Beijing so far...
So I'm in Beijing right now. I don't post often enough anymore.
Got sent here for work, will be here until the 19th.
Pollution is terrible. Stuff is cheap. It's weird to be visiting a foreign country where I could understand what people are saying (unlike Paris and Tokyo).
Forgot to bring my camera, 'cause I'm an idiot. I've picked up a disposable camera though, so hopefully I'll have some nice pictures. If not, I've been using my iPhone for a lot of pictures.
Went to a dance club friday night, was bought a coors beer by a coworker. It was surprisingly more like sprite without sugar than anything.
Saturday was wandering around the forbidden city, followed by the mountain/temple behind the forbidden city. Had my first experience at haggling - there was a "dress up as the emperor outfit and we'll take pictures of you" tourist trap. They did two pictures, but one with a random girl. But I said I couldn't take that one, 'cause then people would ask who that was, where was my girlfriend, etc. Ended up knocking down the price from 35 元 per picture to 40 for both.
Sunday was walking 8km of the Great Wall, from Jinshanling to Simatai. 3 hour bus ride to Jinshanling, then a cable car ride up to the wall, followed by a LOT of steps. A local woman attached herself to me and followed about 1/2 of the way and she offered some pretty good suggestions for better picture spots and noted places where I could go up to the top of the watch towers. Ended up being too nice and buying a set of chopsticks and postcards for 70 元 (about $10 USD). Managed to sprain my ankle a few towers later, when we took the stupid route and had to drop down from a watchtower down to a slope. Despite saying "yes, we should turn around, face the wall, and lower ourselves down", I was a dumb, overconfident kitty and sat-jumped down. Landed on my feet (of course), but my foot twisted inwards with a rather unhappy pop. My ankles are pretty damn flexible normally, but I think this was probably a bit too much. Self-diagnosing a moderate level 1 sprain (there's no pain if I just stand on it, but poking at it and twisting it causes low amounts of pain). Hopefully it'll heal by next week, so I can still enjoy Yosemite.
Also haggled a 10 元 bottle of half-frozen water down to 3 元. Yay me! It was like,
Her: "10 元"
Me: "so expensive"
Her: "so what would you pay for it"
Me: "2 元"
Her: "that would be robbing us! Us, poor old ladies that carried it all the way here."
Me: "I don't need it - I still have some water"
Her: "that's not enough! they don't sell more later"
Me: "I don't need it and it's still too expensive"
Her: "4 元"
Me: [I walked around them and started walking away]
Her: "3 元, 3 元!"
Probably should have started my price at 1 元, so I could knock it down to 2 元, but hell, my hotel charges 6 元 for a frigging bottle in my room. Much better than the white guy who paid 100 元 for two bottles. I don't know what he was thinking...
At the end of the walk, I took the zipline down - pretty awesome, hopefully the video came out ok.
Dinner was a chain restaurant "California Beef Noodle King", which was weird, 'cause I had never seen it in cali before. :D
Also, stupid chinese girls are all too stupidly thin. Looking for a L sized skirt. All the ones I've seen (in windows of shops) have turned out to be like... for twigs. XD Although they're all relatively cheap for the most part, so haggling may not be too necessary...
Got sent here for work, will be here until the 19th.
Pollution is terrible. Stuff is cheap. It's weird to be visiting a foreign country where I could understand what people are saying (unlike Paris and Tokyo).
Forgot to bring my camera, 'cause I'm an idiot. I've picked up a disposable camera though, so hopefully I'll have some nice pictures. If not, I've been using my iPhone for a lot of pictures.
Went to a dance club friday night, was bought a coors beer by a coworker. It was surprisingly more like sprite without sugar than anything.
Saturday was wandering around the forbidden city, followed by the mountain/temple behind the forbidden city. Had my first experience at haggling - there was a "dress up as the emperor outfit and we'll take pictures of you" tourist trap. They did two pictures, but one with a random girl. But I said I couldn't take that one, 'cause then people would ask who that was, where was my girlfriend, etc. Ended up knocking down the price from 35 元 per picture to 40 for both.
Sunday was walking 8km of the Great Wall, from Jinshanling to Simatai. 3 hour bus ride to Jinshanling, then a cable car ride up to the wall, followed by a LOT of steps. A local woman attached herself to me and followed about 1/2 of the way and she offered some pretty good suggestions for better picture spots and noted places where I could go up to the top of the watch towers. Ended up being too nice and buying a set of chopsticks and postcards for 70 元 (about $10 USD). Managed to sprain my ankle a few towers later, when we took the stupid route and had to drop down from a watchtower down to a slope. Despite saying "yes, we should turn around, face the wall, and lower ourselves down", I was a dumb, overconfident kitty and sat-jumped down. Landed on my feet (of course), but my foot twisted inwards with a rather unhappy pop. My ankles are pretty damn flexible normally, but I think this was probably a bit too much. Self-diagnosing a moderate level 1 sprain (there's no pain if I just stand on it, but poking at it and twisting it causes low amounts of pain). Hopefully it'll heal by next week, so I can still enjoy Yosemite.
Also haggled a 10 元 bottle of half-frozen water down to 3 元. Yay me! It was like,
Her: "10 元"
Me: "so expensive"
Her: "so what would you pay for it"
Me: "2 元"
Her: "that would be robbing us! Us, poor old ladies that carried it all the way here."
Me: "I don't need it - I still have some water"
Her: "that's not enough! they don't sell more later"
Me: "I don't need it and it's still too expensive"
Her: "4 元"
Me: [I walked around them and started walking away]
Her: "3 元, 3 元!"
Probably should have started my price at 1 元, so I could knock it down to 2 元, but hell, my hotel charges 6 元 for a frigging bottle in my room. Much better than the white guy who paid 100 元 for two bottles. I don't know what he was thinking...
At the end of the walk, I took the zipline down - pretty awesome, hopefully the video came out ok.
Dinner was a chain restaurant "California Beef Noodle King", which was weird, 'cause I had never seen it in cali before. :D
Also, stupid chinese girls are all too stupidly thin. Looking for a L sized skirt. All the ones I've seen (in windows of shops) have turned out to be like... for twigs. XD Although they're all relatively cheap for the most part, so haggling may not be too necessary...