Friday, April 21, 2006
April 21: A surreal day in Beijing
An update on my first day in Beijing.
I did as planned and napped until 11:30 or so. The idea was to spend the afternoon doing some important errands in Beijing, such as sending my trekking gear on to Hong Kong (so that I don't have to carry the damn duffel) and renting a cell phone.
Well, the person at the UPS office in Beijing was genuinely unhelpful. I also discovered that my local calling card doesn't make calls to Hong Kong. Duh. Fine. I went off to find a cell phone, to a place called Xidan Market.
Now, can you imagine the Eaton Centre, only bigger, flasheir and outside? Now, add a horde of smoking Chinese people. Put it at the side of a road with absolutely nutty traffic. Add the stench of smog. You get Xidan Market.
I eventually found a place that sells cell phones. It not only sells cell phones, it sells nearly any kind of phone you can imagine. The obsession with cell phones I observed among the Chinese-Canadian crowd in Waterloo has deep roots. It's kinda mental actually. Anyway, the conversation with the clerk went something like this:
Alex: Do you speak English?
Clerk: A little.
Alex: I want your cheapest phone.
Clerk: huhgh??/
Alex: starts pointing
Clerk: unintelligible gibberish. Starts discussing something with another clerk.
Alex: Points to cell phone costing roughly 1000 yuan (~$140 CAD).
Clerk: Oh! (gets a calculator to type in a discounted price)
Alex: nodding vigorously (I just want the damn phone)
...
Eventually we figured out that I needed a SIM card, too - I could have told her that. Then, we figured out that I have to pay for this! Evidently they don't get Visa payments often, since the visa machine was in a box, unplugged, and dusty. Anyway, I now have a cell phone. Number available upon request.
Cell phone in hand, I decided to see something of Beijing, starting with the White Pagoda (in a park whose name escapes me at the moment). The pagoda is situated on a hill, surrounded by water, with two narrow channels to the "mainland". Apparently this park was built by the Ming dynasty, and the lake is entirely artificial. For that matter, so is the island (the excavated land had to go somewhere). Anyway, the whole thing is quite stunning - not only the pagoda, but the surrounding buildings and weird structures like at 25m long, tall, ornamental stone screen. One spot on the grounds was a Garden of Serenity (I'm paraphasing here) - stone pathways, trees, seclusion. In a word, gorgeous. Unfortunately, many of the buildings were closed and I couldn't get the most out of this place.
Next, my plan was to visit Yonghe Gong, a buddhist monastery in Beijing. Oops: the moment I left the pagoda grounds, I was hit up by a young guy with good Engrish who was touting rickshaw tours of Beijing's hutongs. A "hutong" is a residential area with tiny little streets and very central. I get the impression that they are not "slums" since the residences were quite prestigious. Anyway, I got a 45-minute rickshaw tour of the way important Chinese men & their families lived until quite recently. One of the residences belonged to the teacher of Mao himself.
I never did make it to Yonghe Gong. I'll go there..... soon.
Anyway, the UPS-gear-shipping plan exploded when UPS Hong Kong told me that they can't hold my stuff for more than a week. Bastards. Instead, it looks like I'll be shipping it to my trekking guides and their agents in India. Just as well for me.
After all this adventure, I met up with Lee Bowman (of UW fame) who's in town studying Chinese and being a crazy goofball. How crazy? He's off to a party tonight, and him & his buddy Stefano (also studying Chinese here) dressed up as Batman & Robin from the old Adam West days to make a statement at this party. Yeah. Homemade costumes. The reaction of random chinese girls to the sight of these two becostumed white guys running at them screaming "NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA BATMAN!!!!!!!!" was priceless. Priceless!!!
So far this trip is marked by Random Adventure, and this is not a probabalistic statement.
Tomorrow I am off to Jinshanling & Simatai, for a hike along the top of the Great Wall.
I did as planned and napped until 11:30 or so. The idea was to spend the afternoon doing some important errands in Beijing, such as sending my trekking gear on to Hong Kong (so that I don't have to carry the damn duffel) and renting a cell phone.
Well, the person at the UPS office in Beijing was genuinely unhelpful. I also discovered that my local calling card doesn't make calls to Hong Kong. Duh. Fine. I went off to find a cell phone, to a place called Xidan Market.
Now, can you imagine the Eaton Centre, only bigger, flasheir and outside? Now, add a horde of smoking Chinese people. Put it at the side of a road with absolutely nutty traffic. Add the stench of smog. You get Xidan Market.
I eventually found a place that sells cell phones. It not only sells cell phones, it sells nearly any kind of phone you can imagine. The obsession with cell phones I observed among the Chinese-Canadian crowd in Waterloo has deep roots. It's kinda mental actually. Anyway, the conversation with the clerk went something like this:
Alex: Do you speak English?
Clerk: A little.
Alex: I want your cheapest phone.
Clerk: huhgh??/
Alex: starts pointing
Clerk: unintelligible gibberish. Starts discussing something with another clerk.
Alex: Points to cell phone costing roughly 1000 yuan (~$140 CAD).
Clerk: Oh! (gets a calculator to type in a discounted price)
Alex: nodding vigorously (I just want the damn phone)
...
Eventually we figured out that I needed a SIM card, too - I could have told her that. Then, we figured out that I have to pay for this! Evidently they don't get Visa payments often, since the visa machine was in a box, unplugged, and dusty. Anyway, I now have a cell phone. Number available upon request.
Cell phone in hand, I decided to see something of Beijing, starting with the White Pagoda (in a park whose name escapes me at the moment). The pagoda is situated on a hill, surrounded by water, with two narrow channels to the "mainland". Apparently this park was built by the Ming dynasty, and the lake is entirely artificial. For that matter, so is the island (the excavated land had to go somewhere). Anyway, the whole thing is quite stunning - not only the pagoda, but the surrounding buildings and weird structures like at 25m long, tall, ornamental stone screen. One spot on the grounds was a Garden of Serenity (I'm paraphasing here) - stone pathways, trees, seclusion. In a word, gorgeous. Unfortunately, many of the buildings were closed and I couldn't get the most out of this place.
Next, my plan was to visit Yonghe Gong, a buddhist monastery in Beijing. Oops: the moment I left the pagoda grounds, I was hit up by a young guy with good Engrish who was touting rickshaw tours of Beijing's hutongs. A "hutong" is a residential area with tiny little streets and very central. I get the impression that they are not "slums" since the residences were quite prestigious. Anyway, I got a 45-minute rickshaw tour of the way important Chinese men & their families lived until quite recently. One of the residences belonged to the teacher of Mao himself.
I never did make it to Yonghe Gong. I'll go there..... soon.
Anyway, the UPS-gear-shipping plan exploded when UPS Hong Kong told me that they can't hold my stuff for more than a week. Bastards. Instead, it looks like I'll be shipping it to my trekking guides and their agents in India. Just as well for me.
After all this adventure, I met up with Lee Bowman (of UW fame) who's in town studying Chinese and being a crazy goofball. How crazy? He's off to a party tonight, and him & his buddy Stefano (also studying Chinese here) dressed up as Batman & Robin from the old Adam West days to make a statement at this party. Yeah. Homemade costumes. The reaction of random chinese girls to the sight of these two becostumed white guys running at them screaming "NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA BATMAN!!!!!!!!" was priceless. Priceless!!!
So far this trip is marked by Random Adventure, and this is not a probabalistic statement.
Tomorrow I am off to Jinshanling & Simatai, for a hike along the top of the Great Wall.
# posted by Alex Perel @ 11:52 AM 
