Beijing.
Chinese New Year was around the corner and what better way to celebrate it than in the capital city. A few things went a bit wrong in booking it. There was some issue with what I booked and what was actually available so the booking agency called me to inform me. I would end up arriving in Beijing closer to the early evening. No problem, I thought, I can catch the fireworks. Second was the hotel. It was near impossible to find a decently priced hotel that was ALSO in a good location to go visit Tienanmen Square area where most of the attractions are located. Most of the hotels were either by the airport or on the complete opposite side of the city. Either way trains from those areas would take forever and cabs would be expensive. I found a budget hotel instead. No worries, I thought, I won't be staying in the hotel long anyway as I'll be out sight-seeing.
This time I flew by plane from Beijing and I was lucky to get a flight right from Wuxi airport instead of having to trek to Shanghai first where flights were usually cheaper (even with the need to purchase a plane ticket from Wuxi to Shanghai).
The flight was only a couple of hours. Within landing, I knew I had made a terrible mistake.
The huge, grey overbearing clouds made all the world a husky, chilly grey along with it. And as I stepped of the plane; snowflurries fell. SNOW FLURRIES!
I had just come from the beautiful, tropic-like Hong Kong from the far southern reaches. But Beijing I found was north. Very north. More north than Xian which had also been cold but a tolerable cold around the 50s.
I had come prepared for cold but not freezing. Beijing wasn't just cold. It was the type of cold that permeates through your bones making them feel creaky and heavy and slow. It was the kind of cold that made you want to curl up and sleep next to a heater or even better perhaps a fireplace and a nice down duvet. It was wet, and slushy and chilly.
I got there at the last of daylight around 5 pm but the taxi ride to my hotel took about 30-40 minutes and when I got to my hotel, daylight was practically done. I settled into my room which was exactly as the website had called it "a budget room". There were no windows, it was a small room in the basement level of the hotel. It wasn't very clean. There were slippers wrapped in plastic that looked reused. The shower had a clump of hair in it and the cups and tea kettle (which every hotel usually has) did not looked either used for a very long time or perhaps they were used and unclean. I checked the bed and inspected it very closely. That was clean to the very least and the bedding looked fresh.
Perhaps what made me gloss over all the other imperfections was the heat. It was very well-heated in the room. In fact, the heater was a bit too powerful and it took a few adjustments within the first night to get a feel for the perfect temperature that wouldn't leave me sweating or shivering. I definitely resolved to not spend a lot of time here. I had 2 days of tours booked and was only staying for four days.
I wanted to go out to eat and googled the first place I always did when I got to another city because there were always plenty of them: McDonald's. There happened to be one a couple of blocks from the hotel. I braced myself begrudgingly for the cold throwing on multiple layers and my pea coat, resenting the fact that I left my long, down winter jacket back home. As I waddled out, it was dark now and off in the distance there were fireworks going off. I made my way along a wet, dark alley to cut through the parking lot area and arrived at the McDonald's in less than 5 minutes. I took an extra sandwich home, listening to the fireworks going off far away and feeling miserable because I could not seem to get warm enough to possess the energy to chase them. So much for Chinese New Year.
I got in then showered then proceeded to bed. The next day was freely mine to take. My last full days I had booked tours to every major tourist attraction imaginable and then I left very early in the morning on the 23rd.
No fireworks tonight, I thought as I tucked myself underneath the warmth of the blankets. Not in this cold while it's snowing out.
**************************************************************************
The next day, I awoke rather late in the morning. Without the guidance of sunlight through a window it's rather hard to tell the day and being in a warm, dark basement room didn't make matters easier. I had planned that day to go to the Chinese National History Museum. This museum was everything about the history of China and then some. There were not tours today so I set out in my warmest get-up and searched the train stations that would get me there. It was relatively easy but the train station was about a 10-15 minute walk. I set out and was happy to find that it was relatively slightly warmer today although still overcast and light flurries continued to fall. It was wet and grey. I pumped music into my ears through my headphones as I walked to the subway. I figured out how to use the ticket dispenser easy enough with the help of Google maps on my phone although there destination choices were much more vast than HK which took some time to navigate through. I found the right station and paid the fee then waited on the platform.
Heading out I looked to try to find the museum. There seemed to be long lines of people around a few buildings coming out of the station. One of those long lines was for the museum. At this point it was heading well into 1pm and I was a bit discouraged but I sucked it up and waited in an immense line that with each decrease, personal space became less and less of a concept. I had at one point people using their children to push through, someone constantly stepping onto my heels, someone flatulating somewhere near me and of course the weird stares from nearby folks simply for being a foreigner, in particular a black one. I blocked it all out with Mariah Carey patiently waiting for about an hour to get into the museum. I saw the military march by. It was odd to see so many of them. I'm not sure if it was for security reasons around the holiday but they were stationed in small booths on almost every corner of the street.
When finally inside, there was some confusion at the ticket counter. One side was for native residents who could scan their Chinese ID cards and go in. The other side was the entrance for foreigners with access by showing your passport. Admission to both was free. I finally got inside and was overwhelmed at the vastness of the museum itself. It was broken into sections from ancient Chinese history to the infamous Cultural Revolution of Mao to Chinese architecture and then a few special exhibits on western cultures such as Russia and England (those you had to pay by purchasing special tickets). A lot of the sections were closed off, I imagine, for the anticipation of large crowds for the holiday. I was very interested in the Mao exhibit taking photos of friendly Mao shaking hands, mingling with the laborers of the land, teaching children, leading soldiers in a painting that looked very much in the style of America's George Washington crossing the Delaware. I found myself amused, perturbed and fascinated by the revisionist history of China.
I recall one time teaching my class about patriotic symbols of America and landmarks. I talked to them about a few iconic presidents and the symbols of our flag. Then I asked them to discuss similar things in their country. Among their answers had been Chairman Mao as a national hero, Tienanmen Square as a proud national landmark, and the stars on their flag represented the 5 classes of China; farmers, workers, soldiers and teachers. The largest star being of course the Communist party. All were important to keep the great country of China going, they told me. I found it slightly bemusing that although all were supposedly equally important in running China the largest, overshadowing yellow star belonged to the Communist Party.
This photo stuck out at me mostly because it was an extremely graphic depiction of the revolution yet this small boy was taking it in. In it are likely the bodies of traitors to Mao as the communist party stands proudly gazing at the bloody bodies of men, women and even children the soldier in the far left wiping the blood off of his sword, non-chalantly.
I took multiple photos here and then I made my way to a pottery exhibit that was more in line with the blue and white china they sell at stores in America, only these were obviously more authentic. Chinese are huge on pottery and almost every museum I had been to contained a little in each dynasty. After Xian, however, which had the largest collection of these things, I didn't really have much interest in taking more photos of them. I checked out a calligraphy exhibit and some statues of terra cotta. I found I had probably looked at the most history in Xian and Beijing just contained fragments of these. I only spent about 2 hours or so at the museum when around 4:30 they started to herd people out as the museum closed at 5. I headed out and back to the train station.
It was from there I got horribly lost.
Exiting on the wrong side of the street from the subway station, it was already dark and I couldn't figure out which direction I had gone. I was confused. I wandered up and down several roads in the cold, crossing streets and pedestrian overpasses that were slippery with snow, trying to figure out where I was from the subways and my hotel street. There weren't a lot of people and it was cold. There were intimidating soldiers on every other corner but I was a bit afraid to approach them. My Google map app wasn't making sense, the compass was off and my battery was dying fast. I was lost but strangely not upset by it. Snow had started to fall lightly under the glowing orange lights and I felt calm and stopped a second to enjoy the beauty of it. At one point, I stopped walking and immersed myself in the silence and solace of the empty street listening to the distant hum of cars and I was inspired by the beauty around me.
After a time, I traced my way back to the station. Outside of the entrance, a couple of bike taxis were at the entrance. I had avoided these in China for the most part because they looked suspicious, they have no meter and I rarely see locals taking them. But I was cold and tired and desperate. They asked me in chinese where I was going and I pulled up the address on my phone and told them in Chinese I didn't know where I was and if they knew where the street was. I was really hoping they would just point me in the direction but the guy driver said he could get me there and he knew where it was. The ride lasted 10 minutes which should not have been considering it took me about 15 minutes to walk there. I slowly realized I was being tricked. He dropped me off by an alley way that looked like my destination so I thanked him at first not recognizing the street. I asked him how much and he said 180 yuan. I looked at him incredulously. I yelled at him that was too much money in chinese and that a taxi would've cost less. I had been holding out the money prepared to pay him before he gave me the price and he snatched the 100 out of my hand and tried to take an extra 10 from the wallet I was holding. I told him no and he yelled at me and I just kept saying "No! Too much money!" in Chinese which strangely enough I had just learned not too long ago from an audio lesson. He waved me off huffing and annoyed and rode back. I was now out 100 and when I looked around, I was lost. I pulled up my phone and of course....battery dead. It was now going on 7pm and I was heading into being lost for about 2 hours. Where I was, there were only a couple of restaurants but most of the shops were closed and the rode was mostly deserted.
I wandered up and down the street for a second and walked into a lobby and asked 2 guys working there if I could charge my phone and that I was lost. I pulled out my cord gesturing. One of them knew very little english but enough to get my meaning. They plugged it in for me behind the counter and I thanked them and apologized. I pulled the gloves off my cold, red, stiff hands and proceeded to rub them together. I was still trying to process what happened.
I will say this, looking back in hindsight, I realized the absolute danger I could've been in between being swindled in a dark alleyway refusing to pay money on a street with little to no witnesses. But even when I got lost or confused in China, I never felt unsafe more than I did annoyed. Generally, people only tried to swindle you because they figured you were a tourist and rich and stupid. I had managed to get out of people taking advantage by actually knowing a bit of mandarin enough to make people not really get too carried away. It had failed in this case but I didn't feel in danger even when the driver was close and flailing his arms yelling at me. And truthfully, I was quite low on money when I got to Beijing having booked 2 tours and it being my last holiday adventure. It was important that I budgeted. But I digress.
I sat in the lobby for about 15 minutes. I didn't want to inconvenience anyone and I just wanted enough of a charge to look up the local subway station to get back home, having no idea how far I was. I was out 100 yuan so a taxi was no longer an option. While I waited, the desk clerk saw how cold I was. He brought down a cup of hot water and a small metal cup of sweetened popcorn. I thanked him and we tried failingly to have a conversation. After sometime, my phone finally had some juice. I showed him the address to my hotel and asked about a train station. Every ounce of mandarin I had learned had become essential on this day along. He instructed me where to go. My understanding wasn't perfect but I had some idea of what he was saying, enough to get the general direction. From there, I figured, while on my way I would double check with someone. The battery was about 20 percent. I walked where he told me to till I got to a huge intersection. I was pretty sure he had instructed me to go left down a certain street which I saw ahead of me. I double checked this with a mother and son on the same corner and I had been right. They were actually heading the same way. I got to the station without fail. Once back, I took the opposite exit than I had the first time. The exit looked just like the other one but the street looked more familiar. I remember it was a straight walk to the station from the hotel, there were no turns. I finally made it back to my hotel, at around 9pm. I had grabbed some Mcdonalds to go and sat down miserably cold, 100 yuan poorer, hungry and tired.
I couldn't wait for this trip to end yet I couldn't wait for my first tour tomorrow to put something light and jovial in this whole ordeal.
No comments:
Post a Comment