Trip to Beijing!

Do you like traveling? Because I sure don’t like going down to those big airports and mounting on to those fast big jets!

Anyways, you better pay attention and listen up carefully, because I’m going to tell you a secret that not many people know about me; Well, I’m actually acrophobic and scared of heights … Remember not to tell anyone!

When I looked down, I had the sense that I was going to fall down. I found myself at least 50 feet off the ground. Seriously, that is creepy… 

I was in a Chinese made orange cable car. As soon as I tread onto the cable car, my step made the car sway from one end to the other started making me lose balance to wave around as I sat on one side, I was scared, and when my dad and my dad’s friend got on, they both sat on the other side of the cable car, I felt even more scared, in fact I felt hopeless. Them both weighing at least 60 kg each and me just weighing under 40 kg sitting on one side? The cable car started to bank backwards, and as I tried to look at objects at far away distances, I felt like vomiting. But they both were happily laughing and “giggling” their heads off, I just wanted to hug my dad… Although that is pretty humiliating for an 11 year old kid hugging his father? If any of my friends saw that, they would just start to provoke me. 

Anyways, the ride only took 5 minutes, although it felt like half an hour to me, it was disgraceful. Oh, excuse me for not clarifying where I was traveling; I was on a trip to go see one of the top ten great wonders of the world! In China, you are “required” to go see at least one famous historical structure, for example: the Great Wall. As we got up to the Great Wall, the landscape was breathtaking; everywhere was covered in natural habitat as if it were pristine. As we stepped onto the great wall, I asked myself: “how was it ever possible to bring such hefty bricks up these steep and narrow mountains”? We looked across to see the other side of the Great Wall. And this just blew my mind, all I saw was steep perpendicular staircases, and it would just go on and on and on. It was just steps of millions. 

As my dad took his camera out to take a picture, I saw a child and his mother speedily walking downstairs. At that point, I thought that I was a psychic; I knew that the child was going to stumble; he was just like a little 5-year-old kid running around on slippery steps. Two seconds later, all I saw was just a little rock rolling down 3 sets of staircases and the mother running after. I personally wouldn’t have run down that staircase. 

When I looked to see that everything was black, I knew something was wrong, so just to check, I rubbed my eyes to see if it were just I. But it wasn’t, I looked up to see a big patch of cloud and a splash in my face, my face was wet. Well, what can we say? Life is unpredictable eh? Anything can happen. As we carried our tiresome walk to another depot (another structure such as: weaponry room, cooking room, sleeping area etc.) I realized that this place hasn’t been touched ever since it was built, none of it was, even the tiles on the floor, they were all still intact, but some of them have cracks or had been smashed. As we were paying too much attention to the stunning terrain, my dad almost tripped because of a broken fractured slate tile. 

Anyways after we arrived to our designated location, the watchtower, we went to the roof, and stared at the million-stair staircase, and took great photos, especially with my dad’s friends Leica camera that was encased with a leather cover. Suddenly a stranger (probably from a country from Asia) came up and asked us graciously in English for us to help him take a photo. It’s surprisingly wonderful how people around the whole world can speak English, right? But I think someday Pu Tong Hua will take over the language of English used in the world, and will be the most popular language in use! I especially noticed, all the tourists up at the Great Wall were from foreign countries such as: Russia, England and the US. But they were all expensive: Canon, Sony, and all of them in possession of professional cameras!

Well, we had to go home some time; we couldn’t stay forever although I wished I could! So we began our final descent down back to where we came from, and I had the same instinct as coming up, just even worse. So this time, my dad had come to sit with me this time, so I felt quite safe but at the same time scared.  

What do you think about China? Do you think that you would like to stay in China for a living? I personally wouldn't want to stay in China to live, even for future endeavors. If you look at the people: spitting on the floor, mad driving on the streets? I’ve even seen a dead dog lying around the corner of a street! But I would like to be related to China in some sort of way for business because I am pretty sure that China will be the future market! A market that includes all items: cars, cameras, food, eyeglasses, blankets etc.  

That night, we intentionally reserved a table at a restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. In fact, do you know what Beijing cuisine is famous for? Because when you visit this restaurant, it will blow your mind! Beijing cuisine is famous for eating Peking Duck “北京烤鴨”and Peking dumplings “北京羊肉水餃”. That restaurant name was pretty funny… Guess what the name was? Made In China! The restaurant decoration was pretty much Western and there was an open kitchen where you could see the chef’s cooking! All the fresh aroma, from meat to vegetable could be sensed from the whole entire restaurant. Our reservation table was right in front of the dumpling counter; they would make the dumplings right in front of us. Good way to learn how to make good and tasty dumplings! Lets skip to the yummy and tasty bit. When our Peking duck arrived, we had a chef cut it up live, in front of us. And when we received our duck, all of us just plucked for the skin, the reason why was; the skin was the most tasty part, it just melted instantly as soon as it would come in contact with your tongue. When we asked for our cheque 買單, I took a little peek at it, and it wasn’t that expensive compared to Hong Kong! 

Driving in China is one of the lousiest places to drive on earth, especially on 长安街. Chang An Street is the densest area in Beijing. The road simply is just an uncurving road; it goes on for miles and miles. If you were in the middle of rush hour, you will have taxis to buses pushing and honking their way to every minuscule space you could imagine. A ride supposing to only take 15 minutes home became a disaster of becoming 45 minutes. Terrible isn’t it? What is the difference between driving in Hong Kong (apart from terrible driving)? Well, there are only two main differences, and they are; that the driver seat would be on the left side instead of the right, and that you have to drive on the right side of the road and not the left side. But does it make a significant difference? I doubt it makes a difference, but I guess that’s the way the Chinese government prefers it!