Asia TR: Day 15: TPR China begins! Beijing Sightseeing. Great Wall, Forbidden City, factory tours

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The original version of this trip report, along with 48 pictures and
comments about them, can be found at:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1308191#p1308191

Day 15: TPR China begins! Beijing Sightseeing. Great Wall, Forbidden City,
factory tours

After just a meal the night before, the Theme Park Review Best of China
tour was ready to really begin, with a day of sightseeing, and a surprise
maybe credit, depending on how much of a credit whore you are. First we had
a breakfast buffet, which had a surprising amount of western foods. Of
course, I didn�t really get to appreciate it, since I�m not much of a
morning person, and usually show up at breakfast 10 minutes before we have
to leave! I value sleep more than breakfast. Usually on these trips, I have
my roommate shower first, then wake me when he�s ready to leave for
breakfast. Luckily, I can get ready pretty quickly. Then I head down for
breakfast, rushing in, as the restaurant people try to slowly seat me. I
just rush past them, give them my meal coupon and tell them I�m meeting
friends inside, to save time. I grab a few quick things, slug down some
juice, and throw a pile of bacon and/or sausages in a napkin to take with
me. Yeah, it�s tacky, but with what we were paying for those hotels, I
didn�t feel bad! They still saved a ton compared to what they�d have paid
if I�d sat down for a nice meal!

On the bus, Robb first spelled out the rules of the trip to everyone.
Basically, don�t be late, and don�t be stupid. If you�re late, they WILL
leave you behind. If you�re stupid, who knows what might happen! Luckily,
there would be very few violations of either rule on the trip, although I
did arrive a minute or two before the departure time several times! Then he
explained that we�d have to do some factory tours, which were basically
mandatory by the Chinese government, who run the tour companies. But they
hoped that if we could get most of them out of the way today (along with
the tea ceremony they did on the previous add-on day that I skipped,) that
hopefully, we wouldn�t have to do any of them on the busier days with the
bigger parks. We�d do this for the rest of the trip, trying to do the tours
in each area on the credit whoring/sightseeing days.

So, our first stop was a jade factory. It was actually kind of interesting
watching the workers work on the intricate jade pieces, seeing the various
steps that went into each overpriced piece we�d see in the showroom. The
jade factory tour guide explained all the steps and also explained how you
could tell fake jade: it didn�t have consistent color, if I�m remembering
correctly. As with all the factories, after the tour, we�d be lot out into
the huge showroom, where we�d see tons of other tour groups, spending a lot
more money than we were. I actually bought a little piece of jade and some
souvenirs at some of the tours. But I was one of the only people in our
group who did. Our tour guide must have hated us!

From there, we went to the Great Wall of China. Elissa took the tour guide
flag, and we all followed her past tons of tourist stalls selling
everything you could imagine and more. We walked by several pens of bears,
wallowing in their own feces. They were selling apples and other fruit you
could throw to the poor things. Feeling sorry for them, I had to buy a
batch, but I wondered if I was just contributing to their fecal condition.
They don�t have animal rights protests in China! Soon, we were making our
way up to the wall itself, via a surprise mode of transportation: an ALPINE
COASTER! Of course, the question is whether this would count as a credit.
More on this later. The ride is split up. You sit in trains full of alpine
coaster cars, chained together. First you take it up, which is all via a
chain lift. Later, when you�re ready to leave, you take it down. I�m sure
you could also walk up and down, but this was way more fun, and definitely
an appropriate method of transport for TPR!

We got up to the top, and once everyone was off, Elissa told us we�d have
30 minutes to explore the wall. Now, I love Elissa, but this was my only
major criticism of the trip. It�s the freaking Great Wall of China. It�s
massive. I didn�t expect to walk the whole nearly 4000 miles of it or even
spend the whole day there, but 30 minutes was a bit silly for such an
iconic historic world landmark. For the record, it is actually NOT one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but has been included on several
other lists of Seven Wonders over the years, including the Seven Wonders of
the Medieval World (which is odd, since it predates Medieval times by
nearly 2 millennia!) But like with everything on these trips, you make the
best of it. And official wonder or not, it truly is a wonder to behold,
branching off endlessly through the mountains as far as the smog would
allow us to see. People split up and many of us went as far as we safely
could, while leaving enough time to get back. Many, many pictures were
taken!

Then it was time to head back down, via alpine coaster. I�m still
completely torn on whether to count it as a credit. On one hand, I�ve
counted the other alpine coasters I�ve ridden. They ride like coasters and
are on track. But the guy had the brake on at least somewhat for most of
the ride, and it rally was more of a transportation than a ride. It was
fun, but not all that coaster-y. I�ve gone back and forth about whether or
not to count it. Originally, I thought yes, because I count all my other
alpine coasters, but I don�t use absolute rules on my list. I count some
water coasters, but not others. Take a look at the pictures, and see what
you think. At this point, I�m leaning more against counting it.

So, we rode the alpine coaster down, and spent a little time in the
shopping area. A few people tried various foods like squid on a stick. I
picked up a few souvenirs. And then we were off.

From there, we headed to another factory tour. This time it was vases and
the like. I remember almost nothing about it, which should tell you how
exciting it was!

Then we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Elissa had though
(and hoped!) that we weren�t going inside the city itself. But the tour
guide insisted, so we did. If I�d known we were going in, I probably
wouldn�t have gone the previous day, and would have done some other
sightseeing. But that�s how it worked out. So, we enjoyed the City again,
this time with a tour guide who explained a lot of the things that we had
seen, but not known what they were the previous day. And we didn�t spend as
much time there or see as much as we had the previous day (particularly the
indoor museum stuff), so it was still good we�d gone. We also took the
first big group photo of the trip, in front of the city.

Next up was a tour of a silk factory. It was actually pretty interesting
seeing the worms and their cocoons and how the silk was made. They had a
bunch of us stretch out the silk to see how strong and flexible it was.
Then, of course, they dumped us in the showroom! They kept trying to get us
to buy these huge comforters. They wouldn't take no for an answer, no
matter how many times we told them that this was the very beginning of a
three week trip, and we didn't want to lug a comforter around for three
weeks (including four planes!) They can ship them to us, too! Sorry, it's
not working with this group, guys. Give it up! We found Larry a suitably
garish shirt to buy, and Elissa bought something for KidTums, but I don�t
think anyone else bought anything. Instead, some of us spent the time and
had fun modeling women�s wear! ;-)

Then it was another typical meal on a lazy susan and back to the hotel.
Some people went to the night market to eat exotic fried foods on a stick,
like scorpions and baby birds. I probably would have gone if I�d known they
were going, but instead opted to catch up on some trip planning on the
computer.
Then, it was bed time. We had REAL coasters to ride the next morning!


"With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured,
the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us
all irrevocably." -Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
"The Drumhead", _Star Trek: The Next Generation_