Overdue China

There's so much I should have said earlier, but put off. No doubt, I've been lazy with this and many other things I'd like to do. I decided yesterday I'd become more disciplined, trying to write songs and experiences everyday. And now it's Sunday, 9 in the morning and I'm up ready to go. It's a start:
Ok, as you've seen I went to China. The trip, on a whole, was hectic, not much of a vacation at all. With only 4 days, that's the way it had to be. We got off the plane, met a chubby Chinese man with an English accent, Charlie, and he herded us to our first stop; The Temple of Heaven. This was a gorgeous temple surrounded by a gardens. Charlie asked us, "why are you taking pictures of the ground," and we said, "We've been stuck in the Korean cities so long, we forgot what grass looked like." There were people everywhere and I immediately started to tell apart the Chinese from the Koreans. I'd heard before, and found it true, that the Chinese, being a little poorer than Koreans, were a few years back in their clothes and style. Like when you go to Wisconsin, see what their wearing and think you went back to 1989. So the King used to pray at this temple for a good harvest. Probably the most impressive thing I saw was a little Chinese girl doing a homework assignment. She was kneeling before a statue and copying the inscription. Watching a child writing those complicating hieroglyphics was moving. Much of China is still illiterate and I could see why after staring at Chinese writing all day.
Charlie urged us to notice how modern and impressive Beijing business district was. True, I'd never seen a city like this in Asia, but there was something fake about it. Beijing is preparing for the Olympics in 2008 and there is a lot of work to do. Along the street, I saw huge signs lining the road, blocking what was behind. Our trip stuck mostly to the good parts but we had to drive through the slums at times. The apartment buildings looked like they'd been empty, untended to for 10 years. The paint was chipping off and the walls were falling apart. Throughout my trip, I saw more poverty than I'd expected. It looked like the Philippines than like Korea.
Asians in America are often made fun of for their large number of tour groups. I never want to travel in a group, but, because we only had 4 days, this is what we had to do. There's nothing dignified about 30 people following around one guy with a flag. And everywhere we went, there were 20 other tours following around 20 other flag-waving guides. Pathetic. But our guide, Charlie, was non-stop showtime. No matter how tired we were, there was no sleeping on the bus because you'd miss some Charlie joke about eunuchs or his time in the uniwersity (his accent, like most Chinese, was heavy). The tour included hotel and all our meals too so 3 days in, I realized I'd only spent 5 dollars. I ate duck for the first time. It wasn't bad until someone pointed out the duck's head on the table. I just don't like eating anything when I can see it's face. And we stayed at the Holiday Inn, one of the best hotels in China. I still feel strange when I'm staying alone at some 5-star hotel in another country. That's what rich business men do, not Dominos delivery drivers. (alliteration; 5 points)
I climbed The Great Wall on the 2nd day. I wish there hadn't been so many people, but, like me, their just trying to create stories to tell their children. It took about 2 hours to get to the top. Because there were stairs, I was able to get much higher in a short period of time than when climbing mountains in Korea. At times, the building of the wall seemed like such a stupid idea. Just thinking about the amount of time and lives spent building this wall along the crests of mountains......wow. It did work for awhile though. When you were picked for Great Wall duty, that was it, that was your life. You'd say goodbye to your family, move to the camps right outside the wall and probably wouldn't come back home alive. It sure was beautiful to see and something I will talk about for years to come.
Maybe equally as shocking was Tien'anmenn Square. It's famous mainly because of the 1989 massacre in which between 1 and 2 thousand students were killed by the army for protesting. There's that famous picture where a student is standing in front of a tank, blocking it's movement. In China, you're not really allowed to talk about this, and the government still claims no one was killed. It's not in any textbooks and most of the young generation don't know what happened. Charlie spoke honestly about the incident but said, "don't that to CNN, or I'll be in trouble." This day we got to see the disgusting Beijing pollution in full force. You'll notice these pictures, it looks like a real foggy day. We got attacked by hoards of beggars and vendors. This happened throughout the next couple days, adding a real sadness to our tourism. There were some bad cases, dirty crying children begging. You don't see this kind of thing in Korea. Oh and because they can't afford diapers, most the babies have the bottom cut out of their pants so they can just do their business on the street, very easy.
I should say something about the shopping too. We went to our first market on the 3rd day. You walk in and see little stalls with rip-off but identical brands of clothes. All the brands, all the jerseys, shoes, purses, wallets, and silk anything you could imagine. The salespeople were mainly young girls who could speak enough English behind hilarious accents. They'd grab your arms, pull you in, hit you when you offered too low a price and flirt when they saw a sale coming. This was a true exercise in bartering. What they offered was usually 100 times what they'd accept, so it was a long process which got very tiring after a few tries. The guide told us you should walk away at least 3 times, but you could do it for hours and they'd keep dropping the price. I was offering a dollar for Jordans the first time I got hit. She shrieks, "what, you crazy man? you drinky drinky man?" I didn't buy much but just had fun with the girls. One girl had a pair of Jordans, I told her I'd buy them if she could tell me all about Michael Jordan. She ran around the store, asking the other shop keepers and came back with "he's from india and he's a ball man." That wasn't good enough. Mainly I just bought Mao shirts and anything else with communist propaganda.
We went to an acrobatic show, walked through the forbidden city where the King and all his concubines played, had a taste of the Beijing nightlife, drank 25 cent beers, and didn't sleep much. After a night of partying and saying goodbye in our own ways, we loaded the bus at 4am Sunday morning. What followed was 14 hours of hassles, lines and sleepless misery. I was near dead when I finally got back to my apartment. I've had a fever, and a bad cold ever since, no doubt due to this day of hell. But it was well worth it.