First Day in China

 

After a long, grueling trip that saw us flying over Canada, then Alaska, the Pacific Ocean, Russia and finally on to China, a trek that lasted somewhere between 11 and 12 hours (somewhere along the way, I lost count), we were met by the expected unexpected – long lines at every post as we attempted to make our way through the airport in Beijing, lots of noise, smoke, foreign languages (to us at least) and an overall culture shock that has to be experienced to be completely understood. What seemed like complete and utter confusion was cleared away by the appearance of our guide and soon-to-be good friend, Li Liping, or “Lili” for short, who soon thereafter whisked us away on a tour bus that proved to be an escape from the onslaught of heat and smog that met us as we left the confines of Beijing Airport. We made our first trip to a temple, the Temple of Heaven, which was simply awesome as a first visit.
Walking around this gorgeous temple made the jet lag and exhaustion disappear for a while as we viewed the gorgeous creation and took pictures of sights unlike we had ever seen before. Frankly, it was hard to think of words to describe this temple. A huge temple stretching over several acres was simply awesome and seemed like an ideal way to start the trip. Incidentally, the trip also introduced us to vendors whom would clamor around us at many of our stops, doing their best to peddle the trinkets, Rolexes, postcards, roller skates, Gucci purses, kites and many other items off on us for various prices. Soon, we all learned how to bargain with these vendors, creating great deals for those who ventured into that segment of China’s tourism industry. 

 

After walking around and taking pictures for a while, we made our way back to the hotel where we were informed that we would be on our own for dinner that evening, something I wasn’t too fond of as I didn’t have any Yuan (the currency of China), didn’t have a roommate nor anyone I could turn to for company for the evening, and didn’t know where to go to grab a bite to eat. On top of that, I entered my hot hotel room and wasn’t able to figure out how to turn on the electricity until I called the front desk and was lucky enough to get in touch with someone who spoke English. Shortly thereafter, a maid came to my room and slipped a card into a slot near the door, which turned on the electricity, though the air conditioning in my room was and remained an issue as it did little to cool the stuffy room. I later received a phone call from Jorge, a member of my cohort who wanted to know if I wanted to grab a bite to eat with his roommate, Jairo, an offer I was glad to accept.

After going to the front desk to try to explain that I had locked myself out of my hotel room because I stupidly took the key from the slot that the maid had placed there and that would not open up my door, I met Jorge and Jairo and the three of us began trekking around the streets of Beijing – with no Yuan and no knowledge of the language outside of a few phrases that Jairo had picked up from a small dictionary that he had brought along. As we entered several restaurants, we soon found out that while the language barrier was frustrating and the stares and pointing was a constant due to our appearances and foreign language, the money issue was something that we weren’t able to overcome. After walking the streets for around two hours and getting turned down at nearly every restaurant including KFC and McDonald’s (McDonald’s turned us away?!?!?!?), we made our way back to the restaurant of our hotel where we were able to sit and enjoy the buffet. Noshing on sushi, rice and a variety of other Chinese dishes, conversation was light as we were finally able to settle down and relax and get some nourishment after a long day of flights, temple visiting, bus riding and enduring really hot weather.

After dinner, we sat around talking for a minute before all making our way to our individual rooms. I hopped into a cold shower and then came out to watch one of the three stations on TV that I was able to understand – HBO, CNN and BBC. Watching the news about Paris Hilton somehow bothered and comforted me at the same time. It was a little bothersome to see that she was news even in China, yet, it reminded me that life was going on back home and gave me a taste of the life back home while making me think of my wife. In fact, it was her who I thought of as I laid down on the world’s hardest bed.