My Trip to the Great Wall of China

First, I want to apologize to all of my readers for not posting the past two weeks.  I have been having some technological difficulties with my laptop and my VPN (Virtual Private Network), which allows me to access websites—such as this one—that are not accessible in China.  (I will write more about this national issue in a later post.)  All fixed for now, fingers crossed!

Second, I would like to tell you all about my trip to the Great Wall, which was now two Saturdays ago.  My friends and I took a bus to the Mutianyu section of the wall, which should be about a two-hour drive away from campus—without traffic.  Since many tour buses make a lot of their profit by bringing the tourists on their buses to different souvenir factories on their way to and from the wall, Mutianyu is much less populated than the more popular Badaling section.  While some may prefer Badaling’s touristy atmosphere, Mutianyu’s visitors can enjoy a section of the wall that is almost empty and can really absorb what it has looked like throughout history, with its magnificent architecture in the middle of a mountain landscape that is just as beautiful.  If you are interested, you can read more about Mutianyu on the following website: http://www.mutianyugreatwall.net

Finally, I would like to share a couple tips with you all about purchasing water or souvenirs at the shacks near the entrance to where you begin climbing the wall.  Simply being in that environment, you will learn a little bit about bargaining and a lot about being a strategic player in what really feels like a game sometimes.
1)  Do not pay “full price” for anything.  The salespeople know that you, as a tourist, will fit into one of the following three categories of tourists: the first is a tourist who will pay the full price that he is told because he does not know any better, the second is a tourist who knows a little bit of Chinese and may bargain a little bit, and the third is a tourist who is fluent in Chinese and will pay whatever he wants to pay.  Hint: you want to be third type of tourist, even if you have to pretend to be fluent by knowing the basic bargaining terms cold.  The third type of tourist knows that the first price the salespeople will tell you is really up to 10 times more expensive than you should end up paying when you are done bargaining.

2)  Bring your own water bottles or buy them at one of the shacks for 5 kuai (80¢ U.S.) before beginning your climb.  The salespeople on top of the Great Wall know that you are dehydrated and need water when you finally get to the top, so they charge 20 kuai ($3.25 U.S.) more than at the shacks.  I understand that, to Americans, this is not a lot of money, but in China, 20 kuai goes a long way; that would pay for half a month’s worth of breakfasts in the cafeteria for me.  It’s a difference of paying 80¢ for a bottle of water or paying $4.05, which is five times more expensive and means you are being ripped off by Chinese standards.  (On the other hand, I am not condoning anyone be dehydrated, so if you are at the top and you do not have water, please buy an overpriced one!)

My friends and I just casually lounging around on the Great Wall :)

Settling into the Chinese Culture

After a fairly smooth flight from Los Angeles and taxi ride from the airport, I arrived safely at my dormitory on Beijing Normal University’s campus.  Throughout the past week since my arrival, I have been keeping track of a few things that I have noticed while settling into the Chinese culture and that I think you all might find interesting:

1)  With Chinese food, you are essentially trading the comfort of always knowing what you are eating for meals that cost less than a U.S. dollar.  Even if you can read a few words on the menu, you’re taking a risk with the words you cannot read.  You quickly get used to the idea that you can either try very few things being a picky eater or just go for it and, for all you know, you could be eating donkey.

2)  Umbrellas are no indication of the weather; they are used everywhere, all the time.  If it is raining, you will see a sea of umbrellas, like you typically would anywhere else in the world.  If it is sunny, you will see a sea of umbrellas, shading the Chinese people from the sunlight because white skin is an important quality to the Chinese.  If it is cloudy/smoggy, you will see a sea of umbrellas, for reasons I do not yet understand.

3)  Drivers honking their horns does not mean that they are angry.  Traffic in China is just defined by these rules: you drive wherever you want, in whichever lane you choose or across three different lanes at once if you would like, and you honk your horn simply to tell other drivers around you that you are there.  For example, rather than angrily honking your horn at someone for cutting you off, like you would in America, you honk your horn in order to tell someone that you are cutting them off and that they should not hit you.

Hope my fellow Americans all around the world had a safe and happy Fourth of July!

 This was the view from my dormitory room the morning after a big thunderstorm.  The rain cleared out all the smog, and the rare blue sky looked absolutely beautiful!