BEIJING

I've been meaning to write a post about my recent trip to Beijing, but the task seemed pretty daunting and I don't really know where to start with my story. I'll do my best...

Last weekend I went on a 4 day trip to Beijing with my host mom and host sister. I was fortunate to be allowed to take Friday and Monday off from school for this trip. The idea for this trip originated when I told my host mom a while ago that I've always wanted to go to the Great Wall, and that I hoped I would be able to go while I was in Korea. She had mentioned that she had always wanted to go to, and the next thing you know we were looking at tour packages online. If it were up to me, I would have never chosen to go on a group tour, let alone a Korean group tour, but she was willing to do the work, and the price was very cheap. She took care of booking a tour that included going to the Great Wall of China. I was a little bit wary about going on a tour that would be given in Korean, with a bunch of other Koreans, but I figured it would be an interesting experience. I also found out after we made our tour plans that the reason the tour was so cheap was because it was one of those time share-type deals where you have to listen to people sell you things for part of the trip. But again, I figured it might be entertaining.

I definitely got what I asked for out of the trip. At the very least, I have some interesting stories. I would say about 75% of the trip was really good and it was a great opportunity to bond with my host family and to see some incredible and historic sites. 25% of the trip was hell and I wanted to rip my hair out or run away with one of the many groups of white English-speakers that I saw.

Before I tell you about what we actually did on the tour (because we did A LOT), let me describe to you some of the people in my Korean tour group. First there was an old woman, who I was told was over 80 years old. It turns out she owns a big building in the most popular shopping district in Seoul...so needless to say, she was loaded. She was the only one to buy something at every shady tourist trap they took us to (and not cheap things). She also flew first class by herself there and back. Then there was a man who wore a light gray tracksuit and purple tinted glasses the entire time, who was the spitting imagine of Kim Jung Il. I tried to get a picture of him inconspicuously, but without any success. The most interesting member of our tour group happened (unfortunately) to be my bus partner. She was a middle-aged Korean woman who weighed about 90lbs and had a short manly haircut. From the moment I saw her I knew she wasn't normal. She was traveling alone, which was unusual. She never smiled and had big dark sunglasses on in the airport. She never took her big dark sunglasses off the entire trip, even though it was cloudy and foggy the entire time. She even wore them at night on the bus. She also liked to randomly punch me or grab my shoulder and say something to me in Korean, and then proceeded to stare at me intently like she actually expected me to answer her. She seemed miserable the entire trip, minus a brief break in character where she bought me a sweet potato from the side of the road.
The other people on the tour were all very kind, and enjoyed using the few English phrases they knew on me.

Now let me give you a rundown of my schedule during the 4 day trip. I'm pretty sure that this trip was the busiest 4 days of my entire life. Everyday we got up at 5:30 am for breakfast and didn't return home to our hotel until 9:30 at night. Here was my itinerary for the trip:
FRIDAY:
1. Chinese shopping district modeled after a traditional shopping street
2. Tianenmen Square- My favorite part of the trip. It was really surreal being there and incredible to see such an iconic building in person.
3. Walk through the Forbidden City- Also surreal. The city is gigantic and the buildings are beautiful.
4. Homeless people- There are many many homeless people and beggars around the touristy areas in Beijing. If there is one word I could use to describe the people of Beijing, it would be "shady". I was a little afraid of some of these beggars because they were pretty aggressive. However, at one point during our touring, a little boy who was only about 4 or 5 years old and covered in dirt came up to me and started pulling on my sweater and asking for money. It was one of the sadder things I've seen in life and I'm still upset about it now. I didn't give him any money because I knew it would go to whoever was making him do it, but I felt horrible afterwards. I wanted to bring him home with me.
5. Wangfujing- Upscale shopping area. Behind the expensive stores there was a traditional market area. We were told by our tour guide that the market was famous for the weird food they sold, such as scorpions. When my host mom told me this, I immediately wanted to go and try them. I really enjoy trying weird food, just so that I'm able to say, "One time I ate __(insert weird food name here)__." We found the food stands with scorpions and sea horses for sale. The scorpions were impaled on skewers and were all still moving. Luckily, the men cooked the scorpions on a grill and put some spicy powder on them. I was able to talk my host mom into trying them with me, and surprisingly they weren't horrible. I almost bought a sea horse too, but they're too cute and I felt like I would be sent to hell for eating one.
6. Chinese circus- The last tourist stop of our day was at a very ghetto and very shady Chinese Circus. It was very obviously a tourist trap. I'm pretty sure the children in the show are forced into labor, and I would also aim to guess that the music for the show was played on a shotty CD player backstage. At least the kids were actually good at what they did though.
7. Hotel- One of the better aspects of the tour was that we were able to stay in a 5 star hotel. I shared a room with my host family which I think ended up being a good bonding experience. The hotel room was beautiful and we had a real shower, comfortable beds, and CNN. We also had American breakfast that I was thrilled with, but the Koreans were upset about. I secretly got some satisfaction that the tables had been turned on my host family for that brief instance.

SATURDAY
1. Empress's Garden- Early in the morning we went to a garden that was built by an Empress when she ruled over China. The garden was eerily beautiful since the morning fog was there and the garden was built around a giant man-made pond. One thing to mention about this trip, specifically at these gardens, is that I was constantly being asked/forced to be in pictures with complete strangers. This has happened once or twice in Korea, but it happened at least six or seven times on my trip. It was kind of surprising since there were foreigners everywhere, but I just chalked it up to the fact that most of the foreigners were old and ex-hippies which mean they aren't looking too hot nowadays. Normally I don't mind the attention, and I usually think its pretty funny. However, I think it may have freaked out my host mom and sister, as well as the other Koreans in my group a little.
2. Pillow shop- The first shady place that they took us to was a place that sells Latex pillows and mattresses. As per usual, I didn't understand what my host mom meant when she said we were going to the Latex shopping center. What ended up happening was that they led us through the pillow factory into a tiny room where they tried to sell us Latex pillows and mattresses for 20 minutes in Korean. I fell asleep right away (Sidenote: I took about 30 naps throughout the trip. Every time we got back on the bus I fell asleep.)
3. Rickshaw Ride- The next stop on the tour was to experience a ride in a Chinese rickshaw. We got off the bus and were led down a sketchy side alley where we were met by a bunch of run-down, toothless men with rickshaws that were attached to broken bikes. Since I was the third wheel in my family the whole trip, I had to sit in my own rickshaw. We rode around in a line through the back streets of Beijing for about an hour. Never in my life have I felt like a bigger douche-bag. I was sitting with a blanket on my lap with my nice winter coat on and my Nikon around my neck while we were riding past people who lived in the tiniest of houses (some of which could have been described as garages) all of which were fallen apart. I wish I could've gotten better pictures of the area, because I have never seen anything like it before. It was very sad. I kept thinking that if I took one of these people to the US and showed them my house, they would have a heart attack. I'm slowly learning just how fortunate I have been in life.
4. Lunch at a restaurant owned by North Koreans
5. Art Show
6. Tried to be sold Chinese medicine
7. Sacrificial Temple- Beautiful, like every other temple I've been to.
8. Chinese Ballet- One of my other favorite parts of the trip. Unlike the circus, this was a real performance with amazing special effects and at one point, a real waterfall flowing down the entire stage. It was a combination of ballet, modern dance, and acrobatics and it told an ancient Chinese legend about a Queen and King who fell in love. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful.
9. Chinese food dinner- The only Chinese food we ate the entire time :(
10. The Place- Before going to bed, we stopped at a shopping area called "The Place". The interesting thing about this place was the gigantic IMAX-like TV screen that was hanging from the ceiling outside. I've never seen anything like it.

SUNDAY:
1. Boat tour of the mountains- We drove about an hour and a half to a deserted tourist village in the mountains where we ended up taking a boat ride on a peaceful river through the mountains. It was very serene and extremely cold. It was nice to see another side of Beijing besides the inner city, very busy touristy areas.
2. The Great Wall- This was the best part and the biggest disappointment of the trip. The whole reason the idea for the trip even came up was because I had said I wanted to go to the Great Wall. We ended up going and the Wall itself was incredible, but we were only allowed to spend 30 minutes there. It was barely enough time to walk up and back on one small portion of the Wall. I was very disappointed and almost cried when they made me leave. I definitely need to go back there at some point in my life and hike along the wall for a day.
3-6. Many hours of being sold shit- It was at this point in the trip that I lost my patience and was absolutely miserable. Besides being tired and having spent 3 days with a bunch of Koreans, I then had to sit through about 6 hours of people trying to sell me things I don't want or need in Korean. I think it was the worst I've felt since leaving the US, and I got very homesick. Luckily, as per usual, it only lasted a short while, and I felt much better by the end of the night.
7. Foot massage- The final stop of our Korean tour of Beijing was a massage parlor that I think is specifically geared towards tourist groups. The whole placed looked kind of dirty, but once again I figured it would be interesting so I went along with it. We ended up getting pretty good foot massages...unfortunately, mine was given to me by a guy who was probably not much older than me who I'm pretty sure has never touched a young white female. He looked absolutely scared/excited out of his mind. He smiled at me creepily the entire time and apparently told my host mom that his heart was beating fast when he massaged my leg. Super creepy...but maybe he'll always remember that young white girl with the old Korean men and women who he got touch.

That was my Korean tour. My overall perception of Beijing was that it was foggy, overcrowded, beautiful, shady, polluted, and the most foreign place I have ever been to. My friends here have a joke that South Korea is the opposite of Jamaica...I'm not really sure how it came about, but I definitely agreed. However, I've since learned that Beijing is the TRUE opposite of Jamaica.

So would I ever go on a group tour ever again? Hell no...especially not a Korean group tour. While it was nice not having to worry about transportation or how to get anywhere or what to see, and it was also nice being able to see so many things in such a short amount of time, it was not worth it. 99% of the time I had no idea what was going on or where we were going to next, since the itinerary changed constantly. My host mom's explanations of things usually only confused me more. One of my least favorite part was only being allowed 30 minutes in almost every place we went to. My favorite part about traveling is being able to take pictures, and on this trip I was constantly being rushed everywhere and running to catch up with the group, which was not conducive for picture taking. I also only ate Chinese food once (shitty Chinese food) the whole time we were in China which was disappointing.

Someone once told that all you have at the end of life are your stories, so at the very least I can say I've gained some good stories from this experience. My host mom is already talking about our next trip together in the spring, so let's hope I can talk my way out of a Korean tour of wherever we go to.

*I'll post my pictures very soon!