On our second day, we decided to take a different route downtown towards Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. Everything was going swell, and we ran into a couple of young Chinese men from Shanghai. Oddly enough, they started up a conversation with us and told us a few places to check out in the area. The invited us to walk with them to an old area of the town and we accepted the invite.
(They're the two guys in white at the bottom of the picture)
The area was ancient, but had been rebuilt for the Olympics and was packed with tourists and Chinese as well. We snapped a few pictures and continued on with our new friends. Next, they showed us around an old neighborhood known as Hutongs. These were really old, and looked really decrepid, but were actually homes of wealthy, and were in the process of being demolished to make way for new high rises. It was interesting, but nothing spectacular. At this point we had been walking for a couple hours, and my hips were getting sore. This isn't a good thing at my age, I can only imagine the state I'll be in when I hit 60. Luckily, one of the guys asks if we'd like to stop for a drink of tea. Feeling like it was the cultural thing to do and the fact that I felt like I needed a hip replacement, I accepted. This move would cost me in more ways then one.
We step into a small one room tea house only big enough for one table and a few chairs. This seemed pretty odd, seeing that you can't do great business if your building can only hold a couple people. We proceeded to drink about 5 different types of tea, and had to do so in a traditional chinese manner, where you have to finish in three sips. Sounds scary, considering its hot tea, but they were only small glasses about the size of a large shot glass. Anyways, Kristin and I felt compelled to pay for the tea ceremony for everyone since the two guys were nice enough to be our tour guides for the morning. Sure enough, this had to be the most expensive tea house in all of China. I was told that China was cheap and couldn't picture this run down looking tea house as being all that expensive, but sure enough, it cost one hundred fucking dollars. $100 for tea, and not even a lot of it. The tea was great, I'll give them that, but it wasn't that great. The two guys decide to buy us a box of tea from the shop as gift for us. That reduced my anger towards the situation a little. On top of all this, we weren't even allowed to take pictures inside the shop because they had a Buddha there or something along those lines.
(I don't think anyone in the world could have expected that this hole in the wall could cost you $100 for tea)
We continue on our journey and I'm beginning to wonder whether these guys had conned us into going to this specific tea shop. Kristin is feeling the same way, and were wondering how we can lose them, because we can't afford to stick around them all day at this rate. Luckily, the actually told us they were going somewhere else and we were able to get away. Great news, but unfortunately its only the beginning of what ended up being a pretty shitty day.
At this point, its around 1pm and were starting to feel the need for some food. Were in the middle of Tiannanmen Square and assume that in the largest square in the world there would be somewhere to grab a bite, but theres not. We head downtown and got a nice little rice and noodle meal with surprisingly no problems. We head back towards The Forbidden City and decide to check it out. Theres three gates, and we take the first one. I had heard that this place was always packed with tourists, and yet there was no line. We get inside, and we dont really see too much other than some big red walls and a park. Were starting to realize that we probably took the wrong entrance, and this wasn't really where we were intending to go. Upset about how the day is going, we take a little rest on a bench and relax.
Before I could even get comfortable, a old man comes over asking if we want a rickshaw ride. No I don't want a damn rickshaw ride, give me a break. He begins giving me prices anyways, even with me saying no thanks, and finally he gets the price fairly low and we decide to give it a go. He says its about $20 for a half hour ride. He points to his watch, and shows us the current time. Seems like hes being honest. We follow him for nearly 10 minutes to his rickshaw, and have now wasted a third of our time. Not so honest. We hop on his rickshaw, which was pretty pimp. He shows us around some old neighborhoods, takes our picture a few times, and hes starting to seem like a good guy again. Then, he sees a policecar ahead, whips the rickshaw around and starts pedalling as fast as he can the other way. Great, nothing I want more than to be chased by cops in China on the back of a rickshaw. I don't care how long this man has been doing this, but he can't out run the cops on his bike. Sure he had some great calves, but he sure as fuck wasn't Lance Armstrong. Lucky for us, the cops didn't chase us. After the half hour is up, our driver continues driving around. I ask him when he will bring us back to The Forbidden City, and all of a sudden he can't understand me. He was speaking decent English throughout the ride, but once I asked questions about it being over, he no longer knew any English. Pretty sketchy, so we decide to bail. We stayed about an extra 5 minutes, so I had to pay extra.
(We look so happy don't we. This was before the cops and the "I don't understand" routine)
We had to find our own way out of this old maze of a neighborhood on foot and then back to The Forbidden City. This took longer than expected, as it didn't seem like we had went that far. Perhaps old Chinese Lance travelled pretty far in his attempt to out run the local authorities. Finally we made it back to where we had started. We looked at a map and realized that we had in fact not made it into the The Forbidden City, but just a small park on the outside of it. After some more walking, we finally make it there at 430pm. Great. No, not great, sure enough more shit to upset me. The ticket office closed at 415 and the City closes at 5. So, as I stand there looking up at the giant red walls of this great chinese palace, all I can do is shake as I hold in the rage. Kristin takes a lovely picture though. Luckily it's from a distance and you can't see my veins bubbling from the fire burning inside me.
And this isn't even the end of the disappointment to the day. Next, we continue to a small lake beside this area thats suppose to have row boats. Perhaps a little rowing will ease my tension. Maybe it would have, but I'll never know, because they just happened to close too.
I feel as though my day was doomed from the beginning. My fate was set in motion the moment I chose to take a different route downtown where I'd meet those con artist tea guys from Shanghai, they'd drop me off at Tiannenmen Square knowing there was no food there. I'd have to walk to Wangfuxing to find some food. I'd be a stupid tourist and enter the wrong entrance to The Forbidden City. I'd be fooled into thinking that I'd gained some bargaining abilities and got myself a great deal on a rickshaw ride and would be late for the entrance for the City and the paddle boats. Just a perfect day of siteseeing.
.....Beijing was really cool though, and the other 4 days we were there were amazing.
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