Beijing Day 2

Last time on "Masta in China!!"
So after the peking opera, I went back to the hotel room.... I saw something in my bed that I had never seen before...

Now the conclusion.
There were clean sheats! In fact, everything in the room had been placed in order. They even put all my coins in a neat little pile on the bureau. Amazing!!Moving on.

Each city on the tour had one specialty place where the tour guides would bring you to spend some serious RMB (chinese currency). Beijing's place, was the Jade Factory.

As I passed some girls at the factory, they started giggling and staring. I talked to them a bit, they ask where I'm from what I study. It's interesting. Being black in China gets you a lot of attention. This, was good attention and much appreciated! Later in our journey across China I'll give some examples of bad attention!

Anyway, definately one of the highlights of my trip was the Great Wall of China. At first the task doesn't seem so daunting. You can see a rampart at what looks like the top of the mountain. You see little kids and elderly people gleefully scampering up the steep stone stairs. Before beginning your ascent there's a tablet that says something like, "If you make it to the top, you're a real hero!" allegedly written by Mao himself. (When I spoke to other people they later told me that the actual saying is, 'you're not a real man until you've climbed the great wall'. Slight difference).




So I climb an exhausting flight of stairs. You get to one rampart and realize there is another. No problem, I climb to the next higher level of the wall. Now I'm already pretty tired. My tour guide had already left me, "I'll see you when you get back." and she took some pictures and abandonned me. And it seemed every time you reached a higher level, there was just more. I noticed less and less old people as I climbed ever higher. Dead bodies were strewn on the steps, killed by the arduous climb. Finally, I was certain I had reached the top.... then I could here the voice of DMX in my head going, "WHAT???" There was still more.





I thought forty five minutes of climbing stairs in the hot sun was more than enough. I took a seat on a ledge and perused some pictures, anticipating returning to Gloria and Mr. Liu in disgrace. Then some old man came up to me and started saying things in Chinese. I imagine he was saying, "You're almost there!! Don't give up now!" But he could have just as easily have been saying, "Black Guy? In China?? that's not good... :-("



But whatever he said, gave me the strength of three grinches, plus 2! For I climbed the rest of the way to the top, where other heroes were posing for pictures. I asked this british guy to take a picture of me while I was a the top. I thought to myself. "Good thing I didn't come to China with those dainty doilies back home!!!"




You're probably wondering, "Masta... Which dainty doilies do you refer to???" I'll name them. Justin Beauchamp, Vrej Hezaran, Kenny, Biowives, Mel (you can guess which one(s)), and some others. Rez, Pam, Bassem and Pat get the benefit of the doubt but still...

Anyway, when I was through taking pics at the top, I ran down the hill and that was that. Good times. I visited some place called the sacred way, which is a long path with statues of animals leading to the emperor's tomb, which I also visited. I can't remember which emperor but I think it was the emperor of the Qin dynasty... Or some such...

Anyway, that night I had some free time. I needed to find myself a memory card. I STRUT down the street, going from place to place, trying futily to communicate with people. What I find very strange is that I wasn't once approached by any beggars. Later during my trip, it got really ubsurd.



And then it hapenned. A group of cute girls see me. They giggle and wave, "Hi!!!!" Oooh... Looks like there's a little flirting goin' on... I figure, what the hell, I'll be adventurous for a change...

to be continued...