i took a trip to china during golden week and now im writing about the adventures i had. if youre interested in previous posts, check out part one to read about my tiananmen square experiences and part two about the forbidden city.

__taking the bait__
it was a good thing we set aside an entire day to see the great wall - not because seeing it took the whole day - but because we stupidly fell for a scam that lasted the whole stupid day. being an american tourist who doesnt speak chinese in beijing has its disadvantages; one of them is being a constant target for scammers.

we left our hotel in the morning with full intentions of DIY traveling and taking public transportation to get to the wall all by ourselves. we planned to walk to a subway station, take a train to a bus station, and then find a bus to take us to the great wall. but as our luck would have it, that was the same morning beijing decided to close down some of its subway stations. with the sudden change of plans we decided to take the advice of our travel books and use a recommended tour group company for transportation. an hour later we arrived at the wall. so far so good. but we didnt know what we had signed up for until much later.

the first set of steep stairs

__the great wall__
the great wall of china was truly amazing to see up close. but it was even cooler to be able to climb up it and stand at the top. before visiting the great wall, i had been confused to hear about people climbing the wall. arent walls made to be unclimbable? growing up in vegas, where every house is surrounded by perfectly straight walls built on top of flat land, i imagined the great wall to be more or less the same thing - just bigger. in reality, however, the great wall spans five thousand miles up and down mountains and across rivers, deserts, and grasslands. there are many steep sections of the wall where "walking along the top of it" actually means "climbing up a mountain."
i must admit that out of all the places ive been so far, the great wall was the best combination of history, exercise, and beauty that ive been lucky enough to experience.
__the great scam__
it was a fun hike. the scenery was more than beautiful. the day had all the tell-tale signs of going down in history as a great fucking day. but that all changed when we left the wall to get back on the tour bus. it turned out that the trip was far from over. after the wall they took us to some lame tourist attraction. we found out later it had been a movie set to some old chinese movies we had never heard of. once we were thoroughly bored, they took us to the next stop on the tour. it was a building that tried really hard to appear like a jade museum. but after showing us a couple of impressively large jade stones, they ushered us into another room where they tried like hell to sell tons of jade crap to us. the next couple of stops were cosco-sized stores full of trinkets and souvenirs. my travel buddy and i didnt even get out of the bus for the last stop because we were so fed up with the whole thing.

when we finally made it back to beijing, the tour screwed us over one last time by dropping us off in an unfamiliar location with no actual bus stop in sight. after walking around aimlessly for a while, we eventually realized we were completely lost, gave up, and hailed a cab to take us back to tiananmen. all in all, the scammers didnt swindle any extra money out of us; but they did successfully steal quite a bit of our precious time and sanity instead.

this is the second post about an epic trip to china i took earlier this month. im writing this mainly to supplement my failing memory - but bored readers are welcome to enjoy it as well. check out part one to read about my tiananmen square experiences.

__forbidden city__
six hundred years old and full of history, beijing's forbidden city was fun to walk around for a little while. but eventually, the immense size, beautiful but repetitive architecture, and my short attention span caused me to lose interest after about an hour of walking through the maze-like ancient city. im glad i went. it was cool and all. but meh.

__a food market__
we decided to stroll down some random streets on our journey from the center of town back to our hostel. soon enough we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a crowded food market. the sights were novel to say the least - and ill get to them next - but first i must describe the vivid smells that hit my nostrils with every step down these streets.
one step forward, and the most terribly pungent smell of atrocious diarrhea-ish scents smacks you hard in the face. china is not the most clean of countries; billions of people throwing their trash on the ground has its consequences. after proper cringing, the next step down the street luckily changes aromas dramatically. that second step brings your nose in contact with the aroma of various meats on sticks grilling just a couple of feet away from your face. i havent eaten meat just shy of four years now - and good riddance to it - but i can still appreciate the tantalizing smell of grilled meat sometimes. unfortunately, the third step into the food market changes up the smells again. its back to diarrhea. and the next step its grilled meats. the entire street went on like this, changing frequently from terrible to tasty. it was a roller-coaster for the nostrils.
with the smells aside, the things i saw as i walked through the food market blew my mind. vendors were selling sea horses, starfish, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, and many other strange unnameable critters. i cant speak for all the animals, but the scorpions were STILL FLIPPING ALIVE. if you have the guts to buy and eat a stick of scorpions (i didnt), the vendors will kill them for you first by grilling them up. bon appetit. ugh.

__stoked on china__
months ago i decided to take a trip to china during golden week this year (golden week is a magical time in japan with four holidays in nine days). as my trip to china approached, i could feel myself getting more and more excited. great walls, ancient statues, and interesting cultures awaited me in that foreign land across the sea of japan. planning was kept to a minimum; outside of flights, trains, and hostel reservations, my itinerary was completely open for random adventures to ensue. i chose to visit two very different cities - beijing and xi'an - not only to see some [in]famous landmarks, but also to experience some of the diversity china has to offer. six days to see two cities with one awesome travel buddy and zero elementary school english classes; i couldnt wait to start already.

qianmen, beijing

__arrival to beijing__
i finally arrived to beijing after six hours on a train and six more hours in various planes and airports. when we found our hostel, we were surprised to hear that they already sold our room to someone else. that was so nice of them. we walked around the area carrying our luggage (read: a small backpack) while looking for another place, but due to a three-day holiday we knew nothing about beforehand, all the other hostels and hotels were either full or crazy expensive. we ended up eating the cost and staying in a hotel room with no hot water for about $60 a night. lame.

qianmen diaje - we accidentaly started our trip on a pretty, yet touristy, street

__tiananmen square__
the next morning we woke up early and, after walking through qianmen a little bit to get adjusted to our surroundings, we decided to head to tiananmen square. during the walk and throughout the day, strong winds and continual dust storms ensured that i got plenty of dirt in my eyes, nose, and mouth. yum. when we got there we noticed that tiananmen square was already packed with people and under tight security - probably because of the holidays.

monument to the peoples heroes

communism

walking around the largest city square in the world was surreal to say the least. just 20 or so years ago, hundreds of protesters supporting democracy and economic reforms were murdered by their own government in that very square. adding to the ominousness, a gigantic portrait of mao zedong, leader of the chinese revolution, hung over the gate of heavenly peace and watched over the square at all times.

the gate of heavenly peace

__flag lowering ceremony__
much later in the day, we returned to tiananmen square to watch the lowering of the flag ceremony. we got there just in time and took our place near the front of a huge mass of people. soldiers came out through the gate of heavenly peace and started marching straight at us. when they reached the front of the crowd, they began yelling at us in chinese and pushing us backwards. they were parting the crowd to make more room for someone or something. im not ashamed to admit that i was a little scared of being yelled at in a language i dont understand right outside the location of a terrible massacre done by men *possibly* wearing the same uniform as these soldiers. needless to say, it was fun to observe for a little while, we got out of there pretty quick.

flag ceremony