Day 9 - Zhujiajiao Tour

March 11th, 2007

A 45 minute drive into the countryside led us to the ‘state’ or ancient town of ZhuJiaJiang. A beautiful small town set along the river with all sorts of stuff on the streets: fatty pork on a stick, stinky tofu, village style ‘jooungs’ (sticky rice n pork inside a lotus wrap), cotton candy Shanghai style, and a whole slough of shops selling all that same touristy crap. Venturing a further down the pathways gave us a glimpse of some of the local residents, their homes, their food and their way of living. Truly humbling and a very enlightening experience for us all.

After our ‘mongolian BBQ lunch’, the 4 of us opted–out of another museum tour for some free time in the afternoon. Some chose to see the Bund in better clear skies, while others wandered through the old town, checking out the market scene again.

If you’ve never been ripped off while travelling, either you’ve never realized it, or you’re in denial!!…After sampling some teas and bargaining for a good price, aC & I left this shop with a screaming 15 year old quickly on our tails. All I could make out was, ‘mooonhey no good’. We had been scammed with a counterfeit fifty, somewhere along our trails in China. In calm fashion, we persuaded this chick to take all that we had left, 30 rnb. She realized that we got an even better bargain than originally allowed and as a result, insisted that we give back an item.

Our cab ride back towards our hotel led us to Mr. Xu Yao, aka, ‘Mr. Arrest me for having a shop full of fake golf shit’. We left his store with a bunch of Callaway goodies, ready to put a close on our knock-off shopping spree in China.

After dinner, I was somehow lured to this guy selling DVD 9’s and I couldn’t believe that 24 - Season 6 was right in front of our eyes! Best part of the deal was aC slipped him a whopping fifty for a dozen+ discs, and to our delight he jammed that bill in his pocketpool area like it was a gem! Without any more thoughts we bolted and took a quick right, then left, then through the ‘friendship store’. Well, we managed to get that funny money out of our bank, but unfortunately, some other lame-duck tourists will probably get it back one day.

Well after 10 days, our China tour has come to and end. After an overview of Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai, we are both very exhausted but extremely enlightened with all the history, the facts and the beauty that lies within our cultural heritage. Rude people, pushy grandmas, ridiculous driving etiquette, same old food and dirty smelly ‘WC’s were nasty, but we definitely want to return here in the future!
…and hay, in 10 Days, I never had to use the Squat technique!….amazing!

Day 8 - Shanghai City Tour

March 10th, 2007

Today’s 1st stop was the Yu Garden, followed by a quick tour at the Jade Buddha Temple. After, we had a short stay in the “old town” which had lots of things to see; crowds of people rubbing shoulder to shoudler, antique shops, food hawker stands and street vendors grabbing your arm hoping to sell you a rrrrrolexe or Gucci purse. Within 2 minutes, a man approached us and pulled out his menu of items. “Follow me”, he said. I replied, ‘okay, we go!” After walking through a few alleyways, down a dark path, up a few broken stairs and behind these hidden doors, we ended up in someone’s living quarters, shelves full of fake shit, and displayed quite neatly. I guess the crackdown on knock-off stuff is really on the high but as always, Chinese people will find a way when it comes to illegal stuff!

After lunch we strolled The Bund, the water-front area overlooking the many tall skyscrapers (Shanghai has over 2800 buildings over 20 storeys!!). Our free time was spent just down a few blocks on ‘Nanjing Road’, a 5 km stretch along one of the most popular streets for shopping. After about 4-5 times into the back alleys and into someone’s hole in the wall, we were getting use to the ‘follow me routine’.

Our day ended at the Shanghai Acrobatic Show, probably one of the best and most complete displays of ridiculous Chinese style gymnastics/stunts and acrobats I’ve ever seen. You wonder why China is so consistently strong in the summer olympics….these guys and gals start very young and can bend, lift and balance better than anyone on this earth

Day 7 - Welcome to Shanghai

March 9th, 2007

After a 3 hour delay and transfer onto China Eastern Airline we finally made it to Shanghai, China’s busiest port and major city of commerce, science and technology. Tonites only task was to find a good place to eat and also to purchase cheap bzzr. Landing at ‘Sechuan Restaurant’ just behind our hotel was our best bet of the nite; for about 38.00 cnd, we enjoyed lots of beer with a tonne of spicy, shanghai style dishes! (sorry aC, the Shanghai food at home is no where close to being the ‘real-thing’)

Day 6 - Terra-Cotta Warriors

March 8th, 2007

Today was our opportunity to see what 3 million other people come to see every year; the Terra-cotta Warrior Museum. Not only has the 8th Wonder of the World put Xian on the map, but represents a huge chunk of all tourists visiting China.

In a nut shell, back in 1970, this farmer named Mr. Yang was digging for a well, where he discovered pieces from below. Years later, the government excavated the area, and dug up the remains of the now Terra-Cotta Warriors. (The Warriors took over 40+ years to complete and were prepared as a symbol for protection and power during the after life of Emperor Qin.)

The museum currently sits above 3 open pits where many of the original warrior pieces have been re-configured and repositioned by Chinese archaeologists, according to how they originally once were. 37 years later, Mr. Yang now holds a new daily job, sitting at the tourist building, signing copies of the official Terra-Cotta Warrior Museum Book. You know this guy is the man, when he is the ONLY guy allowed to smoke IN the museum…Fame and new found wealth definitely has gotten into this guys fuckin head as he will not speak with you nor allow you to take a photo OF him without a small tip…but after all, he is the ONLY person allowed to smoke in the entire museum complex!

We concluded our time in Xian with a 16-course dumpling dinner followed by the Tang Dynasty Show.

Day 5 - Xian City Tour

March 7th, 2007

An 8am flight to Xian meant a wake up call at 5:00am = bodily disaster. Not only did I feel something coming on this morning, I just felt plain crappy. At 6:30 am, the Beijing airport was a complete madhouse! People zipping left and right, lines forming here and there, and Chinese directives being yelled from all angles. Both the check-in lines and security checks were a complete zoo, but luckily Adam used some of his ‘tour guide’ status to help us ‘bypass’.

The 1st stop in Xian (‘shee-awhn) was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda followed by the Provincial History Museum.

Day 4 - Temple of Heaven, Hutong Tour

March 6th, 2007

In the morning we saw the Temple of Heaven, the largest temple in China. Although not considered a religious center, the Emperor used to pray here once a year for good harvests. Nestled on a very clean and well groomed piece of land the size of the forbidden city, you’ll find many retired local citizens doing everything from the rumba, waltz, lion dancing, tai-chi, double fisted badminton, Chinese style hackey-sack, chanting/singing in heards and playing Big 2. The best thing about this scene was it was free for the Beijingers and they all got some good exercise while having loads of fun!

On our way to lunch a quick stop was made at the local silk/carpet factory. After the 15 minute tour, we really have a new found appreciation for those Persion rugs you see on 33rd and Knight St. in Vancouver, as everything is hand made, and can take up to 18 months to complete!

In the afternoon, we experienced a Hutong Tour. Basically Hutong is an ancient city alley or lane, formed by the arrangement of 4 separate small housing complexes or ‘quadrangle’. Many are found near the Forbidden City and were built during the 3 dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing. The tour game us a glimpe of the rickshaw and a snap shot of what life is like for an ordinary Beijinger.

Our final night in Beijing culminated with a ‘Peking Duck Dinner’. Pretty good duck with hoisin sauce…but of course, anything is way better when you’ve had sweet n sour pork, beef + vegetables, fried rice, pork with celery, etc.. for 6 straight meals!

Day 3 - Ming Tombs, Great Wall

March 5th, 2007

After a quick stop at a local jade factory, our 1st destination this morning was the Ming Tombs in Changling. So they say, 17 of the Chinese Emperors are buried in this district. Only 2 of the building are open to the public, the main one being the main attraction. We then exited the site along the Sacred Way, about a km of pathway lined with full sized animal statues.

‘He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man” (Mao Zedong).

The cold and windy conditions did not stop the 4 of us from walking to the top of the Great Wall in Badaling, our next destination. A quick decision to buy a pair of North Face ‘crown-tex’ fleece gloves was the best purchase so far…what the hell is crown tex???…for $20 rnb or 3.50 cnd it really didn’t matter. We chose the route heading left, the steeper and less crowed of the 2. Aside from the howling winds, the steep steps, the icy concrete and the –20+ temperatures, this was just your ordinary scroll up the mountainside. At the top you are greeted by not 1 but a family of dudes trying to sell you shit like ‘congrats, you climbed the great wall’, and other tourist big hits. We settled for a $10 rnb stamp, with the ‘Wong’ character engraved on the bottom side…haha, maybe I’ve found my newest way in signing next years x-mas cards!

A hard but well thought-out group decision was made to skip the traditional Chinese opera for a preview of the Silk Street Market. Little did we realize that 2 ½ hours was barely enough to rumble through the 1st floor. Five floors of aggressive and at times annoying merchants turned from an overwhelming experience to a somewhat entertaining one. Every fake thing you could imagine with every phrase that every Beijinger knows; ‘laydee, you wan perssse?,..i give you bess pycie’, ‘come eene, and looke’…stoppp…why you not wan bye nice louis vuitton wallet??….After about 90 minutes, every shoe vendor knew my face, MY price, and were obviously annoyed; but not as annoyed as I was about being ripped off for a pair of fake Nikes or ‘Abercrombie & Bitch’ jeans …when you do the math, everything is still cheap.. but really, why overpay for something when you KNOW it truly is junk and will likely fall apart the minute you wear it for the 1st time!

As a group we did quite well, and quickly realized that we’d have to bargain for a huge duffel rollie the next day, just to transport this stuff back home.
In the end, if you low ball them down to 80%, piss them off, then walk away upon refusal, they WILL call you back and continue to drop the number till they make the sale…Unfortunately, ‘cash-only’ couldn’t get us another 10% off.