The Great Blonde of China

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Today was our first outing with the SMU group. We are now officially part of a "tour group" with all that being in a large group of Americans wandering around China entails. Our morning began with a great breakfast at the hotel, then off we went in 3 charter buses to the Great Wall of China. We went to the most tourist-oriented section of The Wall at Badaling. We took gondolas from the "tourist base camp" to The Wall at 10:30 am. Once at The Wall, you could walk for as long as you wanted to walk, up to 2,000 miles either direction, as long as you were back at the tourist base camp by noon. Troy and I walked about 20 minutes in one direction, then about 20 minutes in the other direction, then we stopped and people-watched.

What surprised us the most is that while at the ancient and historical Great Wall, the tourist attraction wasn't The Wall...it seemed to be my blond hair and blue eyes. Several of my Asian brothers and sisters stopped me to take a photo with me. One family stopped me and asked if I would hold their baby while they took a picture. (See the photo?!?) Troy quickly wanted to turn me into a money-making machine and wondered if he could collect on every photo....but, before we arrived at The Wall, our tour guide encouraged us to be good sports if people wanted to take photos of us, so, we were good sports. (Troy just asked for an editorial note that he REALLY wasn't serious about collecting money on my blond hair...)

After The Wall, our entire group had lunch at a great restaurant where we ate yummy Chinese food family style. Then, those not suffering from jet lag, hit the Silk Markets for the afternoon. Wow...you could buy anything and everything knock-off. I almost got a pair of 7 jeans for 7US but you couldn't try them on and wasn't worth the risk. Troy bought a knock-off watch and we got Rev. Doug Meyer's souvenir among the watches, too. (Have to wonder what it is, Doug...)

As we boarded the bus at 5:15 pm to leave the Silk Market, I noticed a level of energy and excitement in my fellow busmates' voices that was different from when we left The Great Wall. People were all abuzz with the different "deals" they made on ties, purses, pearls, jeans and watches. When we left The Great Wall, we had spent a total of 2 hours from start to finish. When we left the Silk Market, we had spent a total of 3 hours. When we left The Great Wall, no one asked for more time at The Wall. When we left the Silk Market, the bus was trying to figure out how to make it back there tomorrow or Monday. History versus knock-off Gucci....God bless the USA.

It's now about 7 pm and Troy and I are about to leave for dinner, or, maybe hit the Silk Market again, who knows! :)

Tomorrow is the Forbidden City, a tour of a Chinese neighborhood called a "hutong" and then the Chinese acrobats. A busy day!