if you have an umbrella, you make the rules.

This weekend was quite possibly the most culturally awakening weekend of my life. The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) set up a 3-day tour for all of the international student volunteers. We filled at least nine coach buses and ravaged (seriously?) the city with digital camera flashes. The following is an account from those three days—some of which you may have already heard or read.

The tour was started with a propaganda stunt from the Chinese government (see previous post). However, they did feed us lunch and dinner, like they did every single day this weekend. Every meal was the same style and at many different restaurants. There were about 10 people to a round table and a huge round rotating disc in the middle, a ‘lazy susan’ if you will. When we got there, it would be laden with two one-liters of Coke, one liter of Sprite, and maybe tea or water. Then the waiters and waitresses would periodically bring out different dishes, always including white rice—which I am addicted to. The plates of meat or vegetable entrees would always exceed the available space on the table and would always be succeeded by a plate of watermelon slices (sometimes accompanied by other melons or grape tomatoes). In other words, A LOT of food. We never cleared all of the plates, and the food was so wasted at the end of the night. However, most of it was delicious. I ate things from Peking Duck, to a chicken and peanut thing, to duck wings, to a heated salad. The sad part about it is that I have no idea what all I ate. I mean, the waiter/ess would announce the meat present in the dish to the table, but the official name of the dish was an unknown.

Friday ended late because of the Beijing rush hour. Holy god. If you thought rush hour in the states was bad, try going to a city with 17 million people. It seemed as though every street, highway and sidewalk was blocked with cars. I just kept reminding myself of the 26 hour bus ride from El Paso in order to not complain like everyone else was. It sucked though because at least we were moving most of the bus ride to El Paso. So anyway, traffic mixed with the crazy Chinese drivers equals a headache for all.

We had an early call on Saturday in order to go to the Badaling Great Wall. It was the first renovated section opened to public, and was absolutely beautiful. There are other parts that are opened and other parts that the mountains have claimed. The drive there was amazing though. It was really nice to get away from the city to see something that wasn’t a propaganda ploy. It was a brilliantly clear day sans clouds and pollution. It was good and bad. Good because the pictures and experience was better than if it had been raining or smoggy. Bad because every single person from China was at the wall. Ok, not really. We did get delayed quite a while though because the President of Mexico was visiting that day. And of course, the President gets special treatment and blocked off streets and sidewalks for his presence, but I am not bitter. Really. We got up to the wall eventually. The crowd to get through the small gate was so bad though. People with umbrellas and sweaty smelly grandparents were pushing and prodding at people to move. It sucked for us because we had to somehow stay with our tour group in order to get it. It was similar to a mosh pit with umbrellas in 120 degree weather with no breeze. Fun fun! We got in eventually and OH MAN.

I did not think it would affect me as much as it did, but I was moved. The thought of people lugging the material and men up these mountains without machinery and building a 1,000 km (a little over 600 miles) wall is just insane. Granted, it was built in three separate dynasties and is not all connected, but the feat is still unimaginable. I climbed as high as I could before I thought I was going to pass out (and almost did anyway). Some of the parts of the wall were steep ramps, and others were sets of uneven stairs. I think the ramps were worse than the stairs for sure. Once I got to my “top” I looked down and it was such an incredible view! I would see mountains, distant parts of the wall, and Hawaii! OK, maybe not Hawaii. It was unbelievable though. Another cute addition to the scenery was a “Hollywood”-like sign built into one of the walls. It was advertising the Olympics. Anything for those g-damn cute-lookin’ bears. Anyway, we made it back down the wall, and it was a lot harder than coming up just because you had to really pay attention to what you were doing or you would roll all the way down a cement and brick hill. I could have spent all day there though. It sucks that we only got an hour and a half, but we visited other things that day too—though a lot less awe-inspiring.

We saw the Ming Tombs on Saturday Afternoon. They were not as astonishing as the Great wall, but an important part of Chinese history nonetheless. They are basically one temple per tomb then a huge-ass mound of dirt. Under the dirt is an ‘underground palace’ meant to house the dead and their valuables. There is only one excavated tomb because it is difficult to find the entranceway to the others. I enjoyed it.

Sunday was cram-packed as well. We went to the Summer Palace in the morning/afternoon. It is 3 times the size of the Forbidden city and is home to the world’s longest corridor. I walked in it. Does that make me cooler than you? Probably. It was all beautiful, but it was so hot and humid. Everyone was about dead by lunchtime, but the show needed to go on. We drove then to the Winter Palace which is a bunch of ruins from when the Anglo-french fought a war with the Chinese. I don’t know. Everything was a blur by that point. We had dinner then were taken to the Chang an opera. That woke us up for sure.

I had been to an opera before, but it was nothing like this one. I was in a pretty close row to the stage, but I was too close to be able to see most of the subtitle screen. I only got half of the dialogue I think, and the actions did not explain what was going on at all. The opera was called ‘The Marriage of the Pheonix and the Dragon.’ It was very traditional the costumes, movements, musical instruments and theme (from what I got anyway). However, some of the instruments and music sounded like pots and pans, and the signing was at times worse than nails on a chalkboard. The ability to reach such high decibels should be rewarded. See below video. It is worth seeing, believe me. Even if the music was iffy and a lot of the plot was lost in translation, I am so glad I got to go. It was the most culturally awakened I have ever been. That and when I learned the importance of an umbrella in my life.