The Tour de China (or "Days 1-7")

The schedule begins with a wakeup call at 7:30 am, early to my
standards. Noontime would work better for me, especially with the day
I had before. It pretty much took the rest of this day to recover from
the dreadful airplane flights. Since I woke up rather late, i only got
a short preview of the continental breakfast that they served. Not
that I would eat much anyway considering how my stomach was
responding...
 
As I was eating, a familiar figure came up to my rather lonely table.
It's ERIC FONG! Eric is an old high school friend. Apparently he just
graduated from law school in New York and was taking a trip with his
mom. Doesn't God do miraculous things? I think so. So now I have a
companion for the next week. But I will admit that within the first
few days in Beijing, I got to know a lot of the people on the tour,
many of which spoke fluent English. Most of the folks were seniors
though, but there are several young guys my age. Apparently I'm not
the only one that's in a "transition" phase.
 
Our first stop was the Forbidden City. It isn't the same as it once
was, as the Communist movement had brought about the removal of the
city walls. All that remains are the city gates. The tour guide,
William, is very... persistent. He's usually just zooooooming ahead of
the group, so most of our trips tend to just zip by without us doing
stuff, unless we're in one of the "promotional areas", in which he'll
say, "Okay, stay here for an hour or more on your own." But more on
that later.
 
[After the passing of a few days... "It's become apparent that
blogging daily is not possible, whether it's the long days or rigorous
activities. Finding an internet connection has been difficult too
considering my illness pretty much locking in the house. I've managed
to have forgotten most of my initial thoughts of the trip anyways, so
I'll have to end up summarizing events (though my definition of
"summarizing" is probably still rather lengthy)."]
 
Our Beijing tour guide, English name William, comes out to appear very
punctual. He's usually zooming through each location, with the rest of
the group just trying to catch up to a green flag that he holds to
stand out amongst the sea of tourists and locals. His speech is very
passionate and direct, sometimes rather blunt. So if he is a
compassionate person, it was hard to tell as he seemed rather
impatient.
 
That evening we were taken to see an acrobatic show, in which many
members of our group didn't want to see. I'll be honest in thinking
the very same thing. But turns out, the performance was surprisingly
good. The show was called "Fly", in which the the theme was about
acrobatic flight. There were a few times in which the troupe messed up
on things, but they continued on without missing a beat. Balancing
acts, jumping through rings, contortions, everybody jumping on a
bicycle... The sets were fairly elaborate too. It was a sight to
behold.
 
Day two took us to a section of the Great Wall of China. Did you know
that the majority of the wall is actually in ruins? So it's not
possible to walk from end-to-end. We went to a spot in Beijing that
was made famous by Nixon. He was well beloved in this country. We were
lead to the middle of a section, and was given a choice to go the easy
route or the steep route. Being a guy, I naturally chose the steep
one... and I was out of breathe about 1/3 of the way through. Now mind
you that I don't exercise regularly. I took a breather for a bit and
eventually finished the steep path under 2 hours.
 
I'm in a promotional tour. In order to lower travel costs and live in
better accommodations, this is the compromise that was made to do so.
This was something my parents had already warned me about, so I had no
problems with this, although several of the group was starkly
surprised that such activities existed. Almost on a daily basis, we
would go to a certain location where they would sell some sort of
textile export, such as jade jewelry, pearls, pottery, silk, or
whatnot. The tour guide would encourage us to use hotel services,
whether it was to exchange money or to eat in. It's because of this
that I was somewhat weary of the tour guides as to what I could trust,
due to their ulterior motives.
 
I went out to eat once during the tour. By myself. It was to a noodle
place that the tour bus had passed by on our way to our hotel in
Beijing. This was probably the evening of the second full day in that
city. I figure this would be the one place that I could order
something. I mean, how hard is it to order beef noodle soup when
that's pretty much the only dish that I know to order in Chinese. It's
nice doing stuff on my own. I enjoy it.
 
After dinner, I decided to wander around the city of Beijing. It was
rather empty at around... 9pm. Nothing was really going on. I did
manage to wander to a fairly rich outdoor mall. I think it was called
"The Place." There was a projected overhang, much like that of the Old
Town Las Vegas. It played soft classical music while projecting a CG
rendition of planetary and cosmic wonders. The stores in the area were
that of rich and western, much like that of what you would see in
Rodeo Drive. There was several brand name fashion stores. Very
upscale. Since I'm not much for those things, I watched the projection
for a bit, and moved on.
 
I finally managed to find myself in a small bakery that was still
open. I ordered some egg tarts, as I was rather cold. I think it was
that night that was the cause of me getting sick [but I'll let my
family elders think it was because I was during my climb up the Great
Wall]. I think it would cause more worry if they knew I was wondering
around alone in a foreign place in the middle of the night. So don't
be blabbing this to them, okay? Though to be honest, I was probably
bound to get sick sometime during this trip. I'm often prone to
illness, as my employers and family can testify to.
 
Throughout my trip in China, I've seen many western fast food
locations. Starbucks (Xing Ba Ke). McDonald's (My Don Lo). Subway. KFC
(Ken Tu Ge). Pizza Hut. Those seem very prominent, and are often the
marks of a richer, more dense area. Burger King. Papa John's.
7-Eleven. An uncle brought me into a McDonald's. I got a hamburger. It
doesn't look like these people microwave their meat. Then there's the
difference in the condiments: dressing instead of ketchup, cucumbers
instead of pickles. Very amusing. They also have mango pies instead of
apple pies, though I didn't dare to try it. I took a picture of what
looked like a purple apple pie. Perhaps someone can fill me in on what
that was.
 
Day three took us back to familiar areas. I blame this on poor
planning on part of the tour agency, or because many within the tour
group complained that William was speeding along through these
locations that we basically didn't see anything. We started by
visiting the Temple of Heaven. Then revisited the Summer Palace that
we went to the day before. I'm sure this place looks fantastic in the
summertime, but it's early winter now, and I'll be honest to say that
it was rather drab. We then went onto the Opera House, but turns out
that we weren't able to go see the performance. So we end up back
along the outskirts of the Forbidden City to go shopping.
 
Day four took us out of Beijing back to Shanghai, where we would
travel by tour bus to Suzhou and Wuti. Day five took us to Huangzhou.
I'll be honest in saying that the rest of the tour didn't really spark
much of an interest for me. More architecture that looked similar.
Went through a rock sculpture garden. Rode on a boat in a lake...
Fairly mundane. We did get to go to a Buddhist temple though, which
was fairly interesting to see. I wanted to get a picture of a monk
using a cell phone, but missed it... It just looked funny.
 
Flying out of Beijing also changed tour guides, this one by the name
of Hartly. What an odd name, though I must admit, there are some
rather strange English names in China. There's a female singer named
Fish. I know of a person named Pinky. But I suppose it's not really a
name made for the States. More like a nickname. We also had a local
half-day tour guide by the name of Vicky. Anyways, both Hartly and
Vicky, while the tour was somewhat with an impressive scenes, they
were pleasant and rather understanding, especially compared to that of
William...
 
Day six finally brought us back to Shanghai, where we would spend half
the day looking at the Bund landscape and visit the marketplace. Then
it was dinnertime, then back to the hotel. It would be the final night
of the tour, so several of the guys wanted to go out clubbing. Now,
being not much of a socialite nor that of a drinker/smoker, I've not
really done any of such things, but I was rather curious, so I tagged
along. We went to three clubs: Bar Rouge, Club BMW, and MUSE. Bar
Rouge has a specular view of the same Bund landscape we had seen
earlier, but along the rooftop of a building in a brilliant night
setting. 100 RMB was the entrance fee. Artists using spray cans on
giant canvas showed off their skills as a DJ would play in the
background. Club BMW was themed with images of the car brand. Laser
lights and neon panels flashed as dancers performed on the bartops. A
particularly female bartender was showing Eric how to play this game
involving a cup and several dice. The last location (for me, as my
chest wasn't getting enough oxygen) was MUSE. There were lots of
dancing about in this location as well. One of our guys, John, even
managed to get a girl to come sit by our table. He was trying really
hard.
 
By the end of this tour, the members of this tour group had become
like family. Since many of the group were elders, I saw them like
aunts and uncles, or grandparents. I could feel their concern when I
was sick, and they each showed it in a different way. I really hope I
hear from them again. It was a great experience meeting each of them.