This Days Pictures.
Yesterday was great (I'm in writing this the next morning because it was a very late night)
I did the tour to the great wall, and it was unbeliveable. I climbed as far up it as possible from the area where we went to it. Much of the great wall is in poor condiction so the whole wall can not be climbed.
the work climbed is very accurite all thought it is a wall of stone, and walking up it is like climbing a staircase it is a very difficult climb. The climb is very steep and some of the steps are almost as high as my knee.
Like the forbidden city it was very busy, however because the climb is so difficult the farather up you get the more isolated you are. By the end I was almost alone.
And of course as difficult as it is the climb the merchants find a way to get their with their carts to sell sodas's, water, or engraved plates certifii ng that "......... climbed the Great Wall."
We headed from their to some store where they tried to get us to buy jade. They had what I bought a friend in Gulin for 5x the price.
Then we headed to a chinese pharmacicual company. the explained the power of medition with 2 magic tricks. One of their medititors lite a light bulb by powering it with his body, and then he made us all hold hands and he made our fingers tingle.
they they had chinese doctors come in and diagnose us by checking our pulse and looking at our tongue. He was correct for what he said to me, but I didn't want to buy 80 dollars worth of pills and take 60 pills a day like he recommended.
From there was the ming tombs. A very overcrowed attraction. It was so overcrowed that it was totally unenjoyable.
I did meet some cool people on my tour bus. Most noteably was an american from Georgia named Ben. He's in his late 30's and works in Saudi Arabia, for a large company that makes carpets among other things. I learned about the lifestyle in Saudi Arabia from him.
At the factory none of the Saudi's work on the online. The saudi govemnment is so rich, because they own all the oil, that Saudi's don't work low end jobs. Rather then do that they can simply get live off the goverment of find some cushy job somewhere.
What I found most interesting is the encorship. they censor the internet for any sort of porn, liquor, or information about pork. You can't look up recipes that contain pork.
He described how he can buy pork from the black market for about 10 dollars a pound however. The mafia sells it.
You can also buy liquor that way, but many of his friends homebrew.
He said living their is great. You get paid alot for moving their, and you pay absolutely no taxes on anything. He gets 3 paid international airlines tickets a year. Basicly he found himself a great gig. He loves it.
After the tour I headed back to the hotel. I decided to go back to the same restaurant that I ate at last night because it was so good. I was sat at a table for 4 alone. I ordered a random item (beef with many spicy peppers) and beer.
As I was finishing my dinner the restaurant sat a chinese couple at my table with me. We started talking after a while. They were very nice and they insisted on buying my dinner for me (I really didn't want them to, it felt pretty wrong) but we talked for a while. He sells fabricks and goretex I belive to russia. He was very well traveled, and very nice. They even shared their dinner with me, so I was pretty stuffed.
Then I started to head back to my hotel. On the way I walked past a restaurant with a couple white people and a couple asain's sitting at a table. I asked them where they were from. On of them was from San Francisco. We said hello and then I walked on. Half a block later one them ran and caught up with me and invited me to drink with them. I sat down with them. One was from England, one China, one american, 2 french, and one from Mongolia. They were all very nice. They all lived in China doing verious jobs and they all spoke Chinese.
During the drinking I mostly spoke with Will (england),Yang Bing (china) and Robyn (san francisco). Will organizes concerts, Robyn does research for a chinese publication, and Yang Bing is a DJ. He doesn't speak english but Will and Robyn translated.
The converstaion started with the normal introductions and such and then turned to social/politcal discussions. I learned how the chinese are not nearly as happy with their situation as they outwardly appear to be. However they would not dare to say that to anyone unless they know them very well. The chinese goverment is still very repressive however they try to keep it more hidden now. They will still go into clubs and force random drugs tests and people, and if you're found positive you get thrown into jail.
Basicly I found myself talking to people who have an understanding of the chinese culture, but also the emerging underground culture.
I previously asked a chinese person about homosexaulty in china. I was told that it was non-exsistent. Obviously that is ludicrose.
Robrn told me that very recently the chinese government stopped looking at homosexuality as a mental sickness however, and things are looking better for gays. They now have publications and support groups and hotlines.
I also asked about christianity in China. I have a friend in america who knows people who smuggle bibles into china, but I've seen chruches in china. So the smuggleing thing didn't make sense to me. I asked about it and I guess that the bibles that the curches use here are editied.
The four of us headed over to Will's place. We continued to talk. Will does DJ'ing as well. He threw an underground rave at the Great Wall.
We started talking about the underground in China. The clubs and drug scene. They have what we have in america but in china it just needs to be very hidden.
Yang Bing just got a gig where he will be DJ'ing in switzerland. He'll be their for 2 weeks, his first time out of the country. He seems so excited about it. He asked me for all the travel tips I could give him.
So then we went clubbing. We went to 2 places. At both of them the doorman knew Will and let both of us in for free (the first time that has happend for me.)
The first place was pretty cool, and not too different from clubs in American. We didn't stay too long.
The 2nd place was better. Yang Bing was the DJ there and he is very good. I'm not big into the club scene, but I've been to clubs and when you hearing something that is that much better then what you've heard before, you know it. He is very good.
We stayed their till around three thiry in the monring and then headed out.
It was so odd to be in a club that is so similar to the ones in america, but realizing how much what I'm doing is so contrary to the society.
Many Chinese people don't realize this exsit. I'm remembing when Henry saw my perice how he's never seen anything like that before. At this place, just like american people are going around with face peircings.
So I basicly learned that many of things that I thought they didn't have in China they do have, but they are pretty secrative about them, because they have to be. It was quite an experience to learn about it the way I did.