Ana... wala pa dito sa mga western hotel yung gimmick sa lights.... i
don't
think i even saw that in Hong Kong.... It really is an excellent idea
to save
energy.... I wonder if they have those in homes also...

We don’t need another hero…
June 16, 1999 (Wednesday)

Again, started waking up at 1 am and every hour after that… At 4 am ,
we
showered and prepared for the day ahead… This is a big day… we climb
the
Great Wall….Breakfast was at the Crystal Ballroom starting at 7 am…
same
fare, except today we had fried noodles and chop suey with breakfast….
Our
tour mates shared the same table happily recounting the adventures of
the
previous day… Many ventured out for dinner - Pizza Hut, Mc Donalds…
Brooke
and mom ate at the Italian restaurant in the hotel. The review is
service is
excellent, food was the best they’ve ever had but extremely expensive….

Met at 8am to go to the Great Wall….. Stopped at jade factory first,
(another
touristy place), we purchased a jade dragon (1040  yuan), our first
major
purchase of the trip… we have not really done any shopping, so the yuan
is
itching to get out… Dollar bills are accepted everywhere… On advice
from the
Internet, we brought $200 in dollar bills for ease in purchasing
smaller
items and tipping. At the bus, everyone compared purchases…..

Went to the Ming Tombs… First, we walked along the Spirit Way lined
with
stone scultptures and shade trees (a more than 2 mile walk), following
the
footsteps of royal mourners of the Ming Dynasty… It is said that, to
honor
his ancestors, even the emperor walked The Way and was not carried in
his
sedan . Then, we were bussed the rest of the way to one of the Ming
tombs…
This tomb has not been opened and is the first and largest of the 13
emperor
tombs in the area. The smallest one that they opened revealed millions
of
dollars of treasures in jades, silks, pearls, vases and other
artifacts…..The
complex had the same Ming architecture as the Forbidden City but now
everything is among flowers and trees and gardens….
 

Outside are many private vendor stalls selling everything from
porcelain, to
brushes, to quilts to Tshirts….. We had about 10 minutes to shop so we
decided we would buy a quilt… The price quoted was 180 yuan as
displayed on
the calculator…. ‘Good price, good price… how much you want… how much
you
want’’… After some flying of calculator keys back and forth…. We agreed
on
108 yuan… Rudy counted out the money, they wrapped the merchandise… In
the
created confusion, the lady dropped the money Rudy gave her and came up

brandishing 18 yuan instead of the 108 yuan he gave her, insinuating we
had
short paid her….. She insisted… we insisted… Then she changed her story
and
showed us the calculator with 118 yuan… meaning the quilt was really
118 yuan
and we still owe her 100… again, we insisted and she insisted… we
finally won
this argument…Lucky!!!  We wondered how many people were taken by this
ploy…
It is easy enough to be confused since your not very familiar with the
money….So my quilt, which now has a lovely story attached to it, costs
$13.50.

Lunch was at the Friendship Store (another government-owned facility).
Jessica says, lunch first then if we want shopping later. We enter
through
the store and all the sales clerks were lined up like statues behind
the
counter seemingly ready to pounce if you ever showed any interest in
any
item…Lunchroom was on the second floor. Again, cold items first,
followed by
hot items ( 6 or 7 dishes), soup (Hot Sour), and then fried rice, and
last,
watermelon...Again all these eaten in small saucers with chopsticks…
Everyone
is wondering why the rice and soup comes last….After lunch, we went
down to
the store for some shopping… We only had a few minutes to look around
(about
15 minutes).. Rudy and I quickly walked through the store… Looked at
linens
(too expensive), Chinese dress for Brooke (no size). Purchased hand
calligraphy scroll (Happiness), and calligraphy brushes. Only flat 10%
discount in government owned facilities… not much haggling….

We are now off to the most important part of our trip, the Great Wall
of
China…… We drive on a modern expressway (3 years old) and start
catching
glimpses of the wall here and there hugging the top of the
mountains….We are
visiting the Great Wall in the Badaling area, where it is said to be
the best
preserved and the highest point. All 3000 miles of the wall are no
longer in
existence…. At Badaling, we are assaulted by more vendors…. There are 2

sections of the wall you can climb, an easy and a hard - we chose the
easy
side…. There is a saying that you cannot be a hero until you climb the
great
wall.  Nixon, Bush and Queen Elizabeth climbed this wall. Clinton opted
for a
cable car ride in another section of the wall. Typical, huh…. The climb
was
very steep, with vendors assaulting you along the way in every
section…At one
point,  you are almost walking perpendicular to the ramp… Pretty scary,
but
we saw all ages climbing the wall, girls in high heels, a number of our
tour
mates saw someone climbing backwards… I’m thinking… this is worst than
a
stress test, stairmaster exercise for 3 hours, treadmill on an incline
for a
whole day… I may have a heart attack any minute now. As always, I’m the
first
one leading the charge to climb…. Rudy finally said, he can’t go on any

farther cause it is getting too steep and scary… When I turned around,
I
realized how high we were and how bad the descent would be and I froze…
Now
how will we get down??? Our other tour mates have gone ahead to the top
so we
are on our own… We rested where we were and watched how other people
were
managing and followed… slowly and not looking down…. People were
overtaking
us and we didn’t care….

[Unable to display image]

We finally reached the bottom… Yeah!!… Immediately, we bought T shirts
that
proclaimed, ‘I Climbed the Great Wall’…($2 each) and one for Brooke,
which
for some reason cost more (must be the supply and demand thing)… We
walked by
the stalls (Hallo, hallo…lookee, lookee) …If your eyes even catches a
piece
of merchandise… watch out… they are all over you with the calculator
(How
much you want, how much you want)… I touched a miniature tea set and
the
vendor jumped from behind her counter, across all her wares, followed
us
around ... offering us a deal.... 240 yuan, 200 yuan, 160 yuan… I
finally
bought it for 80 yuan since she won’t leave us alone … and once they
see you
let go of the mighty yuan, every vendor is all over you…All this
shopping
took less than 5 minutes. . We finally, decided to wait at a coffee
shop
designated by the tour guide… I’m still not feeling up to par from the
climb
and suspect my blood pressure is sky high….We ordered water for me and
beer
for Rudy. As we settled down, the waitress started bringing merchandise
from
her store to us… We looked for a mahjong set and settled on one for
$30….
Then, she saw that my eyes were on some cloisonné maidens… That was it…
a
parade of cloisonné maidens came to our table. We gave in and bought
one for
300 yuan (original asking price was 480 yuan)…. The rest of the group
are
back from their climb… Some  went up both sides of the wall, the easy
and the
hard…. Imagine!!

On our way back to our hotel, we passed by a cloisonné factory… Very
expensive,,,, the maiden I bought at the wall cost 1750 yuan there with
only
10% discount… I liked a bowl with pandas, I saw it in white but thought
it
would look nice in blue… The store was very quiet with all the
salesclerks
behind the counter, again standing in attention… The minute I asked
about
another color… the whole place went scurrying around looking for just
the
right color… We ended up not buying anything…We were hot, tired and not

feeling good so we just waited for the others as they shopped…On the
bus
ride, we signed up for optional tours. We decided to keep Friday clear
with
no tours so we would have time to do things on our own. We also ordered
two
chops (seals carved out of jade) through Jessica ($15 each), one says
JOJO
the other TAN, in English and Chinese character.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we freshened up and went for dinner… We
decided
to find a place on Dongdanbei Dajie, to the right of our hotel. We went

through an alley…. Where folks were cooking dumplings, rice, soup, etc…
We
didn’t think we should risk eating street food… so we looked for a
restaurant, we spotted one which seems crowded with Chinese… This
should be
okay… we held out 2 fingers to say two… they said to go in. We didn’t
find
any empty tables… The hostess unfolded a table and 2 chairs and told us
to
sit there… Gave us a menu (some English) we pointed at the items we
liked…
she made sure that was what we wanted by showing us the Chinese
characters..
Jessica said the Chinese from different regions do not understand each
other
orally, but can read the same characters… The written word is the same
throughout China…. So, by showing us the characters, we were assuring
her we
knew what we ordered… First came the cold dish (soft cellophane
noodles, with
pork and cilantro, and eggs), then the sweet and sour spare ribs, then
the
fried breaded salmon, and cabbage in special sauce (the best!!!),
lastly, the
rice…. Tea was very herbal… tasted like sandalwood…. Again, small
saucers and
chopsticks. What we ordered could feed 10 people…. We successfully
asked for
the check and said no to take home…This whole meal transpired with
almost no
oral communication . On our way back to the hotel, we met Dave and Dena
who
decided on Italian (Pizza Hut). Our room has been turned down, this
time we
had fresh flowers in a vase, we showered and went to bed.  Today, we
walked
almost 9 miles….