The Great China Adventure - Part 1

When: April 29, 2007
Who: Laura, Miyuki-sensei, Shinobu-sensei, Goto-san, Mateo and Mark (Mateo's uncle)
Where: CHINA!!
Info: Shinobu found this cheap tour of Beijing early in the new year and it slowly morphed into a kind of staff trip (4 of us work/worked at Obu school). It was my first time on a tour...and it was a Japanese tour. There were ups, there were downs, there were good times and bad but wow...what an experience!

The insanity began at Chubu International Airport (another Japanese man-made island airport located only 30min from my apartment). After some tense moments [due to Mark and a BIG bottle of Armani cologne (more than the allowed 100mL)] we finally got into the airport and could look around.

It only took 3 hrs to get to Tianjin and I slept almost the whole way. The food was pretty good (way to go JAL). No dust cake or tasteless pasta, like on Airtransat. We emerged from a cloud to see the countryside of Tianjin.


Our first encounter with our tour guide involved running across the road of death in front of the airport (I should have known that meant something...). We hopped in our van with another Japanese family (mom, dad, 20-something son) and I think we all thanked the gods that we weren't in the van beside us, which had to be pushed by three men to get it started...

It was a 2 hour ride to Beijing. A 2 hour ride to Beijing going at least 150km. My window photos are kind of blurry because that's how it looked due to the speed our crazy bus driver was going. Immediately I could tell I wasn't in Japan anymore. Nothing was the familiar. The countryside was dotted with shacks and crumbling neighbourhoods. People pushed bikes laden with scrap materials and drove cars with passengers' feet hanging out of windows.

Again, I think everyone on our bus (well at least those of us who were awake) said a little prayer of thanks when we passed this bus (below). If you squint, you might be able to see that people are lying down, scrunched up and squeezed into the little compartments of this double decker bus.

Once we got off the toll highway and into Beijing it all changed. The poverty disappeared and now new snazzy cars drove along a highway decorated with flower planters.

2008 Olympic sight #1: The very modern-looking stadium.


So the tour we were on was quite cheap. One way they could offer such a cheap tour was by making us go to designated tourist shops, where they pressured us to buy expensive (and tacky) souvenirs. First stop, the jade store. I was more interested in the insane architecture around this place than the overpriced jade doo-daas.



To me, this looked like a temple (above) had met some kind of Lord of the Rings inspired amusement park. Below, is some kind of olympic themed garden...it was sketchy...

Next door to the overpriced jade store was our first meal. We were all kind of anxious and not sure what was going on (our tour guide just kind of disappeared and one of the waitresses was really moody)...

Above: Mark, Mateo and Miyuki


Food was good. But it was no Lee Gardens.

Eri, Shinobu, me.
You know you're on a tour when...a guy comes out of the kitchen to do a noodle cutting performance.

Back in the van, I marveled at all of the construction...and the pollution/yellow sand. Interesting fact: The nearest desert is only 18km from Beijing and the sands are blowing towards it at a rate of 2 km per year! Who knows, one day Beijing might be a desert.

Below: Olympic sight #2 - another stadium??


We drove for about 1/2 hr and suddenly parts of the Great Wall appeared in the hills. We all jumped to the windows of the bus and ooo-ed and awww-ed. Finally we pulled up at at building right beside a huge gate that led to part of the wall. Ladies and gentlemen, this was our hotel for the night!

The amazing Juyongguan Great Wall Hotel.

While the rooms weren't amazing (you can see how the hallway light shone into the room and the bed was crazy hard)...

this was the view from the hotel courtyard!




We hung out at the hotel, taking pictures and walking around, until the sun went down. Back into the bus we went and off to Badaling (the most touristy section of the wall) to see it illuminated.





We returned to the hotel. Miyuki and I watched some Chinese opera (it was on at least 5 channels) and then went to bed early because the next day we were going to climb the Great Wall of China!!

Stayed tuned for Great Wall climbing, the Ming Tomb race, dim sum, more tourist trap horror stories and a night at the Chinese opera!