So to catch up on the past few days:
Sunday morning we headed over to one of the more famous Sunday morning markets whose name I can neither pronounce nor spell correctly. At any rate, the thing was basically the largest garage sale ever. 20 rows of vendors selling beads, at least as many each selling antique furniture, carvings, pottery, carpets, and tapestries. That doesn't even include the unofficial part of the market where people have small stands of whatever random items they've collected. Made a few buys but am finding it hard to spend over about 40RMB ($5!!) hahaha... we've all adjusted to prices here plus bargaining for anything and everthing. The rest of the day was mostly a wash as we were recovering from the train ride. Attempted and failed to find the CITS office for Les to get his Tibet permit and flights, then mostly sat around downstairs watching movies in the hostel - which ended up being a good idea when it started pouring in mid-afternoon.
Monday dragged ourselves out of bed and walked through the hutong (a crazy overwhelming place) up to Tienanmen Square. Right before we go there we ran into a big crowd surrounding some police tape so of course checked it out. There was a woman on the 4th floor of a building holding a sign out the window that we assumed was some sort of political dissent. No clue really but we took a picture! Inside Tienanmen Square, the place really is unimaginably huge. Walked around it and got plenty of photo ops before spending a few hrs and finally succeeding in finding the right place for Tibet permits. (Only after a taxi ride to a random gov't office that provides commericial permits and another cab ride to the other side of town where at the Tibet Hotel a travel agent made us wait before naming prices and demanding all the money up front.) At any rate, with that done, we went to walk through the Forbidden City starting North and heading South back towards our hostel. An incredible amount of it is under construction. We reckon to get it cleaned up for the 2008 olympics. It basically left only the center path and pavilions open when there are many buildings to each side. Definitely a grandious place. I wish we'd had time to watch 'the last emperor' before going. No longer forbidden, the place even has a Starbucks in it right next to the Gate of Purity. Crazy.
Since so much was closed off, it didn't take as much time as expected and after more photo ops with the picture of Mao outside Tienanmen Gate we headed south on the street on the West side of the Square. We had just about gotten to the People's Congress Hall when all of a sudden these military guys appear and push everyone who was walking by back North. We didn't know what was going on so kindof dilly dallyed, acted stupid, trying to see something. Ended up going under the street and over to Tienanmen where things looked normal and walking South to end up across the street from the Congress building. Out front the had all sorts of red carpets set up, a pavilion, and as we watched as 3 buses pulled in via the shutdown street, military band got out, warmed up and played a few numbers. They weren't very good either. Then all of a sudden they drove all these police cars with lights flashing into the square and angry sounding policemen with megaphones literally started clearing out Tienanmen Square. As best we could guess the government was planning a big public demonstration minus the public. They pushed the crowd south to the very edge of the square. This has been our first glimpse of the real communist (fascist??) government. We were told that the closer you are to Beijing the more control the gov't has, and that seems to be true. At the same time, as we were walking out of the square you just want to scream at the Chinese people around you - 'this is your excuse for a government?" It's hard to imagine any big rebellion or protest from these people. No wonder communism took root since for the past 5000 yrs they have been following the orders of one emperor or another. It's almost bred in to not question authority too much.
Made it back to the hostel without further incident and decided to make it our night to try Peking duck. Walked to a nearby duck restaurant where they serve everything from duck soup to duck intestines. Got the basic roast duck feast, and they brought out the whole roast duck and a chef carved it up. One of the servers showed us out to eat it correctly - seems a kindof combo of Chinese and Mexican. You take a 'pancake' (basically a thin smaller tortilla type thing) grab some of the sliced duck meat/skin, dip it in sauce and spread it on the pancake, add a couple of scallions, roll it up and enjoy! Actually very delicious...
Today was our trip to the Great Wall day. Met at 6:30am to catch the bus to Jinseling. 3 hours later we were dropped off the bus in a tiny village. It took a good 1/2 hr to actually walk up to the wall and we were already sweating by that time. Our hike took us about 12km from Jinseling to Simati great wall. Most tourists go to Badeling which is much closer to Beijing so this spot was nearly deserted in comparison. Still plenty of farmers wife's from Mongolia to follow us for the first 1/4 way trying to sell books, postcards, and tshirts. I really did almost feel guilty not giving the poor people money, but they might have followed us the whole way otherwise. Anyway, the mist burned off eventually, and most of the hard work was getting up to the High Tower which was about half way. Gorgeous scenery - mountains in all directions! This is what one imagines when one thinks of the Great Wall! It was a great hike for sure, I'll try to get the pics up when I get to Thailand. Made it to Simatai with plenty of time before the 3hr bus ride back. Now time to relax for the night!
In other news, my Thailand address is:
Vitayanivej House, Chulalongkorn University
Phaya Thai Road, Bangkok
Thailand 10330
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