Our last day in mainland China arrived and we went down and met Ian for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. We got our private room again and were served our bread, yogurt, and fried egg. Sally did not show up and I gave my yogurt to Anne, so Ian took Sally's yogurt. Ian wanted to save his extra yogurt for later but our waitress was standing by the door watching us. When she turned to look out the door Ian stuffed the extra yogurt into his backpack in a lesss than smooth and graceful manner and we all started laughing and couldn't stop. As we headed out of the restaurant, the head waitress stopped Ian and we thought he was busted. However, they just wanted him to sign the bill. We tried, again, to get in touch with our local guide without success.

At 10:00 a.m. we met Debbie in the lobby and I explained our airline ticket problem. Debbie went over to the front desk and they directed her to the travel desk. Debbie spoke at some length to the women at the travel desk. I lost the conversation after the initial "Ni how" (Hello) and did not pick it back up until the "shi shi" (thank you) at the end. The gist of the conversation was that the travel desk only handled Air China, and we were supposed to be on Dragon Air. So, they directed us to the central travel center and we caught a ¥1.20 cab. Taxis cost ¥10 for the first kilometer and then the rate posted on the rear-side window for each additional kilometer. In Beijing that is either ¥1.20 or ¥1.60 depending on the condition of the cab.

We arrived at the central travel center and Debbie spoke to the Air China Duty Manager and asked where Dragon Air was located. Debbie was told that this center only handled domestic airlines and that Hong Kong -- home of Dragon Air -- was considered international. It appeared that finding a Dragon Air representative on a Sunday was going to be a real challenge. So, we asked if Air China had flights to Hong Kong and were told that they did. So, we were directed to a desk and Debbie explained what we needed and we got tickets on the 7:50 a.m. flight. It was not even 11:00 a.m. and we were all set. I suspect that without Debbie's assistance we would have wasted most of our only free day in Beijing, and maybe I would still be wondering the streets.

Armed with our tickets, and a new optimism that we might actually get to leave China, we headed for the Summer Palace. It took us about 45 minutes to arrive, as we hit an unexpected amount of traffic for a Sunday morning. We bought some bottles of frozen water on the way in, an oddity that becan appearing when we arrived in Beijing. The bottles contained a large chunk of ice, the advantage being that it would stay cold as you carried it about on a hot day. The disadvantage was that you could not drink the whole thing at your convenience because it took the ice a while to melt.

Once inside we decided we would walk around for a couple of hours and leave by 2:00 p.m. The Summer Palace is comprised of a number of buildings that surround a small lake. There are paddle boats and vaguely motorized boats for rent. However, it looked pretty hot and sunny and we decided not to go out on the lake and get burned.

We walked to the right and saw the world's longest hallway. The hallway, which is outdoors, is covered with a heavily painted roof but had no walls. For a small fee we climbed up to one of the main buildings that sits on top of a hill overlooking the lake. If not for the haze, it would have been an excellent view.

On the way out we stopped by the marble ship. Yeah, an entire pleasure barge carved out of marble. Needless to say, it did not float on the water so much as it sat there. In between lagre groups of tourists we managed to get a picture of us in front of the barge. Because this was close to the berth for the dragon ships that take tourists around the lake, there were a ton of people there.

It was nearing 2:00 p.m so we made a pit-stop at the bathrooms near the exit. While I was waiting for Anne and Debbie, a young Chinese woman approached me and asked if I would be in a picture with her. I had heard of this happening, but had never experienced it first hand. After getting a picture with me, Anne came out and she got a picture with Anne as well.

We caught a cab and headed over toward the Silk Market. We were headed to a Thia restaurant that Debbie frequents. On the way we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe so that I could get a T-shirt. We arrived at the restaurant, which was quite full, and noticed that most of the patrons were foreigners. Apparently, this is more of a tourist section of the city.

We ordered food and called the CD/DVD lady to come over. She brought over a couple of bags and I perused the DVDs while Anne checked out the CDs. This was nice because we could spread the disks out on the table. One of the real problems with dealing with the CD/DVD hawkers on the street is that it is difficult to check out the merchandise. Also, because Debbie comes here often, we did not have to haggle over the price. It was ¥5 ($0.60) for CDs and ¥8 ($1) for DVDs. In Yangshuo CDs were ¥10 (special discount for us from ¥15), and one of the people in the other party had gotten DVDs for ¥20 each.

After lunch we walked over to the Silk Market. The restaurant was on a street called Bar Street. It was so named because of all of the outdoor bars and cafes. These were frequented mostly by foreigners and ex-pats. All along this road we were assailed by people selling CDs, DVDs, and VCDs. The joke in China is "How do you say 'Hello' in Chinese?" Answer: "CD, DVD, VCD?"

We arrived at the Silk Market and Anne went off in search of some Tiva sandles, similar to ones she saw in YiChang for ¥108 ($13.50). She was also looking for clothing in general andmaybe a mahjong set. I was on the lookout for a money buddah, carved warriors, and a large suitcase to get my booty back to the US.

We found North Face bags with wheels, starting at ¥180 ($22.50) and going up to ¥280 ($35) and eventually ¥380 ($47.50). I eventually found a bag that I liked for ¥85 ($10.60). I also found a nice money buddah for ¥50 ($6.25), which started at ¥150-200.

Our next stop was at the Friendship store. These are run by the government and thus you can believe what they tell you, but they are often expensive and unwilling to bargain. I didn't spend too long there because of the prices. Instead, I headed over to the attached supermarket. I found some chocolate-covered lemon cake and a 2L bottle of water. I went to check out and found out that the water was imported from Japan and cost $10. So, I got some nice Chinese water instead.

We walked across the road and Debbie found a place that sold dumplings. We needed some food for our final dinner, so anne got 10 for ¥3. We got a taxi back to the hotel and I gave Debbie the magazines that I had brought over for her. Apparently, western fashion magazines are prohibitively expensive, and usually about 3-4 months old, in China.

At 8:00 p.m. we headed over to Ian's room for our final group meal. I gave Ian my last box of chewy granola bars -- he likes imported food and had enjoyed the one bar I had given him on the Yangtse cruise. We had planned to check out the pictures on Ian's digital camera. However, in an attempt to get portrait pictures to show up on a landscape-oriented TV, Ian had selected "format," which format his disk. Ooops.

So, we ate our food and talked until about 10:00 p.m. when I decided to get back, pack, and get to sleep. We had to get up at 4:00 a.m. in order to get to the airport in time for our 7:50 a.m. flight. I went through all of my stuff and dumped most of it into my new North Face bag. Then, I took everything I needed with me and put it in my camera bag as my sole carry-on. By 11:00 p.m. I was all packed and ready to go.

< Previous | Next >