Beijing Day 2-4/1/09

Our first stop for the day was the Ming Tombs.  They really weren't that impressive, just an underground area where some famous people from China had been buried.  The tombs that were there weren't even the original ones, they were recreated to look like the originals.  One thing that was really strange about the tombs and several other sites we visited was that people would throw money at the base of the tombs.  There was more money than you could possibly imagine so we asked our guide if it was ever collected.  He said "no they leave it here."  We couldn't believe that all that money was just sitting there, going unused and not being used for charity or another organization.  Our guide could also not believe that we didn't do the same practice of throwing money out of respect.  We explained to him that we might if there was a purpose to the practice, such as that the money was collected and given to charity but that we would never just throw money at the base of a tomb to sit there for years to come.  We also learned that whenever possible you are not supposed to walk through a gate when entering a place, you  are supposed to walk around it.  You are then supposed to walk through it on your way out (sounds like some major superstition/OCD to me).  Most of the signs in China and the other countries we went to had some of the worst English translations we had ever seen.  Most of them were really quite humorous such as "luxurious grassland please don't trample," a simple "please don't step on the grass" would have done quite fine.  Or how about a permanent sign that said "Thunder Storm weather, do not use mobile phone."  Then there was "Don't tread on the stone ramp to protect the cultural relic," where do they even come up with these translations?? 

After we finished up at the tombs and got done with our celebrity photo shoot with the locals we headed to lunch.  Throughout the trip on all these guided tours, they always try and sneak in these "factory tours."  On paper that seems really cool; jade factory, tea factory, peal factory, you name it they have tried it.  Turns out that in order for these tour companies to get government subsidies, they have to take their customers on a certain number of factory tours.  It got really annoying as we knew the drill since it started in India.  Lunch was at one of those factory tours, but we just walked through the place and walked upstairs to the restaurant.  After lunch we headed to the Badaling Great Wall, which is a touristy section of the great wall and looked like a small ski town with coffee shops and stores.  Our guide said it normally takes the people he is a tour guide for about 2 hours up and back.  Of course we saw this as a challenge and had to do it much quicker.  Phil and I trekked our way up (we lost Nicole about a quarter of the way through but this worked out cause she held our jackets for us).  It was really steep and challenging at times with no handrails at points but it was definitely worth it at the end!  Everyone was breathing really deep when they got to the top, but what does this one Chinese guy do…light up a cigarette.  It took us about 45mins to an hour to get there and back and was a good workout for the day as our legs felt like Jell-O.  Once again there was some memorable signs "Pay attention to fireproof," "Heart cerebral disease sufferer, ascend the Great Wall to please watch for," "No climbing in case of thunderstorm!," and finally "If you have heart or brain disease, please ascend the Great Wall according to your capability."

After the Great Wall we headed to a "Tea Ceremony" and we could only take a guess as to what that was…a tea tasting where they tried to get you to buy tea afterwards.  We would have bought tea but the women turned out to be really rude so we decided we didn't want to give her any business.  We then went to dinner which was at a really nice restaurant and then headed back to the hotel afterwards.  That night Phil and I met up with Sam and some of her friends from the SAS group.  We headed back to Hooters to visit our Chinese girlfriend Phoebe.  We stayed there for a few hours and headed back to the hotel later on that night.