Again... China
Hey All Again
Yesterday I wrote an email yesterday but the internet here is a little dodgy and it deleted it and I was so annoyed that I couldn’t be bothered rewriting it so I will apologies if this entry is overly long. I will add a photo for people who don’t like reading and prefer visual stimulation.
So yesterday I was at the Xuan Hospital which I think I mentioned is a western medicine hospital with a tradition Chinese medicine ward. We were with the same doctor as the day before, the jolly Chinese man who is the best Chinese massager in the whole of China apparently, who both Samantha and I liked very much. He is so much fun to listen to even when you don’t know Chinese! Well we had quite a few patients today, many of which were simple massage. The thing that Samantha and I could not get over was that patients would just walk in on the doctor while he was treating other patients.. Some patients have their pants down and there tops up.. etc. Usually the patients had some cupping done as well (my cupping bruises are still quite visible). One such patient receiving cupping was a lovely older lady with lower back pain; the cups were coming off one by one and then the last one was removed.. OMG... the suction had been so great the skin was covered with blisters! The doctor swabbed them with some ?antiseptic? I think and then the lady got dressed... her pants did up so they would be rubbing on the blisters all day, I couldn’t think of something more painful at that time. The doctor also looked at our tongues and told as true things about our bodies.. Like I get hot at night, which I do.. stupid hot flushes, it was creepy and cool. Finally we were at the last patient before our time with the doctor was over. This patient had bad back pain and sciatica, the doctor did some basic massage on the legs and back then he asked the patient to roll onto her side and he picked up a.. NO JOKE.. a 25cm fine filament needle... it was very thin but as mentioned it was at least 25cm... He wiped the shaft of the needle with um some kind of antiseptic and then waved us close.. We shouldn’t have gone, we should have said no but... As we soon realised after he plunged that needle all the way into the area were her sciatic nerve would be... WE WERE HORRIFIED.. not only did he stick all 25cms of that needle into this woman’s side he then proceeded to pull it out and plunge it back in repeatedly like sewing machine needle!!!! All I could think of was that when we do injections in that site we try very hard to avoid that nerve as it can cause excruciating pain and paralysis and this doctor was blithely sticking his needle there. They laughed at the expressions on our faces.. he wasn’t wearing gloves and it was obvious that while he cleaned that needle he reused it often.
So freed of that craziness we went to the market to get some boots for walking the great wall as we knew it would be very cold. I got mine for $40 I think I was ripped off but Samantha says I always say that... they are real leather and come to my knees so I guess I cannot complain too much. I also found myself a beautiful Majong set.. Made of bamboo, and in a wonderful box for $20. I was happy with my purchases..
We were later picked up to go to a meeting were some nursing students asked questions about nursing in Australia. Most of which revolved around how much we get paid...
So ended that day
Today was the day we got to go to the great wall, and it was a beautiful day, clear and sunny, very brisk outside. We got driven to the wall in a nice warm minivan, the views once we were out of the city of the wall were amazing we were very excited. The place of the wall were we were visiting is called Badaling and it is the most touristy spot, but thats ok, we rugged up tight and stepped out of the van.... AND GOT CUT DOWN BUT THE COLDEST, ICIEST, FREEZINGEST wind your could ever imagine. This section of the wall is 1000m above sea level and the temperature out of the wind was around -3... with the wind I am sure that it dropped to -10. It was like knives on all your exposed skin. The wall itself is breathtaking.. It is a feat of engineering that is almost unimaginable in this day and age. The mountains we were in are rough and jagged and the thought of building a wall over and around them is staggering. The snow had turned to ice on the wall itself and so the walk was very difficult as it has stairs of differing heights some very shallow and many very deep. There are straight flat bits that turn in to steep climbs that have no stairs the make the ice all the more dangerous. If this was in Australia it would not have been opened. The ice and snow was whipped up by that horrible wind and blow in our faces so it felt like my cheeks were being cut to pieces. But for all that we walked the entire section of that wall.. It took over an hour and by the end my toes where numb and my knees aching and my cheeks just hurt. And I wouldn’t have missed it for the world... The view is staggering... You look in the distance and as far as your eye can see there is the wall... snaking in and out and over the mountains. I was amazed... I can’t wait to see it again on my tour as we are going to a little known section and walking it for nearly 4 hours. We were too tired to brave the wind again going back the way we came so we caught the cable cart down... and that was an experience in itself.. The wind got that car swinging so that some of the people in the car with me were grabbing the side and squeaking in alarm. I thoroughly enjoyed myself! J
At the base we had lunch in a restaurant which was nice and warm and made my body ache to get that little bit of heat into it. Now we are home... we had BBQ again for dinner... Delicious!!
Tomorrow it is Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven!! I can’t wait, also I know that it will be warmer! MUCH, MUCH, WARMER!
Lots of Love
Amelia
xoxox
Yesterday I wrote an email yesterday but the internet here is a little dodgy and it deleted it and I was so annoyed that I couldn’t be bothered rewriting it so I will apologies if this entry is overly long. I will add a photo for people who don’t like reading and prefer visual stimulation.
So yesterday I was at the Xuan Hospital which I think I mentioned is a western medicine hospital with a tradition Chinese medicine ward. We were with the same doctor as the day before, the jolly Chinese man who is the best Chinese massager in the whole of China apparently, who both Samantha and I liked very much. He is so much fun to listen to even when you don’t know Chinese! Well we had quite a few patients today, many of which were simple massage. The thing that Samantha and I could not get over was that patients would just walk in on the doctor while he was treating other patients.. Some patients have their pants down and there tops up.. etc. Usually the patients had some cupping done as well (my cupping bruises are still quite visible). One such patient receiving cupping was a lovely older lady with lower back pain; the cups were coming off one by one and then the last one was removed.. OMG... the suction had been so great the skin was covered with blisters! The doctor swabbed them with some ?antiseptic? I think and then the lady got dressed... her pants did up so they would be rubbing on the blisters all day, I couldn’t think of something more painful at that time. The doctor also looked at our tongues and told as true things about our bodies.. Like I get hot at night, which I do.. stupid hot flushes, it was creepy and cool. Finally we were at the last patient before our time with the doctor was over. This patient had bad back pain and sciatica, the doctor did some basic massage on the legs and back then he asked the patient to roll onto her side and he picked up a.. NO JOKE.. a 25cm fine filament needle... it was very thin but as mentioned it was at least 25cm... He wiped the shaft of the needle with um some kind of antiseptic and then waved us close.. We shouldn’t have gone, we should have said no but... As we soon realised after he plunged that needle all the way into the area were her sciatic nerve would be... WE WERE HORRIFIED.. not only did he stick all 25cms of that needle into this woman’s side he then proceeded to pull it out and plunge it back in repeatedly like sewing machine needle!!!! All I could think of was that when we do injections in that site we try very hard to avoid that nerve as it can cause excruciating pain and paralysis and this doctor was blithely sticking his needle there. They laughed at the expressions on our faces.. he wasn’t wearing gloves and it was obvious that while he cleaned that needle he reused it often.
So freed of that craziness we went to the market to get some boots for walking the great wall as we knew it would be very cold. I got mine for $40 I think I was ripped off but Samantha says I always say that... they are real leather and come to my knees so I guess I cannot complain too much. I also found myself a beautiful Majong set.. Made of bamboo, and in a wonderful box for $20. I was happy with my purchases..
We were later picked up to go to a meeting were some nursing students asked questions about nursing in Australia. Most of which revolved around how much we get paid...
So ended that day
Today was the day we got to go to the great wall, and it was a beautiful day, clear and sunny, very brisk outside. We got driven to the wall in a nice warm minivan, the views once we were out of the city of the wall were amazing we were very excited. The place of the wall were we were visiting is called Badaling and it is the most touristy spot, but thats ok, we rugged up tight and stepped out of the van.... AND GOT CUT DOWN BUT THE COLDEST, ICIEST, FREEZINGEST wind your could ever imagine. This section of the wall is 1000m above sea level and the temperature out of the wind was around -3... with the wind I am sure that it dropped to -10. It was like knives on all your exposed skin. The wall itself is breathtaking.. It is a feat of engineering that is almost unimaginable in this day and age. The mountains we were in are rough and jagged and the thought of building a wall over and around them is staggering. The snow had turned to ice on the wall itself and so the walk was very difficult as it has stairs of differing heights some very shallow and many very deep. There are straight flat bits that turn in to steep climbs that have no stairs the make the ice all the more dangerous. If this was in Australia it would not have been opened. The ice and snow was whipped up by that horrible wind and blow in our faces so it felt like my cheeks were being cut to pieces. But for all that we walked the entire section of that wall.. It took over an hour and by the end my toes where numb and my knees aching and my cheeks just hurt. And I wouldn’t have missed it for the world... The view is staggering... You look in the distance and as far as your eye can see there is the wall... snaking in and out and over the mountains. I was amazed... I can’t wait to see it again on my tour as we are going to a little known section and walking it for nearly 4 hours. We were too tired to brave the wind again going back the way we came so we caught the cable cart down... and that was an experience in itself.. The wind got that car swinging so that some of the people in the car with me were grabbing the side and squeaking in alarm. I thoroughly enjoyed myself! J
At the base we had lunch in a restaurant which was nice and warm and made my body ache to get that little bit of heat into it. Now we are home... we had BBQ again for dinner... Delicious!!
Tomorrow it is Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven!! I can’t wait, also I know that it will be warmer! MUCH, MUCH, WARMER!
Lots of Love
Amelia
xoxox