Communism is a croc - China

I made to Beijing alright as well, but once I got off the bus it was a bit of a struggle. Unlike Tokyo and Seoul English isn't so popular. It seems to that taxis wont take a foreigner unless they have the whole cage and bulletproof glass setup (is it my Al Queda beard?). The hostel had said they would pick you up if you called, but after struggling for about an hour when I finally found someone who spoke decent English and would listen to me, when she rang them up they told me to get a cab. I was not impressed. Problem was it was no point arguing with them when I got there because their English was fairly limited. Anyway the first day continued to be a drama as I wanted to catch up with a friend who was here too. However we had phone issues so we missed meeting up with each other. That night I met an Irish girl (who was on her way home after a year teaching in Korea) who was in my room (co-ed rooms, can't complain!) and we decided to sight-see together for the next two days. So that worked well.

So we saw Tiananmen square, some of the forbidden city, the temple of heaven, the museum, and the pearl markets. The museum and Tiananmen square are quite good examples of Communist propaganda, with names like the Hall for the People etc.
My venturing to the markets was interesting. Like Thailand they had English when convenient for them. Especially "sellers English", for example - "special price for you...", "no, no money for that price" "no joke prices mister". I'm glad I had my Irish friend there the first time because she was better at bargaining than I was.
There were some other cool people at my hostel too, like an Afghan guy I was talking to earlier about Bollywood movies and NZ (after talking about Bride and Prejudice) and an eccentric German(?) woman who thought Hitch was the funniest movie in the world. Something interesting also is the Karaoke bar that you access from our hostel lobby. But strangely they don't let foreigners in there, and the waitresses wear vinyl dresses. Apparently Karaoke means something different in Asia (excluding Japan). For two nights I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant (really!) just down the alley from my hostel. The owners had a cute little girl who isn't scared of foreigners so I was high fiving her and hiding from her etc.

The next day I went to the Great Wall. It was interesting but we were followed the length of it by souvenir sellers. They really started to annoy me. They just wouldn't go away. Problem was I was with some American women who would occasionally give in and buy something, which just encouraged them more.

On my second to last night, I ventured onto the subway, (which I wish I did sooner, because it was comparatively simpler than Tokyo and Seoul's) in search of Peking Duck. I had a look at a shoe shop, and was convinced into buying some Reebok trainers. I talked them down to $15NZD so I was feeling happy with myself, but then on the long walk back (I was wearing them) the bottom bit of the sole came off (you know how they usually have different coloured bits on the sole, well the grip came off.) So annoyed! Especially after all the soul searching I had been doing about what to do with my faithful Airwalks that had seen me halfway up Mt Fuji and 10kms along the Great Wall, and how I felt like I was betraying them. So I was not impressed. Its a laugh how much dodgy selling goes on in a supposedly Communist country. I bought so much stuff I didn't want. In retrospect I can laugh about it, but at the time I was so annoyed.
Anyhow, the following day I decided to go to the Summer Palace. After not a lot of help from the hostel staff, I headed that way. There were a few things I would have like to have done had I had the time, but of course it took a longer time to get there than I expected. However on the positive side, I meet a couple of helpful English speaking Chinese people who helped me get back, and restored some of my faith that people weren't just out to get my money.

Once I made it back to pick up my bags, I started to head to the airport. The staff at my hostel couldn't provide me any information on whether there were any more airport shuttles at that time, so I took a taxi to the bus stop. Turns out there wasn't, but because I couldn't read Chinese, I wasn't going to believe the very persistant taxi driver, and would rather wait, especially as I was not in a rush, because my flight was not until the next morning. Of course the taxi driver kept on persisting and got annoyed at me, and I got annoyed at him. So once I had confirmation that there were no more buses (from the bus dropping people off) I "went halves" with a Air hostess with very limited English, of course we didn't take the taxi of the annoying driver. I say halves, because it ended up that we both paid the full fare each, rather than 50/50. But it is hard to argue with someone who doesn't speak your language. So I paid him, and said something in a language he may or may not have understood. Funnily enough he dropped me about 100 metres away from the terminal where there was someone with a trolley conveniently waiting. The person put my luggage on the trolley, and then wouldn't let me push it. When we got the airport, she expected a tip. I told her that it wasn't America, and I wasn't American, and I hadn't asked her to take my luggage, so get stuffed. Of course she wasn't so impressed. Anyhow I spent the night in the airport, so I didn't miss my flight, as planned. I had to put up with scouts trying to get me to come and stay in their airport hotel, but it wasn't so close, and I was wary. I was even less convinced when they tried to sell me on the fact I could have a massage, and indicated the massusse had a large bust.