A couple of bricks and modern art

Dear everyone!

Since I had no complaints last time about my English entry, and I still have the same problem I had then, here’s another story in English! Sorry for the lack of photos, I think I’m going to have to upload them from home… Here in the internet café it’s just too difficult.

This morning, still in my pj’s and with a slight headache from the night before, I said goodbye to Georgia. The weirdest thing ever, we’ve spent so much time together, and now we’re not going to see each other for quite some time.

Anyway, before the big separation we still had a day together yesterday and we spent it at the Great Wall. At least, that was the plan. Yes, we did see the Great Wall, and yes, it was exactly that: great. But the excursion in itself was disappointing. It was very much affordable, and soon we found out why. The tour guide took us to two jade factories, and they paid her for doing so. Of course, this was all to get us to spend way too much money in their galleries. In the car on the way to the first factory she told us that there are different approaches for different nationalities. She said that Americans were supposed to stay inside the factory for half an hour and Europeans for only ten minutes. Then she told us to say that we were all from the states, which was true for only three people (of five). Thinking she was joking, we all told the truth about our nationalities. After the visit the guide told us that she would not get paid now, because she did tell the people at the factory that we were all Americans. Strange, very strange. I totally don’t get the point of this policy. Who does? Please enlighten me!

First thing on the program after this experience was a visit to the Ming tombs. There is a place near, or maybe technically even still in Beijing, where 13 Ming tombs are, lying in a circle between a couple of mountains. They are all pretty much the same, so we only went ‘inside’ one of them. The tombs are all shaped like a circle and a rectangle. The circle represents heaven, the rectangle is earth. In the rectangle there are some halls, meant for the emperor to worship the former emperor, usually his father. The circle is where the actual tomb is. The emperor and his wives were not really buried, but their coffins were placed in a castle and the whole castle would be buried. The hill that erected from that is the circle, surrounded by a wall. They are still buried this way, so of course we didn’t see the actual graves.

The ride to the Great Wall was long and bumpy. Everytime I saw two bricks on top of each other I thought we had arrived, but it took a lot longer. The car we were in must be horrible. The road appeared pretty smooth, but somehow, at the end of the ride I felt like the perfect Bond-martini: shaken, not stirred. But of course, the ordeal was very much worth it. We went up the mountain by cable cars, due to lack of time (how convenient!) and wandered around on the wall for two hours. We hiked up all the way to the last tower that was accessible. We had to hurry back, lots of stairs and after that: very shaky legs.

We were all tired and mostly sleeping in the car ride back to the hostel. We were not pleased at all when we found out we weren’t going straight to the hostel, but made another stop, this time at a tea house. Another scam trying to make us buy stuff. Too bad! I must say, we were told a lot about Chinese teas, and it was quite informing. Luckily my ‘I drink coffee’ was clear enough and I got away with all my money still on me. Not that I’m against tea, but 20 euros for a small box is too much for me!

Finally we went home and our last night together could start. We had diner at the hostel and we wanted to head out afterwards to go out, when we bumped into Joe, who was supposed to meet Eduard soon. We decided to wait with him, so we could go out together. When Eduard came Mark joined us as well, one of the annoying boys we saw a few nights before. For a moment we feared he wanted to join us, but he made plans with his friends as well. Good thing! First we went to ‘Poachers’, a bar that the people that went to the Great Wall with us said was nice. Well, that depends on how you look at it! The bar looked decent and the Chinese people, they sure like to dance. I felt a little uncomfortable, when some girls started dancing on top of the table we were sitting at. Most of them had skirts that were too short, and if you see them from below… Well, let’s just say I saw more than I wished for. At one point a girl entered the table, and she was seriously just wearing a very short skirt and a bikini-top! Entertaining it was, especially when Eduard stoically pulled out his map to find another place to go, and the girls on the table tried to get his attention by dancing harder and harder.

We took a taxi, hoping to go to the club Eduard had told us about before. Unfortunately, the spot on the map was not too clear and even the taxi drivers didn’t know where it was. We just went back to the hostel and had another beer at Eduard’s room, where we talked a lot about Russians, Chinese and Aborigines. It was already pretty late, and I think Georgia only had an hour or three to sleep. That’s when we came to the point of saying goodbye. Oh, what a sad occasion!

I was lucky enough that I could go back to sleep, which I thankfully did. Around noon I went to ‘798’. This place used to be a factory; I think it was for weapons. Nowadays the factory is closed and it houses a lot of artists who have their galleries there. All modern art, very nice to see, especially after so much antique Chinese architecture. I liked the photographs the best, and I was seriously considering asking how much one of them would cost me. I didn’t, to prevent myself from a major disappointment! I wandered around and saw lots of art, some of which I didn’t understand, which is bound to happen with modern art… One of the galleries was even called ‘this must be modern art’, hilarious! The late afternoon I spent with souvenir shopping. I finally know how to bargain now, or at least I think so. I might have been ripped of anyway…

The good news is that I did everything in Beijing that was on my list. The bad news is, I’m not sure yet how to spend tomorrow! It will probably be a museum, but I’ll check the travel guide later. Tomorrow night I won’t go to sleep, because I have to get a taxi at three o’clock. Two hours of sleep will do more damage than not sleep until I’m in the plane, I’m afraid. And then… I have a flight at 7 in the morning, going to Moscow (won’t see anything there, no visa and only 5 hours time…) and then back to Amsterdam! I have mixed feelings about it, but I’m sure by the time I land I’ll be glad to be home again. I will upload the missing pictures from there, so you will hear from me again!

Love,
Celine