When we finally got all the people back on the bus (the problem with having 27 people), we headed for the Great Wall, which was amazing! Of course, the wall is really long, so you can't see all of it, but the part where we went includes the highest point. It's hard to imagine given the technology of the time how they managed to build such an enormous structure on the moutainous terrain. We climbed around, which was exhausting because basically every step you take is up or down stairs. We took a lot of pictures as the view was spectacular! In fact, the weather was beautiful the whole time we were there. A little hazy at times, but you couldn't complain. I'd like to have stayed longer, but we had to move on to another place before it closed.
After the Great Wall we headed off to a place called "The Gorge". There were a ton of stairs to get to the top (through the head of a dragon) and after leaving the Great Wall I was relieved to see an escalator. Hearing the name I expected that we'd be looking down into a canyon, but actually we took a pontoon? boat through the bottom of a beautiful canyon. We floated around with another tour group(Korean) and took in the amazing view. After that it was late so we headed back to Beijing for dinner-- Beijing (aka Peking) duck.
After dinner some of the others wanted to grab a beer so four of us headed out from the hotel to find a beer seller. A couple guys had found a little shop the day earlier and bought 15 beers, but we had drunk most of them. Between the four of us we bought 20 beers, 15 bottles of water, a coke, and a half litre of "Sweet water" (traditional Chinese alcohol 64%..powerful stuff). Total cost of about 80 Yuan (US $10)....dirt cheap. After a long time discussing how we were going to transport the stuff back, the worker found a couple of boxes and filled them up with our haul. Although, I did feel a little silly walking past the hotel with two boxes full of beer. I know what I'd be thinking...
After a few beers, four of us went out to explore the hotel a little more. The hotel had various game rooms. We wandered into the hotel massage parlor. The signs were all in Chinese, but there was a girl from the front desk who spoke a little English. So myself and another guy, James, got a rub down. The standard massage was 178 Yuan (earlier I had thought that that was too expensive, but after a few beers it seemed like a good idea). Actually I had never had a professional massage before. Though, we ran into some trouble when we went to pay the bill. They were trying to charge us extra for towels, locker fee, showers, etc. that we hadn't asked for. The argument went on for awhile, but they spoke none of English, French, or Korean (I know because I tried all). Finally I got someone from the front desk up to tell them that under no circumstances were we going to pay a dime over what we were quoted so, they eventually gave up and let us go. I guess seeing that the average salary in China is about $100 US a month, a few dollars either way makes a difference to them, but they reallly shouldn't be ripping off foreigners in a hotel.
I must have been up a little too late cause the next morning was a little rough when my brother woke me up, and I asked if we had received the wake-up call. He said, we had...an hour earlier. Yikes! I dragged myself into the shower and down to the buffet with just enough time to shovel some food into my mouth and meet the group (although I still wasn't the last person). We hopped into the bus and went to Tienamen Square. In the square that holds a million people, Kyle and I wanted to visit the Mao mausoleum, but it wasn't part of our tour. However, we talked about it with a few others who wanted to go. About 10 of us were going to go and then hurry through the square to meet the group at the entrance to the Forbidden City. However, as we were checking our things (because you can't bring anything in with you) we noticed the entire group had then decided to go. Seeing Mao's body was a little eerie, but I'm glad I went.
The Forbidden City was also interesting. It was a pleasure palace in the centre of Beijing where commoners were forbidden entry until about 500 years ago. Only the Emperor and high ranking officials could go in (and of course the Emperor's wife and by law up to 1000 concubines). We walked right through to the South Entrance, but to get to the bus we had to wade through a sea of people selling everything under the sun. Having four people hound you, attempting to sell you their poorly made crap wasn't too much fun, but bargaining with them was. A guy chased me for almost 2 blocks trying to sell me a rolex watch (how cliche), which started at 400 Yuan but got down to around 30 as he continued pursuing. Beware if you go, though cause many of the sellers were passing fake money as change. I got some Myanmar money (worth less of course) when I bought some 2008 Olympic hats.
After lunch we went to the Summer Palace, which was quite similar to the Forbidden City, but still very beautiful. It was there that we ended up arguing with the tour guide. Most of the people (including myself) wanted to go shopping, but he said that he couldn't take us() This went on for about an hour and we ended up settling on, anyone who wanted to follow the original itenerary could and anyone who wanted to do other things would get directions written for them written in Chinese and could explore on their own.
