free and leave.

I thought it was quite funny, but my mother didn't think so. She found it racist and degrading, saying that if a bunch of white people found a black person and wanted to each take pictures with him, it would be considered very offensive. I attempted to explain to my mom that they didn't mean to be offensive, its just something they like to do because they don't see many white people, and that it certainly wasn't meant to be degrading. Nothing could shake my mother from the discomfort she felt of watching her children being laughed at by so many people, however, and it made me see a different point of view. This had happened to me before, and I always thought it was funny, never degrading. I could see, however, how that could easily be mistaken for an act of racial ignorance.

After we finished at the Forbidden City, we went to go shopping (probably the only thing my family was looking forward to). We found a famous market called Dazhalan (Dashilanr in the Beijing dialect). It was a pedestrian only street filled with tourist shops that sold tea, silk, shoes, jade, and other such "Chinese" things. We each bought some tea, some shoes, and other random souvenirs. After a few hours of shopping, we went back the the hotel to go to the airport.

Our cab driver to the airport was very friendly, and very proud of his city. At every building he explained to me what it was, and different historical events associated with it. When I told him I studied Chinese history, he told me I was very "lihai" (a Chinese expression that doesn't translate very well, but it means that I was accomplishing a somewhat difficult and admirable task). He also wanted to learn English, so he would tell me stories or explanations, and then ask me how to say things in English. He then decided to try and teach my family Chinese (which I found out a few days earlier was a lost cause), and laughed at my mother's exaggerated and often wrong pronunciation.

It was with this friendly cab driver that our trip to Beijing ended, but the experience at the Great Wall had left a bitter taste in our mouths. I knew that in many places in Asia, most people only see my money, not a traveler. However, I was very angry that that had happened to us, moreso because it had left a poor impression on my family. I knew how friendly and kind Chinese people could be, and it made me angry that we were treated the way we were. However, overall, the experience in Beijing was fun and interesting, and as in every trip to mainland China, I met many new people and new friends, and had many experiences that I will never forget.