I want to apologize for not being better about updating my stories online. This past week was extremely crazy considering it was my first real week of teaching, but I managed to survive and I have never been so excited about the start of a weekend before! It was nice to have two days that I didn’t have to sing nursery rhymes and dance to tunes like the Hokey Pokey. I was able to get out on the streets of Beijing a put all that good Chinese to use! I had so much fun doing so, it is already Sunday night. Here is what happened!
Saturday Morning started early. The plan was to go hiking with Kevin, his mentor and a couple of his friends. The plan changed a little bit on Friday night when Kevin apparently lost his job which was teaching English, and all of the sudden didn’t feel like going with us. I didn’t want to not go however, because this mentor who goes by the English name of Neo, was giving me the opportunity to see some sights on my day off. He lives on the Northwest side of Beijing and I live on the Southeast side of Beijing, so it wasn’t exactly easy getting together with him. We decided we were going to hike Badachu. I know I know, this is Chinese and doesn’t help you. The real translation is the 8 Temples Park. Basically it is a mountain well in 110 degree heat it felt like a mountain, but it is really more of a hill. Anyways, this hill has 8 temples on it all along different stages of the hike. You can go into each one and pray, offer gifts or just be a tourist and look around as I did. Badachu sits on the outside of Beijing on the West side, about a 2 hour trip by public transportation. So I left on my adventure at 7am, catching the local bus to the subway, then taking the subway to the farthest point west where Neo was suppose to pick me up at 9am. Of course things went better then expected and I arrived at Pingguoyuan, or Apple garden station at 8:15. What did this mean……..45mins given to the locals to haggle me with their products and services. They all wanted to know where I wanted to go. I told them in my best Chinese, I didn’t need help. I was waiting for my friend and then we were going hiking. They obviously didn’t think that was a good enough answer because they proceeded to want to know where, when, why and how they could help. I quickly searched for a small little brick in the corner so that I could escape and read my tourist book while I waited for Neo. I actually made it a good 30 minutes without anyone bothering me. Then some old lady came over and ruined the record because her stare created about 20 more stares. I just looked up from the book, asked if I could help any of them. They laughed, told their friends that I couldn’t understand them, so I surprised them with a few fun phrases. This wasn’t exactly the greatest idea because then they had 5 million questions. Where do you come from? how long are you here?….blah blah blah. I forgot that the Chinese have almost absolutely nothing to do on the weekends and they are nosey! Thank God it was time for my cell phone to ring and for Neo to be around the corner waiting so I didn’t have to entertain them very long.
After Neo rescued me we headed to the park. We parked the car, paid our entrance fee and then started hiking. It was an old Emperor’s playground so everything was all stone paths and stairs. Nothing like the hiking trails in the U.S. Thankfully there is something to be said about the U.S. not having too many people die from building staircases up the sides of mountains yet. Anyways after about 90mins we reached the top temple. The view kind of stunk because of all the pollution, but it was nice to be in a different area of the city. (Check out my photo gallery called Badachu.) Neo was very knowledgeable and gave me the whole story as we climbed. We took our time coming down as we stopped at each of the temples along the way. Unfortunately my camera died because I forgot to charge it, so I didn’t get any photos of the temples, but just imagine a big fat Buddha surrounded by fruits and other offerings and you pretty much have what I saw in your head. I have nothing against the Buddha, they just all look the same after awhile, and they are ugly.
We eventually ended our hike, since the temperature was nearing 110 degrees so we decided it was time for lunch. Neo took me to a very, and I mean very traditional Chinese restaurant. He was going to take me to have Peking Duck, but the restaurant was very crowded and I told him that it was unnecessary for us to wait. The place we went was packed. Basically it was the local joint. I wanted a bowl of noodles and that was all. However the Chinese don’t believe in just ordering one dish per person. You have to get many dishes to try. Whatever, and after 5 dishes were ordered, Neo and I got some water to re-hydrate. At this point in the story, I had the most disgusting moment of my life. A guy sitting opposite to us, pretty much at the same table, ordered chicken drumsticks or something on the bone. However, eating the meat on the bones wasn’t enough, the guy had to take a straw that he was given and suck out all of the juices and who knows what else, in the bones. Neo told me they do it to keep viruses from getting into their bodies. Bullshit, that nasty stuff they were sucking would be the first thing to give you a virus……Nasty. I had pretty much lost any thoughts of being hungry at this point. However the food came and I couldn’t disappoint Neo with my lack of enthusiasm for the lunch he had taken the time to order. My bowl of noodles was enough to feed 3 people. The most Chinese part of the entire meal however was the price. The entire meal cost about $5. I forgot how cheap China really was. The best part was the food was very good, and I saluted Neo on his good choice.
After lunch Neo took me home where I enjoyed a 45 min car ride of Chinese conversation. He drove me through some very neat areas so I could get a better idea of where I was in relation to all the sights. I only almost died about 3 times…..Neo just got his license and is probably one of the worst drivers I have ever had to ride with. Next time I will be sure to take the Subway home too! It also doesn’t help that most Chinese drivers are crazy and pretty much any law can be broken at anytime. This means that if you are a pedestrian, even though the cross walk says it is your turn to go, doesn’t eliminate the fact that you might be run over by the passing car while you are in the middle of it. There is no Right of Way!
Like I said.....It is always an adventure in China!
