Yonghe Gong, Silk Market, Friendship Store, Steak and Eggs, and KFC debacle

Today we decided to get steamed buns for breakfast. In theory this should work out. We found a place with a name in English. So we walk there. It’s about 30 mins from hotel. We arrive and they only speak Chinese and menu is on wall in Chinese. No pictures. Fuck.

I try asking what has eggs in it explaining OL can’t eat eggs. She then points to these cold meat dishes. Ew.

Every vacation, meals are a huge headache. Especially when the hotel has no breakfast place. Or rather no decent breakfast place that doesn’t gouge tourists.

In desperation, I go to bakery and get pastries. OL has oreos and butter cookies in room.

Once we’ve eaten, we set out for Hepingmen station to subway to Yong he gong temple. It’s noon by the time we arrive. We spend 1.5 hours walking around the temple.

It is amazing.

The absolute attention to detail and loving care put into creating each temple building and the buddhas.

I wonder what happened to those people. Because you don’t see craftsmanship like this anymore. The ceilings were ornate. The external architecture saturated my corneas. The buddhas lightened my heart.

I was in awe of the ginormous 18 meter Buddha carved from one piece of wood. I couldn’t get a good pic.

Ofc there was a little boy in croch less pants at the temple. And when his mother went to pray he laid down on the prayer cushion pressing his genitalia into the place where people kneel and press their forehead to kowtow. And also showing the entire world his irritated and brown asshole.

Ew. That mother is disgusting. And do you really think your prayers will be answered when you befoul a temple?!

There’s also a bottomless boy whose dad takes him over to a tree in front of everyone to take a shit. Seriously. On the temple grounds in public. I can’t get over this complete lack of respect. For the temple, for their child and for themselves. It’s just gross.

I loved the semi-covered statues depicting sexual positions with the Buddha. Perfect for teaching the young emperor about sex.

The gift shop however was a massive disappointment. Prayer beads for 1200 yuan. Statues for 800 yuan. Ouch. No books on the temple. Grrr.

Saw a cool metal wall hanging for 200 yuan but what a price.

I just couldn’t.

The shops across the street all carry incense and statues.

Ol saw some gorgeous prayer beads. I’m eating my jasmine tea ice cream

so he has to bargain. The lady however only speaks Chinese. So i translate for her but don’t enter the fray. he walked away at 40, but really wanted them. So we walked back and i said 100 for 2 huge green sandalwood prayer beads. Overpriced but she wouldn’t move more than 10 yuan and OL loved them.

We got on subway and went to Jianguomen.

Walked to friendship store for restaurants. Went to Steak and Eggs restaurant.

It was the best meal we had in Beijing. Clean. Quiet. The waitress spoke English. The food was delicious.

Bathrooms were clean. And they had Dr. Pepper and Diet root beer. Heaven.

OL had turkey club with French fries. I had super breakfast with 3 scrambled eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, and 1 ham. Home fries and a biscuit with jam.

Felt like I was in the US for a moment. Good service. Good food.

An absolute rarity here in China.

Then we went to the friendship store.

It was an absolute joke. The prices on the goods were equivalent to opening prices at markets and stores. Chopstick set priced at 185 yuan. OL got exact same one for 30 yuan. Wtf!

The whole point of the friendship store is to give foreigners a fair fixed price. A bit above what the good bargaining price is. But don’t rape them blind.

I get why no one goes to these stores anymore and they are closing down in most cities.

What I don’t get is why the government can’t turn a profit. Price everything at 10-20 yuan above the best bargaining price. Look we foreigners hate the hassle of bargaining for every little thing. It’s annoying and time consuming and we know we will never get the real Chinese price.

We don’t mind a little premium for a pleasant shopping experience. But charging ten times more than the bargaining price I can get is just stupid.

We walked onward to the Silk Market.

What a disappointment. I remember the fun of the outdoor silk market back in 1998. This is a poor substitute. The stall sellers are super aggressive literally grabbing a woman’s wrist. One corralled me into her stall and refused to let me out until OL reached around and pulled me out.

They opened with insane prices. 600 yuan for a small statue. Look I’ll go up to 60 but when you open that high I start at 35. Because you’re an asshole. I’m not getting tricked into the let’s meet in the middle bullshit either.

The silk robes were lined with polyester. Or scratchy brocade inside without a lining. Crap actually. Absolute crap. Nothing I wanted to buy. The scarves are okay but nothing I hadn’t seen before. Honestly Shanghai and Xian had better markets.

We left without making a purchase.

Walked to Guiyou department store. Browsed for jade but the cheapest piece started at 1200 yuan. Ouch. The cheapest one I kinda liked was 3000 yuan. The girl said we have a discount. Yeah not that much. I don’t get this price high thing. If I don’t know how much it costs I don’t really want to see it or like it. No point. Bargaining is the most corrupt system ever. It’s a way to fuck the customer to the wall with a nail gun.

So we attempted to get on subway at 6:30. Bad move. People were packed in like sardines ala Tokyo. We left. Wandered through another market. Decided to go to Baskin Robbins by friendship store to kill time. Had a green tea ice cream.

Then walked to jianguomen

and caught the subway to Hepingmen. Got more snacks for OL breakfast and water.

Dinner nightmare begins. We walk to fast food Chinese restaurant. The menu is not so good. We figure out what we want and order but she tells us nope only have two items left on menu. Wtf?! Why give us the menu then.

We leave. OL asks where, everything is closing. I say KFC.

At KFC they hand us a picture menu that has been defaced and is impossible to read. I tell her we can’t read it and ask for another one. But they don’t have it. Wtf.

So I ask if it is breast meat. She looks at me with zero comprehension. And I don’t know the Chinese word for breast. I am so fucking tired of this country, I grab my breast and say breast meat. She giggles and says yes. So I say I’ll take it. Get OL fries and ice cream.

Sit down to eat inside KFC on Qianmen. This is a nice area of town. Or so we think. Until a Chinese guy spits a giant mucus ball on the floor at KFC near us.

I kinda comprehend the street spitting but inside a restaurant?!

He’s just a pig dressed in human skin and human clothes. I mean this is beyond anything. I don’t understand how you can aspire to western luxuries and remain such an absolutely savage beast.

You can spit in a napkin or a bag. But on the floor of a restaurant. No. Inexcusable.

We walk back.

I check out the robe I almost bought. The price went from 30 to 85. I agree to 45. But then I examine it and there are all these loose threads and pulls in the sewing. Badly sewn piece of crap. So we don’t buy it.

Temple of Heaven Park

OL and I decided to sleep in this morning after a challenging day at the Great Wall yesterday. The people of the Hutong however decided they needed to do some reconstruction starting at 7am.

And the Chinese hotel guests decided to release their children into the halls for recess around 7:15. They are also fond of having large group discussions in the hallway. Loudly enough that I’d swear they were beside my bed.

So sleeping in didn’t happen. We were wide awake by 8. So we ate some left over snacks from yesterday as breakfast. Which meant Oreos for OL and croissants and milk crackers for me.

Did I mention how much I hate not having a proper breakfast. God this hotel shits the bed.

We walk to Tiantan and Tiantan Park. It’s a sunny breezy non-humid day. Gorgeous for Beijing summer. But it’s a long walk in the sun for me.

Enroute a Chinese grandmother verbally abuses her spouse. Screeching at him in public. This is not shocking. The surprise is her granddaughter joins in yelling at him. And the poor old man takes it. They are behind us and this continues for like 20 minutes. Ouch.

The walk takes almost 45 minutes to get to TianTan park. It’s killer, especially after climbing to and around Great Wall yesterday.

Here’s some signage at the entrance.

The park is absolutely lovely. Buy the through ticket for 35 yuan. It’s worth it. You get to see all the important parts.

Yesterday we noticed that the strap on my purse was fraying and I decided to pick up a cheap new one. As luck would have it, we see an old lady selling small bags outside the park. We ask how much. She says 45. Quite reasonable. OL comes back with 30 and holds. She gives in quickly.

Then another Chinese person comes over and asks her in Chinese how much she got us to pay. The Chinese person laughs like haha another foreigner paid too much. Then she offers 20 yuan for a similar bag.

We entered through the West Gate. The park itself is really lovely. The people are pretty civilized compared to what we’ve encountered so far in Beijing.

We strolled through. Almost went to the Palace of Abstinence but it was 10 yuan extra. And we didn’t want to waste time or money. So we continued on our way.

Gotta say Tian Tan is a definite must-do in Beijing. The pinnacle of emperor construction. Ol agrees. We stop at the dressing hall for a popsicle and pictures.

We started with the Temple of Heaven and The Hall of Good Prayers for Harvest. It may be my favorite building in Beijing.

Jaw dropping fact? They built this entire structure without using 1 nail.

Back outside, I love the blue roof tiles.

The people are far more courteous and considerate here. We actually take turns with minimal pushing to see inside the buildings. And there are several window openings to peer through so people spread out more. Way better experience than the Forbidden City.

Read the story beside the door, it’s a fun history fact. Yes, I said fun and history fact.

So far only the Great Wall and Tiantan have lived up to my memory of them.

After we explored the buildings around it, we ventured south to the Imperial Vault of Heaven and Echo Wall. Then onto the Altar of Heaven.

The buildings are spectacular. Echo Wall surrounds the Imperial Vault of Heaven.

The space is imbued with so much energy. It started shifting my take on Beijing. I am striving to see every moment of every day is an adventure. Every person we encounter is an experience. Good or bad. Just let it all happen around us.

Next we went to the Altar of Heaven.

Here’s the hevenly center stone where ones voice is supposed to be particularly resonant due to acoustics.

Then we wandered into the Cypress groves. Like massive bonsais. Such beautiful trees.

Singer near Echo Wall.

The gift shops in the park were reasonably priced too. I went on a popsicle feast to deal with the heat, eating 3 in the park. Deliciousness.

Lovely afternoon.

On the way out, we stumble on a music group performing inside one of the gates. The guy in the white shirt is a park worker, who politely but firmly informs them they cannot perform inside the gate and must move further outside into the park to perform. This was all in Chinese, but very nicely done and the group relocated.

I’m starving. So we head to McDonalds on Qianmen.

Long walk. Enroute, I see this guy sitting down on the wall. He gives me a bad vibe. OL is walking on the wall and I am two feet below on the sidewalk. The guy sees me and gets up. He walks with a pronounced limp but looks young. I Ofc have Ted Bundy flashes and decide he may be faking it. The timing of him getting up when he saw me just makes me suspicious.

So I pull my bag close to my body and watch him approach. And yes I’m extra cautious after getting robbed.

After he passes me, he starts shouting. Fuck you fucking bitch I’m American. Don’t judge me.

He continued for a while, neither of us understand him. I think it’s hysterical that he thinks this is about race. I couldn’t see his face from far away. All I felt was him watching me, and then saw him getting up and coming toward me with a limp. All activated my red flag of potential scammer.

Then as we close in on Qianmen this snotty bitch “bo-ho girl” deigns to speak to us and ask, “Guys do you…”

“No,” I say. Very firmly and before she finishes the question.

Which ends with know of any places to eat around here.

OL Ofc is in polite mode and says we don’t know of anything around here. We’re looking for something ourselves.

I’m tired hungry and pissed. And I’m not a guy. And I’m sick to death of people not planning their own fucking vacations and asking me stupid shit. Plus her tone of voice was I would never normally speak to you but since I need information I’ll make this one exception.

Fuck you.

So we get to Qianmen.

I get the mcchicken sandwich. OL has his double cheeseburger and single cheeseburger.

We head back to hotel via qianmen to dazhalan to our hutong. Noting that there is a fast food Chinese place and KFC on southern Qianmen.

We pick up another popsicle for me. It’s tarter and more refreshing. Get water for room.

Go back to hotel and rest up. Plan shopping, temple, and subways for tomorrow. Plot places to eat too. In areas we are going to, may do night market at night for dinner if we find stuff we like.

Onto hand washing bras. OL folds up my laundry for me. So he can use the hangers for his laundry. It’s OL laundry time.

Then we went to the great restaurant on dazhalan. The duck place. The male waiter was so fast and efficiently put the best NYC waiter to shame. The girl had to be the own’s daughter. So slow and bad.

Had to wait but was worth it. This time had sweet and sour pork, potatoes and pork, and eggplant, potatoes and peppers. Deliciousness.

I had hua cha. So good. Refreshing, but I couldn’t drink entire pot. The portions are good size and the prices are great. 82 yuan. My tea was 15 yuan.

The lady next to us appeared to be having a severe migraine/ aneurism. She kept cradling her head in head hand. Her son looked so uncomfy.

On the other side a Chinese woman with a Caucasian man orders about 6 dishes for them. Wow. Way too much for 2 people.

Then ghengis khan starts talking in his raspy loud Chinese voice. I felt like the rebels were at the gate. Intense.

Then we walked back. In Hutong suddenly all the tiny restaurants are closing. Tables being flipped. Food brushed aside. While people are still eating.

We look down the road and there is a police vehicle with flashing lights trying to get through. At first we thought ambulance. But no sirens. The label said beijing something law in chinese. Clearly they are illegal restaurants.

So glad we never ate there. Guessing dirty and/or can’t afford/achieve permit for business=Ew.

We return to hotel after purchasing water and stamps across the street. The older couple who run the place are quite pleasant. Their English is so-so they get the basics, so we speak in a mix of Chinese and English for the stamps.

Mutianyu Great Wall Adventure

We awoke at 7:45 to go to Mutianyu Great Wall.

The hotel told us it would cost 380 yuan each to go by bus with them and have lunch and entry into wall.

Tourist place told us 700 yuan just for car to go and wait for us and bring us back.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Yet another way this country rapes it tourists. Ridiculous costs and special tourist prices for everything.

Opt to go the route described by my guidebook. It requires a total of 100 yuan each ($15-18). We like.

We walk to Hepingmen subway and ride to Dongzhimen station. At Dongzhimen we walk into bus station. People try to talk to us in English but they are all fakes. Trying to trick us out of our money. The Chinese way of welcoming tourists I’m learning.

Go to info booth and ask about bus. 936 isn’t running. But 916 goes to Huairou and then you catch taxi to Great Wall. You purchase tickets at the bus waiting line. We walk over and spot 916. Get in line. Bus pulls up. I can’t find my money so OL must pay. We pay and board getting the last two seats together.

It’s pretty confusing when to get off. But the guidebook says Minzhu square. So I look for the one stop that is minzhu and luckily I know what guang chang means. We are paranoid about missing our stop and count each stop. Bus ride is only about 1 hour to Huairou Mingzhu guang Chang stop.

As we get off Chinese guy says Great Wall. OL and I are programmed to say no to everyone because of scammers.

But I remember that we need to catch private ride to wall. We talk to guy and he agrees to 25 yuan each. We ride with windows down. Nice breeze. Mountains are gorgeous. Overcast with a little rain but otherwise lovely day.

Driver chats with me in Chinese. Mine is rusty but we seem to communicate. Get to Great Wall. It’s overcast and sprinkling. Makes it super humid. There are stalls of souvenirs, but it’s pretty chill compared to Badaling in 1998.

OL pays student price and I pay adult price. We ixnay the cable car cause guidebook says easy climb to wall.

Wrong. Imagine 1000 stairs to wall. Maybe more. Some are just hundreds of steps together. Intense cardio. I am sweating so hard my glasses fog up. My pants get streaked with sweat. My entire t shirt is drenched.

And we haven’t even reached the wall yet. Did I mention I’m huffing and puffing. So not attractive. And dripping sweat runs into my eyes.

Thanks to the humidity. I cannot cool down. I drink some water and keep at it.

Get to mid point. Only at the midpoint?! Omfg.

Keep climbing realizing should have cable carred it up.

Get to top

and go to 7th tower. It’s the only tower we encountered where you can take a stairwell to top and get panoramic view of wall. Wow.

Confession time. At first, I didn’t want to go up because I’m afraid of heights and of tight places but it went okay. Glad I went up because the next several guard towers all lacked rooftop access. Plus fighting fear and doing something I want to do is important to me. OL was proud of me when my head popped up on the rooftop.

We then wandered west to watchtowers 8-14 or 15.

I ran low on water, but the few people selling drinks up there charged 4-5x the normal rate. Finally, I had to pay it to get a Sprite. But the guy brought the stuff up on a donkey and was super pleasant to us at least.

 

The great wall at Mutianyu is stunning. A snake winding across the mountain. Which means lots of steps and slopes. But it was gorgeous to see.

We spent about 2 hours on the wall taking pictures and exploring.

 

Did I mention how the fog rolled in at one point? Majestic.

OL helped me with descending steps. I always get vertigo on them and trip. The steps literally go 2-d on me. He walked into a branch and said but is princess kourtney okay. Lol. I was.

Down is harder for OL but easier for me. Took like 30 minutes.

We browsed the shops at the end of the wall. Lots of cheapy souvenirs.

All the same, but still found some nice souvenirs. Got a couple tshirts. Have to check all the seams carefully. They unravel on many of them.

We hit subway for lunch of chicken terriyaki sandwiches. Prices are way higher there than in Beijing or Xian. (Just a dollar or two, but we are budget travelers so we count every yuan)

It’s 4pm and we are looking for ride back. Driver tells us 350 to ride in van to Beijing. We say cannot afford it. He says 30 each to Huairou bus station.

Then he says has to wait for people. And it’s going to be a bit. Tries to get us into his van. I refuse. I never let anyone get me into a lockable space.

Plus it is hot in there.

We ask how long again. He tells us 4:30. So we wander stalls. I see a t-shirt I like but the seam unravels. So the woman gets me another one. Same issue. And another one. Same issue. She tells me not a problem. But it is. It will unravel in wash. Making it my problem if I buy it. She drags me to the warehouse area and shows me another one.

Same issue. It’s just a bad batch. She and boss try to tell me just to cut it. That won’t work. Then the woman tries to grab the collar of my tshirt and show me how the seam of the tshirt i am wearing is sewn.

First off don’t fucking touch me. Second off, never touch my neck or face. And third, I cannot possibly see that from this angle.

I give her the dirtiest look and recoil from her.

She curses me out in Chinese. I love how she feels secure saying shit in front of me. Confident that a stupid foreigner can’t possibly speak her language. Thinking I don’t get it. Cause I do understand it, but I don’t reply. Because I’m done engaging with jackasses.

Just obnoxious and ignorant.

We go back to minivan guy. It’s 4:30. He puts on a good show of looking for his people and acting like they are late. I doubt he even has people. I think he’s either got no one and waiting for more people to throw in van or he has people and is lying about time they are supposed to arrive.

Very typical behavior here I’m learning.

He is committed to his lie. Pretending to watch for them. Acting annoyed that they take so long.

But when we all pile into van at 4:45, they (three German tourists who speak pretty good English) ask how long we waited and I say 45 minutes. They ask what time he said they were coming. We say 4:30. They tell us 5 was their return time.

If he had simply said 5pm, we would have browsed the shops more. But instead we were waiting in the parking lot by the van on the off chance that he might be telling the truth.

Shady driver. At least he drops us all at the bus stop. But I have to say the lying really irks me. I just don’t get why you have to screw foreigners to the wall here. It’s  the most intense racism I’ve ever experienced.

We catch the bus a few minutes later and ride back to dong zhimen  arriving around 6:20. Subway is intense but we get to Hepingmen. Then walk home except walk north not south. Double back. Rain is still going on and weather feels cooler.

We go to hotel for 10 min break then get on way to dinner. But Ofc the restaurant we want is full except for upstairs which is hot and stenchy. So bumped out. We wander north and find nothing. Grrr. So we double back. Go sit in hot pot place but it smells of stench. Go to Chinese restaurant across street.

The woman throws her order pad on table and throws menu at us. Total bitch. Look you don’t want us to eat here, we can leave. Yet another way Beijing makes it clear foreigners are not welcome here.

She forgets our sodas. OL has to ask. Then she rips us off. Literally pads the handwritten bill 14 yuan. I added it in my head when we ordered. I’m too tired to fight with her so i pay it.

But I think this is a consequence of bargaining. The idea that there is no one price but price levels for people based on what they look like and how much you think they can afford to pay.

It’s just so fucking wrong.

We walk back to room after an amazing day and wonder why China pretends to want tourists and blatantly abuses them. No one wants to go back where they are clearly not wanted.

Tiananmen, Forbidden City, JingShan Park, Peking Duck

OL and I decided to check out our hotel/hostel restaurant. Big mistake. First off the girl has a bill counter that she thinks tests the veracity of the bill. No dumbass that is just a bill counter.

She runs our bill through it 10 times. A bill OL just got at the HSBC ATM yesterday. So um it’s real. She takes another one from him. Same issue. The she runs one from her cash register through. It still doesn’t work. Yes idiot your cash machine is broken because it doesn’t verify the authenticity of a bill. And a comparison to one in your cash register doesn’t prove anything.

So we go to the buffet. It’s a fucking joke. For 38 yuan. Nearly $7 American. You get a small scrambled egg which god new how long was there, boiled egg, pancakes which looked ancient, egg roll of greasyness. There is tea or coffee. Then there is cereal and dried oatmeal which is okay with butter and sugar. Actually the best part of the meal.

There is bread and jam and nutella.

Dried out fruit. Ew. OL gets bananas cause they change colors when turning. There is some pickled veggies, suspicious looking meals and cheeses.

We avoid all of them.

At other hotels, breakfast was $2-4 American dollars and good. This shits the bed. More than that it is just another example of how much this country hates tourists and seeks only to rip them off.

But we wanted to get a quick start and get to the Forbidden City. So we ate there.

Headed up to Qianmen to get to Tiananmen. Not as easy as it sounds because of how streets are uncrossable. I think we needed 4-5 underpasses to get there.

We walked up to Tiananmen, where we encountered the ferocious mao line.

Legions of people line up to shuffle by his remains. Most of Tiananmen is taken up with the line.

Figure out a way to the Forbidden City using underpass. As soon as we start out of subway, an Asian girl starts harassing us. Asking us questions. We walk away.  She follows. Finally OL just says no. She calls him a shit so he tells her she’s a shit.

This is par for the course here. Most peopler are looking to rip you off. And pissed when you don’t want to fall for their scheme.

The crowds are bad, but the elbowing shoving and jarring is downright barbaric. We are not in a mosh pit people, and I use that term loosely because I have never seen human beings act the way they do here.

Ticket buying is difficult because most ticket booths are not well labeled. We accidentally got in line and bought tickets to go up in Tiananmen gate. Which we didn’t even want to do.

The Forbidden City ticket line is an exercise in frustration. First some asshole who’s hawking tickets lies is yelling about there being a two hour wait for tickets. I ignore him and get into line. Or rather the penned in single file lines that someone is constantly cutting in front of with a nice shove at the window.

Old lady keeps hitting me with her umbrella. Guy behind me is seriously molesting my back with his elbow. Awful. I don’t know why lining up is such an ordeal here.

And this whole it’s cultural argument is bull shit. You either have a sense of personal space and respect others, or you don’t. And they don’t.

Because Hong Kong and Shanghai are not like this. Which to me disproves the cultural crap.

Finally get the tickets and OL and I join the herd of jackals entering the Forbidden City. It’s a free for all. Seriously.

Many of the ceremonial halls are closed to visitors. Kinda disappointing since guidebook talked about them.

Still the architecture is amazing to see. I just wish they has better control of the crowding. It was so much better 13 years ago than it is now.

But they do have the doors to a few buildings but roped off. I can see why. Chinese shove jostle elbow and pretty much kick to get a view before anyone else. Don’t try waiting patiently for your turn because it is Never ever your turn here. It’s whoever bullies the most who gets to see.

I stop trying after two experiences with this crap.

Honestly, the people ruined the experience for me. I don’t get why anyone would act like an animal in public at a historic site.

To drive home the point, some woman yells at her kid and spits food on OL. Fucking spits on him. He’s like Kour I’ve been to Yemen and never got spit on.

We try to make the best of it but honestly you can’t under these conditions.

You don’t want to know how much effort it took for this shot. I basically had to put aside all sense of human decency and wade into the mosh pit. Elbows and parasol utilized to fullest extent. It’s all about bullying. And I hate it. That’s why there aren’t other pics of the inside of places.

We try to see what we can and leave.

Go to nearest McDonalds and have lunch. It Ofc is a trek. I get the spicy chicken sandwich by accident. Damn you picture menu.

Some boho caucasian girl comes up and asks me if I speak English. I hesitate. Is this a scam?  Unsure, I say yes. She asks if I know a good hostel in area. I look at OL. He says no we aren’t staying around here. Who goes to a foreign country without a reservation or a list of potential places to stay?!

And our hotel/hostel is a couple miles away and the opposite of good.

We walk back to Jingshan park. Enroute we see a kid standing on the top of stairs to a building entrance on a busy street squatting and peeing with his mom holding his hand. Clearly encouraging him.

Evidently children pissing and shitting on the streets is a common practice here as evidenced by the assless and crochless pants kids wear here. Kids being anywhere from a  baby to 5. How is teaching your kid to pee and poo on the street potty training? I don’t know why they don’t have pooper scooper laws.

I’ve seen a woman walk her kid in our hutong to get it to shit. I say it because frankly this is not human behavior to me. Public sanitation seems to be unheard of here. Or at least unwelcome.

We get to Jingshan Park.

We see the spot the emperor hung himself.

We climb up for a panoramic view of the Forbidden City. It’s worth the hike up the hillside. Gorgeous.

Also a super cool Buddha in the temple up at the top.

Sadly, all the pagodas on the hill were being simultaneously renovated. During the summer high season. This Ofc makes sense if you hate your tourists, which China seems to outside of Shanghai and Hong Kong.

We wander around park and make our way back to McDonalds for Oreo mcflurries. Enroute old man jumps off bike in front of grandkid and presses one nostril while blows his nose out onto sidewalk. Disgusting.

And the spitting. Oh god. It brings to mind hissing snakes.

Then took the Dongsi subway to Heping men and walked down to hotel. Passed liulichang.

A Caucasian guy comes up and asks if I speak English again. I’m like yes. He asks where the night market is. I tell him not around here. Its near wangfujing. He says cab won’t take him there. How is this my problem? Your vacay you figure it out.

Since going we’re to the Great Wall tomorrow, we decided to hit store for food for breakfast in room. Ol got bread. I had nothing went to Muslim supermarket and found croissants and cookies. On way back, we missed hutong street. Lol. I reminded OL it was before chicken lady, literally the lady who sits out on the side of the street with her chicken.

Dinner was Peking Duck. Delicious.

OL hates the skin so more fatty deliciousness for me. He loved the plum sauce. The restaurant was nice and we decided to go back again. I picked up a couple tshirts on the stroll home.

HSBC Bank, Qianmen, and Laundry Escapade

We reawaken at 11am. To a fresh smelling room. Wow. Progress.

We eat in room. OL munches on chips and Oreos. I ask if he likes breakfast in bed in Beijing. He fails to see the humor. I eat a coconut loaf with cream inside and a three flavored bun with red bean, coconut, and cream as three mini buns linked together.

 

 

 

 

Banks are generally closed from 12-1 so we decide to take a leisurely stroll to the subway. We walk up the hutong to Dazhalan

and Qianmen.

 

 

At Qianmen, we go into subway where they only sell one way tickets that must be used that day at that station. The attendant is nice enough to tell us this before we buy them from machine.

Wtf? No day pass no weekly pass no stored value card. This sucks.  Worst subway ticket setup ever.

We take the subway to Jianguomen nei and look for HSBC. It is Ofc across a multilane semi highway. We find an underpass and make our way there. We ask the teller to help us but she says she cannot access my account without the ATM card. But she is really nice and refers us to customer service.

That girl is even nicer. She cannot access my account but she says I can get a one time lump sum of emergency cash given the situation. So we say let’s do that. It requires calling the US branch, me answering a ton of questions and them okaying the sending of cash to me.

Ofc HSBC laid everyone off (30K people recently) so it takes about 20 minutes to get through. Finally get live operator and she tells me my account number is too long. Because I added a number in case something happened. So I drop the last zero and poof correct account number.

I have to answer tough questions and I fail one. So they ask more. It’s intense. Especially cause if I fuck up I can’t get my money.

OL is with me the entire time. A total rock. it takes about 2 hours but finally the US bank pays my emergency funds. All the Beijing Jianguomen HSBC employees speak fluent English and go out of their way to be kind to us. The HSBC here jumps into action and releases 3100 yuan to me as soon at the US bank says they can. Minus a 160 yuan transaction fee. Which is wonderful.

The workers were super kind and helpful. A ray of pure sunshine in Beijing. Made me glad I banked with HSBC.

Finally have cash again and can enjoy my vacation.

We go to McDonalds for lunch next door and I splurge 7 yuan on pineapple pie and taro pie. I prefer the apple.

I have the fish sandwich but they put cheese on it ew.

I decide to pee but the restrooms are out in the shopping area. So I double back to get OL. I got way too much cash on me to venture anywhere alone.

OL comes with me. Western toilets with tp and soap. Very cool.

We leave uber grateful to the amazing staff at the HSBC.

Try to get taxi to hutong but drivers swears not know where street is and refuses to look at my map. BTW, this is first year Chinese to explain. And I do in Chinese. But he doesn’t want to take our fare clearly. We get out of cab disgusted.

Walk back to subway and subway to Qianmen.Walk back to hotel to drop money off. Stop in a few Dazhalan shops.

Lots of touristy junk. Make it to hotel safely and hide money in suitcase and lock it.

Then we decide to see Tiananmen square at night. Guidebook recommends it. So we walk all the way back up to Qianmen area. But it’s not doable. It’s all roped off. Grrr. We find this out after taking 3 underpasses to get nowhere since it’s blocked off.

Walk back and go to Gobuli for dinner. They are famous for their buns stuffed with delicious filings. I wanted 2 of each bun. Waiter suggested set meal which is a complete tourist trap ripoff. You get 1 of each of the 8 buns and a bowl of gross pickled veggies and millet porridge for 120 yuan.  Get a set of 6 to go for 30 yuan-I find out later. Ouch. OL get tofu dish for 40.

 

 

When we go to pay, the waitresses giggle when the register lady rings us up and announces the total. I turn to them and say look I know I just got ripped off there is no need to laugh in my face. The register lady gives me my change and says goodnight.

My fault for letting the waiter lead my astray. But honestly, I wanted 2 of each bun and he made it seem like the set meal was the better option. Ass hole.

We go back to the hotel. Want to salvage the night. So I decide to get tokens to do a load of laundry. Get the tokens from the front desk and she asked you go now so I thought yeah now.

It’s in the hostel basement. In the hostels help-yourself kitchenette and launderette room. Um this place is filthy btw. Not just messy or a little dirty. No we’re taking filthy.

I put my load of clothes in and the soap lady comes with the detergent and puts it in my wash.

I refuse to leave my clothes unattended so I sit there. Washing is 50 minutes.

OL asks me can you see the black hairs in the chopsticks used for eating. I look over. Yeah. Try not to look around. He asks how can you not.

So the second washer is free and I dispatch him to get my clothes and get the soap lady back down here.

I have both washers going and in walks Bavarian guy. He asks clod wash clod?

I say yes both washers are being used. He asks clod how long? I say about 30 minutes. So he leaves his clothes there.

Meanwhile, 3 French girls come in to empty their dryer. First off, they cannot figure out how to open the dryer. Giggle feast ensues. They scamper out to hallway. Brave one ventures in and goes out to hallway to laugh. Takes several tries for them to figure out how to open dryer.

Then they erupt in fresh giggles. Clothes are sopping wet. Won’t dry wet. Need to be rung out wet. I know because one of them wrings out a top in front of me and water splatters on the floor.

I think Uh-oh and hope my clothes are okay in washer.

So then another girl joins them and all four attempt to wring out hand washing. And piling them on the edge of a chair back. I know it’s only a matter of time before they topple over. Onto the filthy floor. And they do.

Gigglefest ensues.

Soap lady comes in when my wash is 4 minutes from done. She tells me to put my clothes in dryer, which runs 99 minutes. She looks disgusted by dumb French girls. Then she grabs Bavarian guy’s bag of clothes and starts emptying into my old washer. She gets to bag of his panties and puts them on counter between the sterilizer and the toaster. The counter where people make their toast.

Bavarian guy comes in and freaks about French girls wet clothes. Soap lady asks if he wants include panty bag in wash. She doesn’t touch it. He says yes and grabs bag to add to washer, but panties fall onto counter. He does not notice. Soap lady gets disgusted look on her face and picks up panties that are partly touching sterilzer and tosses into washer. Bavarian guy is super-hyper and jarring with his motions.

So I have a load of panties and tshirts in dryer and a load of tshirts in washer. 99 minutes in dryer. French girls re-dry their clothes, which means no second dryer. So OL must take my load of tshirts to the room to dry. I stay with my washing while he MacGyver’s ways to hang it all up.

Btw OL has been to front desk 3 times. Once to get extra token for washer, once to get soap lady, once to get hangers.

Random guy comes in to use dryer. Both in use. He asks me if this is prime time and how are mornings. Like I’m the fucking laundry queen.

I’m watching the dryer and I realize mine stopped turning. At 48 minutes. Open the door and it is warm but damp. Ugh. So I decide to call front desk but phone not work. I’m enroute to front desk when Bavarian guy asks, clod done? I say no dryer not working. Going to front desk. He looks alarmed.

I go to front desk and they call soap lady to meet me in laundry room.

When I get there, she has her hand in my dryer amongst my panties as does Bavarian guy. Who tells me, clod not dry. She then takes the filter off dryer with all the dust in it over my clothes. Ew. First off Bavarian guy is touching my wet panties and now soap lady is redirtying them.

She announces dryer is broken and leaves room. Bavarian guy follows her.

She returns sans Bavarian guy and say get clothes and takes me to another dryer on first floor in hostel wing, which has its own drying room for hanging wet clothes. This indicates to me place has shitty dryers. I put my clothes in the dryer and she goes to push the button but it’s fallen into the machine. Ugh. But the clothes turn.

Now I go to tell OL about the laundry developments. He’s in the shower. I go to write a note but can’t slide it under door. So I ring doorbell.

He answers fresh from shower. I catch him up on everything.

Then go back to laundry room. A little while, later he comes down to relieve me. He will sit with clothes while I shower. I feel bad but he insists.

He doesn’t return to room until 12:40 am. And guess what? The clothes are all damp. We now use chairs and drawers to hang clothes on. It’s a panty village in our room.

 

 

 

Thirteen Reasons Why–Book Review

This book lingered in my psyche all week. I found myself bringing it up in every conversation. Or rather turning every conversation to it. With my penpal in Okinawa, with my bff at IHOP, to dad when he walked in the door from work, to Mom as we ate lunch.

It left an indelible mark on me. And so dear readers, I decided to have a Sunday blog post about it. For this week only, we will have a seven day run of blog posts. Yup it’s that important, that I’m cutting into my travelogue diary.

To say, this book needs to be read by every single high school student in the world. Scratch that. Every single human being. Because the implications are staggering.

One of the most thought provoking lines of the book has to do with the fact that when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you mess with their entire life.

Jay Asher’s riveting Thirteen Reasons Why brings the reader on an internal journey, forcing them to take a revealing look at themselves.

In this book, Clay Jensen receives a box from his classmate Hannah, who died weeks ago. Inside are cassette tapes she recorded explaining the thirteen reasons why she died. And then she tells him, and if you are listening to this tape, you are one of those reasons.

The book juxtaposes Clay’s thoughts with Hannah’s recorded tapes in a gut-wrenching, macabre hunt to understand what happened to Hannah and what could have been done to help her.

Along the way, stupid pranks, cruel jokes, spiteful words, and looking the other way, they all snowball and leave suicide her only option. It really makes you stop and think how much impact you have on everyone around you. And realize all your actions have consequences. Not just for you, but for everyone around it.

In the end, it made me want to be a better person. To not stand by and watch someone suffer or be picked on. To not look the other way. To not let things snowball for others.

That is why everyone should read Thirteen Reasons Why. It makes you care again. To want to make a slight difference because you understand one word or one action can make all the difference to someone.

You can read more about the book at: Thirteen Reasons Why

And you can purchase a copy of the book here on Amazon.

Xian Stench in Beijing

So we get up at 6:15  for breakfast at 6:45. Breakfast room opens at 6:50. We are only ones there. We get to eating. Then go finish packing.

Checkout at 7:30. It does not go well. Attendant at front desk presents me with a bill for 1190 yuan for room. We already paid this on Expedia at the time of purchase. So then she shows us another bill for 595 yuan. 433 yuan for long distance calls to credit cards and mom after robbery. 160 for breakfast. OL goes to pay this.

But because they took a 100 yuan deposit on my credit card he gives her 500 yuan. Then they ask for my credit card and I’m like it was stolen. I don’t have it. I have to repeat this ten times because they don’t speak English. And the only girl that does refuses to wait on us. I’m done trying to speak Chinese since the front desk acts like my 8 years of college and grad school Mandarin are impossible to understand.

Finally, the only one that speaks English is forced to help. She explains that there was no charge to the card. Just a preauthorization. Ok. So we pay the extra 100 yuan. I don’t have that receipt since it was STOLEN WITH MY WALLET. Now we understand and pay the entire 595 yuan. Which is about $100.

We step outside to get our taxi that we arranged yesterday and the guy tells me we have to wait because he has to change cars. Then he puts us in a taxi with a new driver who drives us to the airport.

At least he uses air conditioning so we don’t have to endure the stench of Xian anymore. OL munches the last of his super minty candies. BTW, they are named Unick. Say it out loud. Made me giggle for a while. Unick candies in China. It’s so wrong.

He takes us to terminal 1 because our flight is with China southern. Evidently flights are organized by carrier number. CZ is at terminal 1. When we get there, the meter reads 85 yuan. But he charges us the price we agreed to with the private car driver of 130. Yet another fuck over in Xian.

We get out and cannot find our flight on the big board. OL asks where to check in. We are sent to line 5-10. When we get up there the attendant makes a call and then tells us we need to be at terminal 2. Ofc.

We ask if there is a shuttle bus and if it’s outside, she says yes yes yes to everything. I think she just wanted to get rid of us.  We go outside and find the shuttle bus sign

And wait. And wait. No bus in sight. Family waiting with us gives up and starts walking. We try to hail taxi they laugh at us. Refuse to pick us up.

Finally a 3 row golf cart comes over and the family doubles back. We all squash in. Our luggage in the open bin in back.

Get to terminal two and check in. Turns out China Southern and China Eastern are sister airlines and co-carriers. But in different terminals. Yeah um zero sense there but it’s the norm in Xian.

We take separate lines and OL’s moves faster. We check in. Get 28h and j. Then we go to security.

The dumbass takes my purse and scarf out of the bin and puts them on the belt of the screener. Then I go through metal detector nothing goes off, but they proceed to put me on a pedestal and wand my entire body. Making me turn in a circle away from my stuff. Does that make any sense?

No. But this is just how stupid everything is there.

I go to grab my stuff and my purse isn’t there. I freak the fuck out. That’s the last of my cash and my passport. I’ve got nothing left.

It was in front and  all my other shit is there. OL tries to calm me down, but I’m having flashbacks to the mall and underreacting. All OL’s stuff came through and it was behind mine. My voice gets loud and louder as I demand where is my purse? I am on the verge of accusing the guy in front of us of stealing it when another bin comes through.

I’m shaking from flight or fight reaction. We go put my iPad in my backpack and I am still shaken up. I fucking hate Xian. Everything and everyone one. HATE IT.

(Note: This may not be a logical reaction, but this is just how I feel at that moment. And this blog is daily record of my trip experiences)

On way to gate, i stop to pee. Western toilet filled with shit. Do these woman know how to flush?! Seriously?!

I take the dun de. It reeks of urine. I swallow the gag reflex. Several times. Luckily I have toilet paper in my purse. Then the sink to wash my hands. No soap. Ew.

We go to gate 17. Wait to board. There are pidgeons in the rafters chirping. And possibly shitting on us. Great.

They announce our flight is boarding but when go up they tell us nope.

I go to pee at dunde bathroom again. Almost walk in on woman shitting. Luckily her cary on luggage (giant cardboard box)  held the door closed.

We wait. Boarding time comes and goes. Flight takeoff time comes and goes. We go up and they say wait another half-hour. Awesome.

Same line as Shanghai. Minus the typhoon. Uh-oh.

I pee again. Get a western toilet with incense coil burning in corner. At least I don’t smell piss for a change. Nice. Soap but security person is washing her hands for major surgery so I wait and wait to get the soap and wash my hands.

Around 11 am they announce in Chinese that our flight is boarding. We all rush to the stairs. Go down. Woman with tuberculosis seems to be behind us clearing her lungs. It’s beyond gross.

We board plane. It’s nice. Big, 2-4-2 seater. Clean. Bathroom does not reek of urine.super cool. It’s 11:20. We wait a long time on the Tarmac. Then get pork balls and rice lunch.

Beijing airport is clean. For some reason they put 5 flights on one baggage turnstile.

Our cabbie has no idea how to get to our hotel. The airport taxi attendant tells him.

So we get to the main road for the hutong and cabbie pulls over to ask directions from locals. One tells him to turn around, another says turn here. A guy with a broom and pan leaps forward and madly gestures and makes these wheezing maniacal sounds. He’s trying to be helpful but it comes off as scary squared.

I can barely maintain a straight face. Then the cab driver asks another question and the guy jumps in again. I look at OL and we are both struggling not to laugh.

This shit only happens to us.

We get to hotel, Far East International Hotel. It looks okay. Shabby but somewhat clean. Check in goes okay. They speak a good amount of English.

We get room 222. We go to room. Step off elevator and are enveloped in urine stench eminating from Ladies’ room on our floor. Xian kind of stench.

The door to our room sticks. Then when we open it the scent of must mold and human urine wraps around our throats.

We realize the must and mildew is coming from the ac vent and the closet. The urine however is coming from the bathroom. We open the door and it smells like a gas station bathroom in a big city. Like millions of people peed there and most missed the bowl. There is black mold along the floor tile in the shower and around the door jam.

It’s a Xian style stench. We close the bathroom door. The rest of the room is dingy. Here’s our view.

The carpet is matted, burnt, and dingy. Ew. The furniture is all knicked. The beds are okay. OL’s however is broken so when you sit on it the bed slides and drops tot the side. Kinda like a water bed.

This is the worst hell hotel ever. And we a here for 9 days. We go explore the hotel and find the hostel in the basement. Ew. See a nice bar down there though. Very nice.

We check out the restaurant where meals are 40 yuan ($7) for breakfast. Ouch pricey. Since our room cost $38.

We see where we can do laundry. Two machines in basement in shared hostel kitchen. Yuckie. This is where hostel guests get their hot drinking water.

We read about the hostel courtyard but have no idea where it is. Turns out it’s across the street.

We go back to room and decide no point in complaining since the whole place is disgusting. And compared to the hostel in basement this is better. But we decide to buy air freshener. Walk out to hutong and explore area south of us.

Rain begins. We find McDonalds and have dinner. Then have mcflurries.

Find a bakery and get a 3 bun treat for me. It’s red bean, coconut, and cream. And a coconut loaf. Get water at local market. Explored a bit then came back to hotel.

Used the lemon air freshener we got at the market. It helped for showering.

But falling asleep was hell. My pillow smelled musty. So I lay face up. I turn to the wall and must and urine stench ooze out of it. The blanket makes my skin itch. Ew. Ew. Ew.

I get up and throw scarf over my skin. Then lay down. Decide I have to switch rooms in the morning. If only I had my credit card. I’d leave and go to Marriott. I can’t take this stench.

Then it gets worse. I get stomach cramps and have to pooh. God help me. I gotta go into the urine smelling moldy bathroom. I pray that it stops. But it doesn’t. It’s horrible in there. Third worst experience of my life next to getting robbed and living through 9-11.

Even though I spray freshen before entering. The urine stench is too strong. Pooh odor cannot mask it. I’m in hell.

Ofc I get two bouts of diarrhea.

Finally, the urine stench wakes OL up. He’s lived in Yemen. And he says he can’t take it anymore. The stench is trickling out of the bathroom.

OL says he wants to go down now to front desk and change rooms. It’s 3am. I say let’s do it we can’t sleep here.

We get dressed. No one is at the front desk. So we go upstairs and call the help line. Someone answers and we tell them the smell coming from our bathroom woke us up. He send the maid who doesn’t speak much English up. She tells me she doesn’t smell anything. Omfg. I know Chinese are used to stench bathrooms but come on. This is horrendous.

She calls the front desk guy says the is nothing she can do. He asks to talk to me and asks what I want him to do. I say change my room. He agrees. Maid takes us to third floor. Horrible stench in hallway emanating from men’s room but our room had no odor. Fake wood floor. Bathroom has no odor. Still some black mold but I can use the toilet without wanting to vomit. Progress.

Then she tells me to get room card changed now. Go to front desk but no one is there but girl sleeping on couch. Wake her up and then guy comes out of darkened area at front desk. He changes are room. Seems pissed, but don’t put people in disgusting rooms that make prison sound pleasant.

I didn’t think things could get worse after Xian. But Beijing seems determined to prove me wrong.

One Day Til I Escape Xian

Today was another gut twisting stomach lurching day in Xian. Our last thank the gods.

We woke up by 8:30 because Jinjiang hotel already had loud construction work going on near our room. We had breakfast. Got stared at by Chinese people all through our breakfast.

Look I get that foreigners, especially Caucasians, are not common here but we are human beings not plants. We are not here for your entertainment. Or to have helllooooo hooted at us forty times a day. Like we’re gorillas you are teasing in their zoo cages.

Act like a rational human being for goodness sake. But evidently this is beyond them. Most act like farm animals. I’m not freaking kidding. Especially in Xian. The middle of the country truly is as backwards as people think.

Today I saw at least three kids pissing on the sidewalk. On busy streets. With their mom’s clear consent. Ew. Ew. Ew.

So we walk to the post office to send my package of souvenirs to the US. The great postal worker who helped us yesterday is there. He is super fast and efficient and wonderful. A bright spot in Xian.

However, random Chinese people decide to crowd around me and watch me fill out forms. No sense of personal space or propriety. It’s none of your business. Once again I’m not a fucking tourist attraction. God I hate it here. At least in Shanghai they stared and kept their distance. Here its absolutely uncivilized.

With that task done, we head to the Muslim Quarter for lunch. Along the way stenches unlike any I’ve encountered in the US roll over us. Wrap around us. Force the gag reflex.

It’s like rotten decaying flesh, rancid garbage,and spoiled milk all rolled together.  How do people live like this? In such disgusting conditions?

And why do you need a fucking Starbucks where there are serious sanitation problems?! Priorities please.

Randomly on the way around town, we stumble on a subway station sign. Evidence that they are working on the alleged subway we’ve heard tales of but no sign of its construction.

The muslim quarter has lots of food pre-made and sitting out.

Concerned about how safe it is and what trouble it might cause in our stomaches, we decide not to eat there which means walking all the way to Subway near the south gate to the city. Long walk in smoggy humid stenchy hellaciousness.

The Subway sandwich shop worker doesn’t know what goes in a subway club. Omfg seriously. There’s a picture menu. And I don’t know the Chinese for different cold cuts.

I am so sick of this dirty hell hole I tell OL next vacation in Afghanistan. Because that’s how miserable this place feels. It’s not a vacation it’s punishment. I just want it to end.

On the trek back to our hotel, heat stroke sets in again. Migraine so bad I almost burst into tears on street. We get back and I lay down for 4 hours. Still feel ill. Then eat and drink and still migraine. Take migraine medication. Ofc construction work is going on so no way to escape noise and migraine worsens. They continue banging and shouting until7 fucking 30 at night. This isn’t a hotel or a motel. It’s a torture chamber.

I pack my suitcase and we plan to leave. One more dinner and breakfast before we escape Xian.

Luckily nice cab guy is driving us to airport tomorrow. We already scheduled it with him.

After dinner, we return to our hotel room where construction continues after 9 pm. Finally at 10pm, I go to front desk to complain that it’s still going on. I tell the front desk girl that the construction people are still working and talking in loud voices and banging things.

Her response? Asks me when I’m checking out. Perplexed I say tomorrow. Her next question, what time? My response 7:30 am. Her answer is that they wont be doing construction then.

I tell her again in Chinese they are working now. She asks for room number. Then tells me they aren’t working.

I say yes they are and we can’t sleep.

She then ignores me and steps over to check someone in. I walk away. This is the worst hotel experience ever. We’d be better off at the Bates motel.

I storm upstairs and tell OL. He can’t fucking believe it. So he goes to talk to the front desk. He catches her in the elevator and tells her this has to stop. She goes over to construction guys and stares at them. They ignore her. OL steps closer to the workers and that gets one guy’s attention.

He talks to her. She responds. Then there is a pause. OL steps in and asks “Are they stopping? Did you take care of it.” She says they will work 10-20 minutes more. Then she left and OL left.

Yet another clear example of how the people of Xian have no consideration for anyone. I can’t fucking stand this place.

Xian Nightmare Continues

Today awoke at 6:48 am. And for one second I didn’t remember yesterday. It was the best second I had in Xian. Then it came crashing back.

Being pick pocketed. Losing my money and cards. My wallet and all its contents. Everything. Gone.

I fell back to bad dreams about muggings.

Woke up and breakfasted in hotel.

OL hit the ATM since he’s the only one with an ATM card. Then he hailed a taxi for our excursion to the Shaanxi History Museum. They are supposed to have a couple terracotta soldiers you can see up close. This was going to be the day that salvaged this god forsaken, no scratch that, devil ridden place for us.

The cab driver does not use a/c. We are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 10 minutes. Finally arrive at museum. The ticket line wraps four times through the tent and then down the entire block. Easily a two-hour wait. We decide to scrap the museum.

Mind you no one stands in line. They are four abreast and routinely cut and bump.

We move on to the next thing on our going up in smoke itinerary. The Big Goose Pagoda. I kid you not, that’s it’s name. We walk to it. And what a staggering disappointment. This is one of the top two sights after the Terracotta soldiers. OL tells me he is underwhelmed. So am I.

It looked old and shatty and the smog only made it worse. No good picture taking.

Then a Chinese lady charges at me with her kid rambling in Chinese. I think she wants a picture but I can’t tell what she is saying. There are 3 tripods set up and my first instinct is scam. She’ll try to charge me for the picture so I shake my head and get out of there.

After being robbed, I’m not letting anyone near me. If you want a pic, snap it from a distance.

We walk around the pagoda and opt not to pay the entrance fee. Try to find the nearby park but can’t.

As we round the back of the pagoda, some horn dog Chinese guy runs up to me. Saying “Take picture” and leering. Clearly salivating/preparing for his nightly jerk off.

I shake my head and keep walking. Even OL is grossed out by the guy.

We meander around and find a Dairy Queen where we indulge in a green tea blizzard. The best thing in Xian. Dairy Queen.

A weird guy leaves his family and wife and sits at table next to us. Then he proceeds to stare/leer at me for the next fifteen minutes. I stare him down 3 or 4 times but he drops his eyes and then comes back to me in 2 seconds. I tell OL. Finally, the wife gets so pissed she calls him back over to sit with her. What a disgusting troll.

Then we give up on the park and get a taxi to hotel.

Taxi driver drops us on wrong side of road where we have to cross 4 lanes of traffic and after stealing 1 yuan tip for himself. (Note: Tipping is not the norm and usually not accepted in China.)

We return to hotel. I fucking hate everything about this cesspool. Honestly, if an asteroid took this city out, it would be doing the entire planet a service.

It reeks here. Smells you can’t imagine assault you on every street. When something smells this evil it has to be.

I do hand washing of pants in sink to work off some steam. It’s now 12:30 ish. We decide to take OL’s stuff to the post office to send off to (Austria) aodili.

For some reason my Chinese is fine with the postal worker. He packs everything well. Tapes the box up. Super efficient postal worker. OL does an excellent job on the form. And it is the only thing that went right today. Well that and my hand washing.

Stench along the way to and from the post office is gag inducing. I almost vomit in my mouth.

Hand over nose and try not to breathe stink.

We decide to get lunch at McDonalds near Bell Tower. That goes okay. Ofc people use the tables as their personal playground. Not eating McDonalds but drinking canned tea they bought elsewhere. Throw the fuckers out.

After a rip roaring burpcapade, we head to Muslim quarter for tshirts. OL is tough bargainer. We get 3 for 75 yuan. She opened with 150 for one.

Then I see a scarf I like. They profess it’s silk. Yeah, right. She refuses to give him price since he bargains so hard. OL opens with 30. She refuses to come back with price. So we leave.

Try a few more places. They open at 380 and the next 580. But it’s silk. We shake our heads and start to walk out. OL offers 30. He knows I won’t go over 50 and only if I love it. And I didn’t love any. Saleslady throws us out of store. Lol.

Now OL makes Xian mad. A nice change of pace for us. As we walk by we heard a guy get a backpack for 40 yuan.  So really our price was reasonable. We leave and head back to hotel. So hot.

Here’s the thing I can’t stand. The Xiannese people are beyond racist. They stare at me openly and for long periods. Like I’m an alien. Something there for their entertainment.

Children run up to me, crowd me and stare. Sometimes say ni hao or helllllooooo. It didn’t bother me with kids so much because I get that they have no social skills, but after the mugging, I ignore them. Don’t let anyone near me or distract me.

But the adults. One guy literally stalked us for 20 minutes staring at me. Even after we let him pass by us. That’s creepy.

So I say to OL. Look I get that these people have zero social skills like him whose walking down the street holding his dick (note there is an actual man walking toward me grasping his dick through his pants), but I wonder what happens outside cities. I mean allegedly these are the most civilized people in the cities. I’m wondering if we went to a village are they naked and throwing shit at each other cavemen style?

We get back to hotel and rest. I’m having diarrhea from the mugging. Nervous stomach reaction to stress. Sucks.

We read Beijing book and fantasizes about getting out of this hell hole. Went to check email and found my yahoo app works but hotmail and yahoo websites are blocked.

Tomorrow we send my souvenirs back to US. Oh btw, robber got all my receipts from packages sent to US, hope things go well otherwise they are lost too. Can’t follow up on them.

What it comes down to in China is that the disparity in wealth is so great people have no access to clean water and others have Rado watches in the same city.

So we go to our first restaurant for dinner. Get pepper and chicken sauteed with ginger for OL and I get egg drop soup and sweet and sour chicken. Meal goes well.

Except for when a random Chinese woman gets up from her table and goes to the xiao jie’s area to refill her tea cup. Then she goes back to her table. Ballsy.

But she’s not finished illustrating the complete lack of any manners commonly seen here. She saunters over to our table doesn’t say a word to either of us, picks up our tea pot and fills her husband’s glass. Mind you if she didn’t want to or couldn’t speak English, she could have tried Chinese and gestured or even smiled. Instead she looked at us with utter disdain.

And there was a Chinese couple at the next table with a pot of tea too. She could have asked to borrow theirs. It’s just blatant rudeness and lack of any social grace or manners.

I move my purse and camera figuring she might help herself to my stuff Xian style.

We won 5 yuan from the restaurant lottery, which was very nice.

1195 yuan more and the city might pay me back.

Came back to room and planned Beijing trip.

Pickpockets and Police in Xian

Today we slept in until the workers awakened us at 10am banging. I did laundry in sink to expel some nervous energy. OL threw covers over his head.

I decided to buy the expensive silk scarf at Wanda plaza. We walked over there. I had my purse on my arm with my camera. Held onto both the entire walk to Wanda plaza. Through the two underpasses.

We get on express escalator from ground floor to fifth floor. One ginormous escalator.  A couple Chinese people crowd us. Totally normal. They always crowd foreigners.

After two bumps, I step away and push OL up telling him they are crowding me. This happens so much in China, I don’t think much of it.  Get off at 5th floor and go into McDonalds. I get in line. OL gets a table.

While I’m waiting a little girl stares and me and says ni hao. Then she says hello. Her mom is behind me in line.

When I order I go to pay and my purse is open. Weird. I never leave it opened. And my wallet is gone. Double weird. I get a bad feeling someone stole my wallet. But I am not 100% sure it was in my purse. Or maybe I just don’t want to believe this is happening.

I step out of line to get $ from OL. When I get back in line to pay mom is in front of me with kid. So I pay with OL money and we go eat.

I’m hoping I left my wallet on table in room when rearranging my money last night. We scarf down lunch and try to think of when it could get stolen. Escalator. Or McDonalds. Ugh.

But I only got bumped on escalator. Probably escalator.

Get back to room and turn it upside down. No wallet there. Fuck. I have a bout of diarrhea from stress. There was about $200 American dollars  worth of Chinese currency (1200 yuan) and $60 American bucks. Fuck. The money however isn’t the worst part. Someone took my license, credit cards, ATM card. Everything in my wallet is gone.

I only have $450 in cash hidden in suitcase. Ugh. Not much I can buy now.

Go to tell front desk and they are so confused. Only one girl speaks English.  I try Chinese and they don’t seem to get it. Finally, English speaker comes over and I tell her to call the police because my wallet was stolen. She asks from the hotel in a voice laced with not again. I say no from Wanda guan Chang.

She ask what is missing. I say 3 credit cards. 2 bank cards. And 1200 yuan( about 150$).

Then i cry a bit.

She calls police and tells us someone from foreign office will call back. Says go to room and wait.

So we ask how to call credit cards and cancel all of them. She opens phone for international calls–8 yuan per minute. Way to rape someone who just got robbed.

OL and I get to room and start calling credit card companies and bank. Takes about 30 minutes to call all those places. Luckily wrote down the account numbers and non US phone numbers for each company. No one used my cards. Thank goodness.

Reissue all cards to CT address. Except one credit card sent to Beijing hotel.

I luckily have 88$ American in my purse still and 450$ in my suitcase hidden.

But not having access to cash freaks me out.

Also being victim of crime, even a non-violent one leaves me shaken and feeling unsafe.

Especially since I know Chinese people robbed me and I’m surrounded by them. Now logic says anyone can be a thief, but it just happened in China, which has a really really homogeneous population. So how can I possibly feel safe?

I finish card canceling and go downstairs to see what is going on. It’s been over an hour since I reported the wallet stolen. 2pm now. Front desk girl tells me foreign office of police department will come at 3pm. So I should wait in room.

At 3pm,  she calls and tells us to come down stairs. She brings us outside and we are put into the police car. The driver speaks little English and takes us outside the city gate to the police station. Driving is intense. Airconditioning doesn’t work.We get there and he leaves us outside building to wait.

Finally comes to get us and bring us to 18th floor. We follow him around to office where people are supposed to speak English but no one does to us. They tell me to fill out form and then walk away.

No one asks what happened. No one cares. Or rather all they care about is the exact amount of money stolen. Because they ask me half a dozen times about that. I’m not sure if it’s because there is a certain threshold where they must investigate or if they are calculating their kickback from the pickpocket ring.

Ol watches. One woman instant messages on computer, one stays on cell phone and another browses Internet. The only competent person gets harassed by everyone else. We are waiting for her to read my report. She laughs when gets to part about being bumped and jostled on escalator being a common occurrence.

She stamps and signs off on stuff. Give me confirmation of filing. Refuses to give me copy of report. I’m so frustrated and upset. And this felt so pointless.

I cry as we leave in elevator. Then I cry in car ride back. I’m just so upset at having my property stolen. Now I feel like I cannot trust anyone and have to be on constant guard. My default is to spit kick and hit if anyone touches me now. Which pretty much ruins the rest of my time in China.

OL comforted me and gave me tissues. Finally I calmed down.

And I realize we are in the middle of nowhere. The cop has taken us to some back road with broken down buildings. I’m thinking he’s gonna get rid of the foreigners. Then he puts the car in park  but leaves it running. He  grabs two bags and says just a minute.

He brings something into one of the houses. OL and I burst out laughing. This is the kind of shit that happens to us.

He comes back with two cokes for us. I open mine and almost spray myself then his driving nearly spills it on me. OL wisely refrains from opening his.

The sugar helps.

We continue on a rip roaring ride back to our hotel. The police man drops us off and wishes us well.

Lol. So since I’m technically penniless we decide to hit the bank and convert $60 American dollars. This takes 20 minutes. Ten or so stampings of papers. Four people. A review of my passport and visa. My signature on something. And two counting machines.

Finally I get 379 yuan. Ouch US dollar at all time low. I do make jokes about not using ATM since I got robbed.

We decide to rest a bit and salvage the day with some night photos. Ofc it takes forever to get dark here. At 7:20 still light so we wander down an old calligraphy road I read about.

OL gets some more paper cuts. We both get this flute thing we can’t play.

Head back to nan men still no lights on tower. So we go to Subway for dinner. Then we walk outside at 8:30. Nan men is illuminated.

Pretty. We walk up to the bell tower and drum tower and take some pics.

Then walk back to hotel. Get a little turned around and end up at the park.

Cute. Flying electric kites. Neat.

We come back to room.

I had a pleasant time walking around tonight but I’m angry and I’m hyper vigilant. I don’t feel like I’m on vacation anymore. I feel homesick for the first time. I put a luggage lock on my purse so no one can slide it open ever again.

I kinda hate this city right now. I hate this country right now. I wish I wasn’t here. It’s a lawless, filthy place without any redeeming qualities. At least in my eyes. The people live in filth and squalor.

The retched smells seeping out of the ground indicate it’s a bad bad place. Nothing good ever came of something that smells rotten and rotted to the core.

Maybe it’s because I was violated and I’m still reeling from it. But I cannot see this place as anything but a hotbed for evil. The corruption the Communists tried to extinguish is thriving in their pseudo-capitalism. Congrats. You’ve brought back everything wrong with the original republic.