How to Get Lost

Is anyone actually reading this stuff? Aside from my sister, mother, and a couple of Amy’s friends? We had so many people who said they were interested in this, yet we’re attracting so few hits, makes me wonder if we’re truly wasting our time (and money) sitting in internet cafes…

Sundays are apparantly the day to go to Tianjin, a city about an hour and a half from Beijing, for the “fantastic” antique market.

I didn’t make it to the antique market.

I got distracted.

What you can’t tell from this photograph is that this street was probably 1.5km long and lined with various shops, glitzy malls, enticing food stalls and even a Starbucks.

We didn’t really intend to start of with some window shopping, but we missed the turn and ended up in this neon heaven. Less than an hour later, I realized that I was limping with every step.

Although I wore my Teva’s pretty much through Mongolia and a bit before in Russia without a problem, the combination of humidity, heat, and bare skin has done a number on my feet. It’s not so much where my feet rub against the sandal straps, it’s where my toes rub up against each other.

I would post a photo, but to be honest, no one wants to see that, not even you Mom.

So, I said “see ya” to Geoff, he went off in search of antiques, and I hobbled my way around, taking long breaks and even grabbing a Mango Citrus Frappucino. I was mainly looking for more shirts to wear, since a girl cannot exist with only one decent shirt. I think my minimum wardrobe is 2 shirts plus something to sleep in.

(Side note: funny how this wardrobe has shrunk since the beginning of the trip, eh?)

Anyhow, I stumbled across a cool section of one of the larger department stores, selling men’s and women’s casual clothes. The neat thing is, a lot of their summer line is actually formed by sewing together bits and pieces of silk screened fabric, and attaching random buckles and straps. It sounds weird, but I know at least Mandy will have a good picture in mind.

(If I can remember, I’ll take a photo tomorrow!)

The tank top I purchased is mostly t-shirt material, but has an assymmetrical printed cotton panel on the front. It’s silkscreened with nonsensical English, and has a small D-ring buckle just hanging off one shoulder for no reason.

At home, something like this would go for probably $200CAD at Holt Renfrew or $300USD at Sak’s. What did I pay?

49 RMB… less than $10CAD.

Proving that, without a doubt, I got entirely ripped off by the knock-off Gap tank at the Silk Market. But then, I knew that walking away.

After the shopping and the sitting and the sipping, I met up with Geoff and we again hobbled our way back to the main train station to catch our 16:40 train back to Beijing.

The Lonely Planet had suggested a certain 24 hour dumpling restaurant in the train station. Dumplings – who can resist them! So, we partook in a rather large plate and two Budweisers.

I should add here that Bud is not my beer of choice. (The original Czech Budweiser from Budvar is an entirely different story.) I prefer microbrews, any IPA from the Pacific Northwest, and nice nutty ales from Britain.

But what do you do? I know how to ask for a beer in Mandarin – “pijou” – that phrasebook was finally helpful! And then the waitress shows me the menu and points to something that costs 16RMB. Figuring it’s probably a local beer, I nod my head.

Just imagine Geoff’s disgust when the two American Budweiser beers show up at the table.

But the dumplings were amazing.

We eventually finished off the plate.

The more amazing part of all this is that the huge plate of dumplings cost 3 RMB.

But the MOST amazing thing was actually watching the chefs prepare the dumplings through the big glass window separating the dining room from the kitchen.

One girl, in particular, could flatten dough, fill with stuffing, and pinch the tops together quite artfully, faster than I could pop one in my mouth, chew, and swallow.

Seriously, words can’t describe.

For the knitters out there, think of the fastest knitter/crocheter you know and then imagine her hands moving twice as fast.

I took some video footage and am just hoping it turns out!

So, we’re back in Beijing now and I’m heading upstairs to soak my poor feet in the tub and try to figure out what to do about tomorrow. The thing is, I really am quite desperate to do this 3 hour hike on the wall. It sounds absolutely incredible. And I know I might be back here someday (ahem… Sandra…)… but you can’t always count on that.

So the other question is, if I’m not able to do any of the hike, is it still worth going all that way to sit and wait for the guys? I’m thinking no. I saw the wall from the train quite a bit, but I know it’s not the same. But I also don’t want to just see it from a parking lot.

Argh. Silly feet. Why are you failing me now? I expected blisters and problems weeks ago, not a month into the trip.

The really nice, comfortable thing about staying in a single city for 6 blissful nights is the ability to take a day “off” from major site-seeing and just hang out. That is how I would describe today… hanging out.

We started off the morning by sleeping in, another almost-unheard-of concept. For me, this means NOT setting an alarm, and not worrying about what time to get off. We had decided in advance that today was to be an errand day, a day to buy train tickets, pick up a new shirt or two, walk through some interesting neighborhoods. In other words, nothing that would require a schedule.

After a breakfast of delectible dim sum in the hotel restaurant, we headed out to the Tiananmen Square area to walk through some old alleys. We got a bit distracted, as Geoff mentioned, and ended up heading north to the Grand Hyatt instead.

Having worked rather closely with the Hyatt team, I can say that without question, you will find a high level of service in their top-end properties. And so, like Team Cha-cha-cha on The Amazing Race, we headed towards that mecca of service to get some questions answered.

And also, to use their spotless facilities.

Ahem.

However, on the way, I spotted two dudes with canadian patches on their backpacks. I said, “Hey, there are Canadians up there” and they turned around to introduce themselves. Justin and Noah are two brothers, originally from the Toronto area, who have 2 weeks to tour China. Unfortunately, they are already near the end of their trip. Fortunately, they are hilarious and great fun to run around with.

The four of us went together to the Grand Hyatt to figure out train tickets and a Great Wall tour, and within half an hour, decided to catch a shared taxi to the Great Wall together, this Monday. According to the very helpful (see above re: great service) concierge, we should spend about 800 RMB for a taxi for the entire day. So, split that four ways and we’re each out about $40 CAD. Not bad, considering it’s 2 hours drive.

We settled the plans, I bought 3 (three!!!!) English-language paperbacks at a bookstore that would put Border’s to shame, and we took the subway two stops down to the Silk Market.

“Silk Market” sounds all exotic and enticing, but it’s really a 5 story indoor shopping mall, with individual vendors occupying tiny booth after tiny booth. If you’re in the market for a knock-off Columbia jacket, this is the place to go. But be prepared to BARGAIN HARD.

Geoff inquired about a nice women’s style (no, not for himself), and the saleslady responded with 380. We walked away and she instantly lowered her price to 100… around $20 CAD.

I walked out with a pair of pants that convert not only to shorts but to the ever-useful capri length and a “Gap” tank top. The pants fit fantastically and were an ok deal at $13. The tank is another measure. First of all, the thing is pretty badly put together. (I only paid $8 so it’s not much of a loss.) Although I tried to estimate whether or not it would fit, it’s about 5 inches too short. And the armholes are about 2 inches too small.

Now, I left on this trip with a certain packing strategy.

You may remember that I brought 4 layerable Gap t-shirts. Well, these super-light shirts have no completely stretched out of any semblance of shape to the point that even Geoff is telling me they are unwearable.

Time to ditch them.

You have to understand, Geoff is the sort of guy who saves everything. If there is one crumbled cookie left in 5 pieces at the bottom of the bag, he will save it to eat later.

So if he’s saying it’s time for them to go, then I really need to do some serious shopping.

At least I’m not in London where a shirt would set me back $40.

Anyhow.

I got this new pair of pants/capris/shorts, and I also scored a sweet green STAR WARS tee for 39 RMB, around $8. And it fits perfectly. PERFECTLY.

So if nothing else, I have Storm Troopers for the next 3.5 weeks.

I really need to find something else soon, though. Maybe tomorrow in Tianjin????

Today was errand day. Today, we decided to get our train tickets sorted out, and make plans for an excursion to the Great Wall. Inadvertantly, some things happened along the way…

First off, we hopped the subway down to Qianmen station (which is Tiananmen Square, but we weren’t headed there) to search through the hutong neighbourhoods. After a little dive in, we were diverted due to biological reasons (namely self-preservation having not to use the toilets in the back alleys). Out back on the main street, the decision was made to skip ahead to the Grand Hyatt Hotel for two reasons: exchange traveller’s cheques and see if they can handle tour bookings a little more easily.

(Just as a side note: if you’re travelling to parts distant, such as Russia, England, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and so forth, don’t bother with travellers cheques. Yes, they’re safe. Yes, they can be replaced. But they are not accepted everywhere. It’s (pardon ma francais) f$!@*ing annoying. Everywhere we’ve been, it’s been “sorry, we don’t accept those”. I’ve exchanged them successfully once. If you’re going, just bring a bank card and a VISA card. That’s all you need. Trust me on this. Even in Mongolia, you can use them — they have no ATMs, but banks will do the withdrawal for you.)

We scooted up the sidewalk on the east side of the road of Tiananmen Square, in the hopes of an expedient passage. We were almost immediately hit with the Art Exhibit people.

The Art Exhibit people, in case you’re wondering, is a bit of a scam. The idea is to entice tourists (generally English-speaking, as they don’t seem to speak other languages) to see an “art exhibit” that will close “in five minutes”, and encourage you to purchase something. It’s all quite nice, starting with “hello”, then going to “where are you from” to “is this your first or second time”, to the shpeal about the art exhibition. We’d been warned about this not only from Lonely Planet (thanks, guys!) but also by others who’ve been here before. In the span of about seven minutes we were hit four times. The last time, we resorted to speaking French to throw them off.

About 10 seconds after that, we ran into Noah and Justin, two brothers originally from Montreal who were touring China. We immediately hit it off with them, recounting our mutual experiences with trying to shake the sharks after the tourists. (Noah has a particularly novel way of getting rid of them. He looks them in the face, and tells them “I don’t speak English” as clearly as if he were telling you his phone number. Noah seems to follow the philosophy that visiting China is almost a game. We like these guys.)

The four of us pretty much hit it off (partly because Amy and I have been dying for some home-grown company, and both of them had great senses of humour), and hung out for most of the afternoon. We all headed down to the Grand Hyatt where I failed (yet again) to change all my damned travellers cheques for renminbi. (I’m so never taking these things again!) Then we tried to book a tour to the Great Wall.

We’ve been told that going to the Great Wall might not be fun. It all depends. For starters, you don’t go to Badaling if you’re actually looking for the Wall. Badaling is a restored section of the Great Wall, done in the grand ol’ Disney style. We’re thinking of Simitai, which is a little more authentic (at least according to Lonely Planet). But getting there is a bit more difficult. The conceirge at the Grand Hyatt (exceedingly nice, and outstanding English) suggested a taxi, which should cost about 800 renminbi (a little over $120, divided amongst four people) — considerably cheaper than any of the tour prices.

Justin and Noah then went to purchase tickets for their trip back to Shanghai (they’re flying in and out of there through Air Canada, and have yet to take the train here), and Amy finally found replacement books (she’s been suffering through Dostoyevsky for weeks). A trip through the rather nice mall nearby followed.

One thing about Beijing that all of us noticed. They’ve got the whole communist thing sorted out (mostly, aside from the odd overzealous crackdown, anyway). The mall was better than almost any that I’ve seen in North America. There were even BMW, Audi, and Volkswagon dealerships! And a store that sold a whack of Star Wars and Astroboy shirts.

Our ultimate destination, though, was Silk Street. This is the ultimate in (potential) bargains. It’s a massive four-floor store where you can find all sorts of brand-name clothing (whether or not it’s real depends on how good you are at mind-reading), and all of it for sale at a price you can attempt to get, if you’re good. This is where the good haggler comes into effect. So far, this isn’t me. You don’t get to browse here. You need to know what you’re looking for. You need to know what it is you want, and you need to be ready to wheel and deal. I figured this out after casually looking at a North Face jacket and deciding that it wasn’t anything I was interested in. I could have picked it up for about $10. Amy went after a Gap shirt (definitely fake) and a pair of zip-off pants. We’re thinking of going back to see if we can get some other bargoons.

Noah and Justin tried to get $25 Armani suits. They didn’t succeed … this time.

Walking through the place is hard. Not because it’s crowded, but because some of the vendors are fairly aggressive. (Noah swears that a couple of other places, such as Hong Kong, are worse.) You hear greetings shouted out often starting with “Mister” and “Lady”. One tried to tell my that my beloved Critical Mass sling pack is dirty. (A mark of pride, thank you very much!) Trying to leave the place through the somewhat-unmentionables area, we were treated to “Hellol, underwear!” and “Hello, socks!”. Very surreal.

Dinner was an interesting experience, with Amy and I (we’ll hook up with Justin and Noah for the Great Wall on Monday) walking into a restaurant near our hotel. I love the Chinese way of naming foods. It’s like trying to decipher the title of a Led Zeppelin tune to figure what it’s about. Such items included:

• The asparagus fries the shelled shrimp (shrimp with asparagus)
• The exquisite article livings purely (beer)
• The thou is more the dragon mountain
• Wrap the male fish (fish with vegetables, near as we can figure
• The parsley mixs the hair belly (I don’t think I wanna know)

And my personal favourite, although we didn’t order it:

• An article steams the big cabbage

The food, however, was pretty darn good, even if the start of one section read:

That was for the seafood section. Go fig.