Yesterday, I left the beautiful city of Hong Kong for Beijing. The airport was spacious and clean, and it was easy for me to pick up my airplane ticket to the capital of China—good ol’ seat 32A. When boarding the plane, I found that I was sitting next to a mother and her son who seemed to be able 10 years old; and from the moment I snuck by the two to my window seat, I noticed that there was something off about this boy. He was slouched in his chair with drool hanging out of his open mouth, his eyes looked droopy, and I quickly found that he had a hard time controlling his hands—they would start to wonder up in the air or towards my seat, and the mother would then grab his hands and put them back in his lap. None of this bothered me, and soon enough the plane was up in the air.
In typical Alex fashion, once the “fasten-your-seatbelt” light was on I was sound asleep…but later I woke up later to the flight attendant giving me a hot meal. While I was eating my lunch, all I could pay attention to was this mother taking care of her son; feeding him, wiping off his drool, all while calmly asking him questions of what he wanted to eat next. In that moment it then hit me that this was her life; she must spend all of her time taking care of this boy, helping him sit up straight, take him to the bathroom, and blow on his hot food. I thought to myself, ‘she’s a hero.’ I then prayed that I could somehow serve this boy and her mother while on the plane.
When lunch was over I promptly went back into the state I was in prior to receiving the food: sound asleep. I think it was about an hour later I woke up with a hand jutting into my right side. The boy, unknowingly, was digging (lightly) into my ribcage and I looked over to the right to see the mother asleep. At this point I was a bit disgruntled from just waking up (and I was in a sleep-sweat, never good to wake up to), but even in this state it was clear to me that this was my opportunity to serve this family. I placed the boy’s hand back in his lap, and then pulled out my iPad…my serving method of choice? Angry Birds. Upon launching the application, the boy couldn’t stop staring at my iPad. I motioned to him how to play with the birds as I held the iPad, but he had a little bit of difficulty with his hands. I then switched to a different game that didn’t require as much dexterity, and he started slicing up fruits on my iPad. I saw the boy smile for the first time the whole plane ride (maybe that had something to do with me being asleep…), and we went on and played the piano together, and even went through my photos of Wrigley field and our puppy dog biscuit; when we flipped to the photo of Biscuit, this boy had a jolt of energy and sprung back into his chair in fear…he totally wasn’t expecting to see a dog, and he definitely thought it was real, lol. At the end of the plane ride the mother smiled at me and said goodbye. I was glad that this mother, who probably spends 95% of her day taking care of her son, was able to get some rest on the plane.
When you think of stereotypical Asian towns with relics, statues, and like a bajillion people, you are thinking of Beijing: it is the capital of China. Oh, and this place doesn’t sleep. Ever. At 4am I was hearing honking of cars outside my hotel—not to the extent where I couldn’t go back to sleep, but it was still kind of ridiculous. And the drivers are sooooo scary! Taxicabs, coach buses, and bicyclists stop within centimeters of hitting each other, and laying your fist down on the horn is totally acceptable; the constant stop-and-go, stop-and-go of the coach bus on the way to the hotel was starting to make me feel nauseous…my Mom would not do well getting around Beijing.
Upon arriving at the closest bus stop to my hotel, I was waved down by some dude who spoke English saying, “need a taxi?” I was thinking ‘this was quick!’ and gave him my huge bag. We started walking and talking to his “taxi”, and he seemed like a nice guy, but when he told me to hop in the box attached to the back of his bike, I was like “wait a second…” I had read up on scams in Beijing, and that rickshaw-esque drivers are great scammers because they charge really high prices for unknowledgeable visitors…but luckily I knew! I told him that I wanted to take a taxi instead, because he was going to charge me a lot of money ($80 for going 6 blocks to my hotel!) But he was insistent that I get in his bike box…he already put my large suitcase in the back. I told him I could get a taxi for 30yuan…he called me at 50, but I stayed at 30. He went 40, but I said 30. I was about to pull my bag out of the back and he goes “OK, OK, 30.” Winner! And it was my first haggling experience!
(This was a glorified version of what I was in)
After a 4 minute bike ride to my drop off spot, where he dropped me 2 blocks away from my hotel (I think he was ticked), I grabbed money from my pocked and handed him 30 yuan. He then goes, “No, no, 30 american dollars”. That’s about 200yuan—and I told him, no, the deal we agreed on was 30yuan. We went back and forth for a little while, and I ended up giving him 30yuan more, making it 60 in total; he was very displeased, and I was left with a very sour taste myself. On my two block walk to the hotel, I stopped by a group of taxicab drivers and asked them about their rates. They said they would’ve charged me about 200 yuan for that ride to my hotel. I actually got a great rate for the ride to my hotel (although I was dropped off 2 blocks away…); in essence, I scammed the scammer!
My hotel is 3 blocks away from Tiananmen Square, where I walked around looking at the huge and beautiful buildings (going in them on a different day) and walked just outside the Forbidden City. I am a little confused of why they have a huge picture of Mao Zedong on the outside of the Forbidden City, but hopefully I can find out when I take the tour. Something that was weird about being in Tiananmen Square was that the officials that worked inside the large buildings, when they went outside to go grab lunch they all walk in lines of 2, marching and flailing their arms in sync. When I saw a group of about 6 businessmen do this, I thought it was frightening…I thought I was doing something wrong as they were walking towards me while I was taking a picture of one of the huge buildings. But as I saw 4 other groups, with an upwards of 20 people in each group, do the exact same in-sync walk I found it mildly hilarious.
(Note the group of men on the left)
In my tourist’s guide to Beijing, there is a section in it titled Con ‘Artists’. It mentions the following, “…routinely hounded by pesky ‘art students’ either practicing their English or roping visitors into going to exhibitions of overpriced art. They will try to strike up a conversation with you, but while some travellers enjoy their company, others find their attentions irritating and feel pressured into buying art.” Man, I’m glad I read this section of the book. On my way to the mall to grab dinner, I met a nice young man by the name of Will; he just strolled right up to me and started talking. I walked inside the mall, and Will followed. He loved to talk and, as he said, practice his English…and he was actually a very nice guy. But we started talking, and I told him how I didn’t have plans right now (I was going to eat dinner, and was afraid that he might invite himself…maybe that’s not the best thinking, but after an exhausting day walking around outside in the sun I was pooped), so he told me that I should go to this art exhibition. We were in the thick of the mall, but he assured me that it was ‘just over there’. I kindly said sorry, but maybe some other time. He smiled and went away. Later, after I was walking back from dinner, guess who I run into outside the mall. “Alex, from Chicago!” (we ended up talking for a while in the mall, lol) “Now you are free to go to see the art?” I felt kind of bad, but told him that I was busy...he smiled and went on his way again.
My attitude was a little negative towards this guy...he seemed very nice, but just knowing his intentions behind getting me to go to the art exhibition made me feel uncomfortable; but I think I would’ve felt more uncomfortable had I been at the exhibition and he was pressuring me to buy his artwork, so maybe it was a good thing I didn't go.
If you have read this far, you are a trooper. Tomorrow I am headed for the Great Wall (woo!) and will get some sweet pictures. Happy Friday!
(Outside of the Forbidden City)
(Tiananmen Square)
-Alex
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