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Apparently, the rain
that we had missed out on for this trip finally caught up with us
today. Once we had gathered in the lobby for the last day of the trip
as an entire group. I boarded the bus bound from the hotel to what we
originally thought would be the Great Wall. Given the inclement
weather, we decided to begin the day at the Ming Tomb, rather than the
Great Wall.
We arrived at the
historical site during a downpour. Upon parking, our bus was surrounded
by vendors selling umbrellas and ponchos for 10 and 8 RMB respectively.
Many of the students, including myself, bought umbrellas from the
vendors. We left the bus and began our visit of the Ming Tomb. We
found that the Ming Tomb found in Beijing is one of three such tombs
available to the public – we visited one of the other two earlier in the
trip after the fun experience at Dr. Sun YatSen’s Masoleum. Whether it
was the rain slamming into our umbrellas or the fake coffins, we were
not very impressed with the Ming Tomb. In fact, the most exciting thing
about our visit was that, once we emerged from the “Underground Palace”,
the rain had softened to practically nothing.
After we finished
our visit at the Tomb, we returned to the bus and headed off towards the
Great Wall…except not. Plans changed again when we realized that we
would have a very late lunch if we first went to the Great Wall, so we
decided to first have lunch. We ate lunch at the Cloisonne “factory”
which, unlike previous “factories,” did a better job of resembling one.
We walked through the main entrance and made our way through a series of
rooms that had been separated by glass panels. We were introduced to
the method of creating the Cloisonne, or enamelware: First, a copper
base is hammered out. Second, small pieces of copper are attached to
the base in intricate patterns designed by artists. Third, the
different color enamel fills the gaps between copper decorations.
Fourth, the object is fired in a kiln. Finally, the object is polished
and results in being as smooth and beautiful as porcelain, but as tough
and durable as copper.
Once we had learned
how such objects were made, we traveled through the shop. Cloisonne
vases, incense burners, Christmas ornaments, birds, globes, and ash
trays were sold for prices ranging from 50 RMB to 98000 RMB. After a
few of us made purchases, we walked upstairs for lunch. At the top of
the stairs, the hostess greeted us in English and, while taking us to
our table, yelled, “Americans” in Chinese towards the kitchen. We were
seated and started eating the food they had already prepared for the
table. They were followed by some standard Chinese dishes, and then by
none other than a plate of French fries and a plate of dinner rolls.
The serving of American food was protested by our table, but that didn’t
really change anything.
After the fairly
disappointing meal, we returned to the bus and made our way to the Great
Wall, which meant another hour or so of riding, sleeping, and catching
up. When we arrived at the Great Wall, we were not only relieved to
find that it was not being drenched by rain, but also that the
temperature was quite nice considering we were about to climb stairs as
old as they are numerous. We started up the first staircase and, upon
reaching the top of the first flight my legs were already starting to
burn. We continued on to another flight, and another flight, and so
on. After forty minutes of stair-climbing, I reached the “top” of the
wall, which is more of a wall segment jutting from the Wall than a
physical peak. Some followed 5-10 minutes later, while the last of the
group reached after another 20 minutes. Regardless, we were all
relieved to reach the end. We all reached the end.
The way down, of
course, was significantly easier and shorter. On the way down, most of
us stopped for certificates, t-shirts, etc that signified our successful
ascent to the top. We returned to the bus and continued on with our
trip, impressed with ourselves for accomplishing such a task.
With the Great Wall
behind us, we rode to “Dr. Tea,” a government-owned teahouse. We were
taken to a private room where we sampled 5 different types of tea: white
tea, golden green tea, Oo’long tea, Jasmine tea, and Litchi tea. After
the sampling and demonstrations, the employees tried to sell us on their
various products which were relatively overpriced in comparison to other
sources of tea in the area. No one bought anything at the teahouse.
Following the
teahouse experience, we rode to a 3-story shopping center. It was a
labyrinth of “stores” for 3 floors with many different wares available:
shoes, clothes, electronics, luggage, watches, and almost anything else
you might want or need. We spent a little under an hour here before
returning to the bus and continuing on to dinner. Dinner was at a hotel
near the shopping mall, but was not up to par with what we had come to
expect at previous hotels. Over dinner, we talked about the trip, about
the times ahead for Charles, Joelle, and Liz, and we also discussed the
differences between China and the United States.
We returned to our
hotel and started packing things up for tomorrow’s plane rides or for
the following internship. At 8:30, we said goodbye to Charles, Joelle,
and Liz as they left with their host families for an additional 2 weeks
in Beijing. Abraham, Meredith, Shannon, and I traveled to a nearby area
for food. We stopped at Subway, DQ, Pizza Hut, and a bakery.
Shout Outs to:
Kelley, Mikey, Murphy (have fun in Carnegie Mellon), and Ginny
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