I asked about the bathing suit factory the family owns. The son said there are about 100 people that work there. It sounds like a small factory by Chinese standards.
It was kind of awkward when a English tutor came in this morning to teach the son some English. The son has a private teacher, the daughter goes to a English school once in a while; I seem like dead weight in the house!
I bought a coat ($13), hat ($1), and gloves ($3) today from the local supermarket today. It is getting colder and colder so I need to have something clothing to keep me alive outside, but still something I can throw away when I go someplace warmer. I think pretty good prices for brand new stuff?
I’ve been using text messaging quite a bit on my phone. Kind of slow to type in English though. I was able to try the Chinese input today and noticed it was really fast and efficient. You do one letter at a time and it suggests characters for you. Like an AutoComplete on the computer. However, I don’t know many words so it isn’t really useful for me. Maybe that’s one a big reason why text messaging is so popular in Asian countries over talking.
I started my group Chinese classes this week. Right now group means me and a 28 year old guy from Spain. He seems a lot farther ahead than me since he had 5 weeks of classes, 5 hours per day here in Beijing before this week. My schedule is 9:00AM – 12:00, Monday through Friday.
Before I started at 9:30AM and there is sure a difference on the subway. The platform was track-to-track people. I’ve never seen station so crowded or a subway train so crowded. People like up next to the doors, when a train comes, the mass of people pushes and squeezes as many people in as possible and still not everyone can get on. So you have to wait for the next train. The problem is my class is in the central business district and it starts at 9AM, the same time many people start their jobs. So after you get pushed on the train and squeezed, you get pushed out at every stop because tons of people are getting off. You step out of the way and get back on after those people leave.
On Tuesday I avoided the worst of this by walking part of the way and skipping part of the business district. It was actually faster to walk than to take that part of the subway. The temperatures are dropping to near freezing now. I have a wool sweater, but still need to get a hat and gloves and maybe a coat.
I went to a birthday party on Monday with the people I met at the concert. I bought a birthday cake and brought it to make it unique. Usually Chinese don’t eat cake for birthdays or open presents in front of other people.
I got a new Chinese Visa this week. I think expensive at $270, but it allows me to stay in China until April 29, 2008 if I wanted, including leaving the country twice. This increases some of the options I have on what I can do. Maybe I can come back to China next year for a little next year to travel?
This morning, the mother brought out some crabs for breakfast and said they cost 100 Yuan each ($13). I notice the scar on my thumb from the last time I ate one, but tried anyway. A few minutes later she asks me to read to her daughter this afternoon. It seems like this is an indirect way of saying you eat for teaching here.
Today it was sort of a long trip out to a park where thousands of Beijingers go every autumn to see the colors on the trees. However, this isn’t anything too special too me. In Michigan, you just look out the window and see it all day long. It seemed like there were just a few trees with colored leaves though. It seemed like most of the trees are still green or others have no leaves. Also there is the Temple of Azure Clouds which was pretty neat. There were long lines and a lot of pushing and shoving to get on the bus back home. But that’s expected in China.
Keeping up with my sightseeing marathon, I visited one of the other major attractions in China, the Forbidden City, otherwise known as The Palace Museum. This is the place where the emperors lived for a few hundred years and the country was governed. I wanted to go on a weekday, but ended up going on a Saturday since the sky was clear and blue. Some parts were crowded, but it was so big, the thousands of people there spread out and it wasn’t too bad.
At home, the family has been more demanding of my English help. I have to help until 11:30PM every night now, it seems. I wish there was at least 8 hours of quiet time in the house or room at night. But it seems they go to sleep late and get up early.
I left early today to go the Badaling section of the Great Wall, which is different from the place I went before. I went to the tour bus station again and left at 8:30AM or so. First stop was a rundown amusement park where they said we have an hour and a half to stay. This is the recommended, official tour from Beijing and even they are resorting to these scam type operations. Such a waste of valuable time that could be spent in more important places.
Second stop was the Ming Tombs. There we had lunch which was included with the tour. I was able to go 5 stories underground into the tomb of one of the Ming emperors (named Wanli). I noticed my Sony Music Player was missing. In the panic, I set my camera down and started searching through my backpack. Then I walked away leaving my camera behind on a table. Luckily after a couple minutes I got back there and it was still there. I feel bad about that mistake. Things were quickly going downhill for a few minutes. I later found my music player on my seat in tour bus, so I didn’t lose anything today after all.
The 3rd and final stop was the Great Wall of China. The Badaling section is the most popular and crowded. I figured I should go to compare to the other section of the wall I saw. There were a lot more people and vendors on the wall selling stuff. The number of people up there selling things kind of ruined the whole experience while they bothered me. I guess I’m used to it now, but I had one guy running after me and another blocking my way on the wall. I only had 2 hours to see the wall. When it was nearing time to go back to the bus, I was at the top of the wall and I didn’t know the fastest way back. I could walk down one direction, but I wasn’t sure if I could exit that way. Then I bought a ticket for a cable-car, but it was the wrong cable car. It went down the wrong side of the mountain! I realized this before I stepped on the car, but still a waste of money and time doing that. My next option was going down the correct cable-car (or actually more like a roller coaster). There was a line up and I was 6-7 minutes late for the bus. But someone else was 15 minutes late, so I wasn’t the one holding back the bus.
I make some mistakes today, but I made it back home a little after 7PM and everything is still okay.
I got a mobile phone today. Well, actually I’m borrowing one of the family’s old phones, a Nokia 7260. However I did have to buy a SIM card for $20 ($15 for the card plus $5 of prepaid time). It works out to 3 cents per minute for local calls using the prepaid credit. Text messaging is 1.3 cents per message. Phone number is +86 135-2113-9009.
There is heat in the building now, so not quite freezing all day long. I don’t have a private bedroom anymore. The son in the family is now sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the room. So I get to enjoy his 6AM alarm clock everyday now.
I visited a place called 798 Art Zone. It is a strange old communist style factory area converted into art galleries. I felt like I was walking around the computer game Half-life 2. There were above ground steam pipes and in certain areas see water and steam coming out. A train pushing a car of coal to a power station I think.
Today I visited Yonghe Temple and the next door Confucius Temple. The Yonghe one was almost like an art museum since there was so much to see there. The Confucius one was more like a museum where I could learn about the life of Confucius and his legacy. Too bad I mostly have photos of the outside of buildings since there are signs that say no photos inside.
Then I met up again with the people I met at the concert a couple weeks ago. We exchanged some photos and music and things like that. I got invited to a birthday dinner next Monday too.
Today is a rest day at the house. It has been quite cold lately in and outside. The boilers aren’t running yet, so there is no eat inside the building. At the same time, the family opens up some of the windows during the day even though the high temp is in the mid-50’s Fahrenheit. I guess I’m used to being cold indoors because it is just like being home in White Lake in the winter! I am wearing most of my clothes in layers almost every day.
I bought some ice cream from the supermarket. I wanted to have the family try it since it doesn’t seem like something they eat a lot. I haven’t been able to get anyone to taste it yet, but we’ll see. I noticed there is no sugar in the cooking nor sweet desserts at any meals here. Maybe I don’t have to worry about going to the dentist while I’m here, at least!
By the way, I’m now 13 hours ahead of Detroit time since there is no Daylight Savings Time in China.
I was planning on visiting the Eastern Qing Tombs today, but after waking up early and rushing to the sight seeing bus station, I found out the last bus ran last week for that location. It sounds like it is a summer only thing and the low season officially starts November 1. Kind of disappointing, but I can still go if I can find maybe two other people who want to go and use a Taxi.
The only other place the buses are running is the Great Wall of China. It was an especially clear day so I decided to make the best of it and go. Since it was Saturday, I didn’t want to go to the main tourist area of the wall, but opted to go to the less traveled, but really far away Simatai area.
The bus ride was over 3 hours. When we arrived, I was told we have to be back to the bus in three hours. See the entire Great Wall of China in 3 hours? I’ll give it my best try! So most of the time I was out of breath going up and down these mountains. The wall at Simatai is built on an especially high mountain, so the views are great, but it sure is exhausting. Overall, it was a really good day to go. The weather was excellent and there were not many other people there.
I was walking on the wall for nearly an hour and I asked some other tourists how far you can go this way, and they said you can keep going for 10km. They came from the other end and were walking for 3 hours so far. It would take a lifetime to see the entire Great Wall since it is thousands of miles long, scattered throughout the entire north end of the country.
The Simatai wall is nice because most of it is unrestored, which I think is more interesting. You can see areas where the bricks are crumbling away. I think I got a good feel for the wall, even though it was rushed.