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We'd signed up for a tour to visit the main tourism spots in China, so on Saturday we moved to the hotel where we'd meet up with everyone else.
We were really sad to leave our little oasis in the Hutong, but this place had good points too - directly opposite, was a restaurant with some of the best food I've had so far. Absolutely delicious and extremely cheap!
There's also a spa here, and after my impromptu hike back home the night before, I decided to have a foot massage.
Peet came to keep me company, and acted as my interpreter for chatting to my masseuse. She was a really lovely girl from near Urumqi, which is apparently described as "Inner Mongolia" even though it's actually in China, and not in Mongolia at all.
She thought Peet and I were brother and sister, and couldn't understand why we had different colour hair!
The next morning, we nervously went down to the lobby to see who'd we be spending the next two weeks with. We were pleasantly surprised to find the majority of our tour buddies were laid-back, fun-loving Aussies and our tour guide was a sweet, slightly chubby Chinese girl called Tong Ai Xiang or Stephanie Tong, for those of us less acquainted with Mandarin.
She kept us entertained on the coach, with word games (What tree grows in your hand? A palm. etc) and by teaching us a Chinese song. She also taught us the Mandarin nickname that is given to us white-folk: Dà Bì zi (big nose!) - once that's pointed out, you start to hear people saying it everywhere! It's the equivalent to us calling someone a "rag head" or something, except to the Chinese it's not at all offensive and it's not meant to be taken as such… but obviously it takes a bit of getting used to!
First of all, we visited Tiananmen Square. There were loads of people selling things and asking us for photographs (because we're white). My first experience of this was fun - a bunch of guys asked me to pose with them, and all started laughing at one because he was a good 4 inches shorter than me, and I was in my flip flops!
I bought a faux communist hat, because I think they're stylish, which started a challenge within the group to get the best price. I paid 30 yuan for mine; the cheapest that day was 10 yuan. Mine still looks the best though :)
Next was the Forbidden City. It was a bit surreal for me to go there again - I'd visited Beijing once before, 10 years ago, when I was lucky enough to go with a group of other students and one of the cooler teacher's family on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
When I'd been there previously, it was just after the SARs epidemic, and there were hardly any tourists. This time, it couldn't've been more different. There were so many people, it was a bit stressful! And the Forbidden City, which I had vivid memories of being completely empty, except for me and my friends, walking with our newly bought chinese paper parasols, was especially so. It also seemed to go on forever! It's hard to imagine that anyone actually lived there.
We spent a lot of our time there learning camera techniques from two professional photographers that happened to be on our tour - a South African girl living in J'Berg, called Lauren - has two super cute Chihuahuas, and an Australian called Mary, who also works as a graphic designer, and sometimes performs in Amateur Dramatics. Since we all owned Canon DSLRs, they could teach us a lot that we didn't already know. We also got to play with Mary's telephoto lens for a while as well, which was really good fun.
Let me introduce everyone to you, since they'll probably be mentioned quite a lot in the next few blogs!
Aside from the two I've already mentioned, there was a Canadian couple, with a really dry sense of humour - Dan & Vivienne. They always seemed to be talking about Canada. He has a really loud, deep voice. She's blonde, and the locals keep staring at her hair. They thought we were Australian to begin with, and kept calling Peet "Dan" because he introduced himself to everyone with his surname.
Mary's husband John, also Australian. He works as a nurse in a local hospital, and found the fact that the Chinese spat all the time way more disgusting than blood & guts. He and Mary have been married for 20 years, and for that anniversary you typically give China, hence the trip! They didn't look old enough to have been married for that long, but you could tell they were really happy & comfortable together, in the way that only very long-term couples are. They live in a place no one's heard of near Brisbane, called Toowoomba. Ironically, that's where my ex-boyfriend is also from… super small world.
Another Aussie, Catherine. She's from the Gold Coast, and just seems to have the perfect life. She lives right on the beach, eats only fresh produce, and works for herself so she has as much time for exercise as she likes. As a result, she's a grandmother with the best figure out of any of us on the trip. She's taking a year out to travel around the world. She's also a pastry chef and a mother of four. Absolutely amazing!
Fred & Zoe - Aussie couple, living in Melbourne, studied in Tasmania. He's a teacher, and is super relaxed, fun and easy to get on with. He wears geek humour t-shirts and loves his beer. (In fact, ALL of the Aussies do!)
She's training to be an Ophthalmologist, and is super clever. She's of Chinese descent - her grandparents still live here, and she's fluent in Mandarin. It's fun because her voice, and her personality a little bit, change when she speaks it.
According to her, they use rooster combs (the red bobbly bit) in eye surgery, beurk!
Amy & Anina - work colleagues, both S African. They're also from J'Berg, but they don't know Lauren. Anina used to be an accountant, but moved into Risk Management and really prefers it; Amy is still an accountant, but hates it. We obviously bonded quite well over that!!
They both work for a bank, and as such must be totally loaded. They keep buying expensive things and having them shipped home! Anina said that last year when they went to India, they'd forgotten they'd bought half the things, so had quite the shock when they got home.
James & Liz - older couple, live near Sydney. They're sort of like our parents on this trip. They're really lovely. He's a great cook, and she's really artistic. She used to teach art at a private prep school.
They love boating, and last year went on a barge trip near Stoke - near where Peet's family lives. Their female friend who'd planned the trip with them, had battled with cancer for years and was in remission. She was almost too unwell to go, but went anyway because they'd been planning it for so long. Died the following week.
Julie & Vicki - two forty-something Aussie women, both smoke like a chimney and are a good laugh. They're always getting into some kind of mischief!
And that comprises our little tour :)
Later that day, we took a rickshaw ride through the Hutong. This was a lot more pleasant than our first time since it was properly organised with a company, and plus Peet & I got to ride together.
We stopped at a local woman's house in the Hutong, which is probably my most enjoyable part of Beijing so far.
She's called Mrs. Wang, and she's 75. She's quite small, but healthy - she cycles everywhere; she's softly spoken, graceful, and looked really beautiful because of the smile lines on her face. Despite her hard life, she's spent a lot of it smiling, which is really inspiring.
She used to work as a book keeper, and her husband was an archaeologist. During the cultural revolution, this type of profession was no longer approved of, so he was sent away to work in the fields for 15 years. Two other families were also moved into her house during this time - ownership was only recently restored to her family.
We ended the day the same way we'd ended our first day in Beijing - acrobatics & duck. The acrobatics show was much grander and different, which was a relief. The best part was when they brought a giant metal sphere onto the stage, and incrementally introduced motorcycles into it, until at one point there were seven all racing around inside! It was very exciting :)
The duck wasn't any different to what we eat in the UK, but it was really nice to eat with everyone.
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