Bittersweet Last Day in China

Sometimes it feels like we just arrived in China and other times it feels like we have been here forever. Whichever the case, we both begin our journies home tomorrow. My daughter's flight is at 7:30am so she must be at the airport by about 4:30am, while mine doesn't leave until 6:30pm, so I don't need to be there until 3:30pm, but I have decided to head to the airport with her and just hang out at the terminal for the day. I have plenty to read, and there are lots of places to eat and shop. I'll have a luggage trolley so won't have to drag my backpack all over on my back. I will be so very sad to say goodbye to my daughter as I won't see her again for nearly a year when I move back to Canada next year, but I am glad to be heading back to my own space - bed, couch, no one pushing and shoving me, or shouting in Chinese. We have enjoyed much of China, and have seen some breathtaking scenery while here. Our two standouts are the Summer Palace grounds and of course, the Great Wall at Mutianyu. The passport issue was probably the worst, along with trying to find our current hotel - nightmares we would sooner forget. We can laugh about it now, and they make good travel stories, but at the time, we were very stressed out and wishing we were home again. 

Lessons learned - never get in a rickshaw of any sort, or an unlicenced taxi - they will both try to cheat you and charge you 5 times what the licenced taxis charge. 

- always haggle the price - they often quote you a price 10 times what you can bargain down to. If you don't like haggling - don't bother going to the silk market - they are very aggressive and downright annoying.

- always get the address of where you want to go written in Chinese script as most taxi drivers do not speak or read English. 

- if you don't like the squat toilets, look for the handicap toilets and always bring your own toilet paper as there is rarely any there.

- if you need to get through a crowd, don't wait for someone else to move out of your way - push and shove like the rest or you will be trampled.

- the subway is super easy to maneuver. The lines are all marked in English and Chinese, and all of the trains have speaking voice that announces all stations in Chinese and in English. The transfer lines are also very clearly marked. It is also super cheap - only 2Yuan, which is about 30 cents. The bus is also super cheap, and you can get a card to use subway and bus so you just tap the card as you go through. 

- any directions given by Chinese people who claim to understand where you want to go are very subjective and often incorrect - double and triple check and you might find your way there.

- many of the people who helped us were very nice and some really did know what they were talking about. Some went out of their way to help which was really lovely. 

- most hotel/hostel beds are as hard as rocks. Prepare to drug up or put up. 

- you can buy cold bottled water just about anywhere and it was usually quite cheap, often 2Yuan for a small bottle, which is about 30 cents. I paid 4Yuan for a large 1.5 litre bottle at the hostel. 

- most staff at tourist attractions have no English so you have to figure out what you want to do before you get to the ticket counter. Stopping young people with mobile phones in their hand is often a good bet as many of them will have basic English and seem to enjoy having someone to speak English with. 

- iPhones take awesome photos if you don't feel like lugging your camera with you or your battery dies. Or like me = left my battery charger at home and battery died after one day. 

- nearly all restaurants and cafes have free wifi - if you use a VPN like we did, you can suf the net easily and use banned Facebook and Google. The VPN we used was free. The speed is slow at any place we have been so tough to watch any videos or upload any videos. You can get booted off quite frequently. 

- don't accept invitations to Tea Houses as they are almost always scams to get you to buy them things such as meals or clothes. 

- don't expect the locals to know where things are, even if they are just down the street. 

- if you are going to use a translator app - make sure it does not rely on live internet connection to use it as you might not always have access when you need something translated

- people love to stare at foreigners, particularly caucasian ones. We had to accept that it was just how it was. Some even want to take photos of you with them. 

- maps are almost never to scale - something that looks just down the block can be 3kms away...

That's about it for now. I'm just waiting for my daughter to come back from the shop and then we head to the airport to check in at our airport hotel. They had really soft beds so we are looking forward to being comfy again. I may post again from the airport tomorrow as it will be a long day and I now know how to access the free wifi there. 

Night Market Food

We set off tonight for the night market around the corner from our hotel. This is the market where they sell all of the really exotic and strange foods. There was snake, scorpion, centipede, dolphin, dog (yes, dog), starfish, baby pigeon, octopus, bats, silkworm crysalis, and who knows what else! My daughter tried the sea snake, but that was all she was up for. I took photos...that was all I was up for! She said it tasted overwhelmingly like the spices they lathered on, and was a bit rubbery. 

While at the night market, we met this man outside a shop who was an artist and had a long chat with him about things - our countries and their differences, what we did for a living, and so on. He then offered to make a painting for me for free - just some characters on rice paper, but it turned out pretty cool. The first line means protector of children and elderly. The second line is my name, which means radical innovative emperor, and the last line is the date, location and signature of the artist. Pretty cool! Then we decided to buy paintings from him as well and I bought one of the Great Wall, which is just beautiful. Amber bought one of pink plum blossoms, which represents beautiful women. 

Longqing Gorge

Early morning start again today, with hopes of making it to Longqing Gorge, about 90kms out of the city. Finding reliable info on it was challenging as each website had a different way to get there and the hotel staff said it would take a few days to get there...I knew that wasn't true unless we were walking! So we headed off to the subway and then to the big bus terminus at Dongsheng where we caught the bus to the Ming Tombs last week, found our 919 bus and were on our way. The net had said the 919 bus terminates at the bus station in Yangqing, and to grab the 875 bus to Wangcheng, a small village nearby and then a shuttlebus to the Longqing site. Another website said to take the 920 direct to Longqing Gorge. Problem was when we got to the end of the line on the 919, there was no bus station, and several different 920 buses, and no 875...so now what? I managed to find a gentelman who spoke enough English and could read the script I had screenshot from the net to tell me we could catch the 15 bus right to Longqing site. I confirmed that with the bus traffic ladies (they flag buses in and out, and get people loaded) and so we waited for the 15 to arrive, and off we went again, with no real idea where the bus might take us. It got pretty rural and then the mountains were looming in the distance, so it began to look like the right bus. I met another gentleman on that bus who spoke little English but had a translator on his phone, so told us it was another 10kms. When we got to 1 kms out, he had to get off the bus, but told the bus attendant that we wanted to get off at Longqing, which she happily did. Once off the bus, we looked around, and saw no sign of any site, and just a sign with 875 bus on it, and a small minibus parked next to the sign. They ushered us over, and I confirmed that they would take us to Longqing Gorge for 5Yuan (about 90 cents), so we piled in with the other passengers (all Chinese) and set out...then he turned down some dirt road through the bush, and we began to worry - where in the hell are we being taken? Surely somewhere to rape, rob and kill us. Then the bus stopped and he told us all to get out, that the site was just down the road through the trees. Really? We were still very unsure as no one spoke any English, but we decided to push on down through the trees and onto the main road again, and lo and behold - we had made it to the site. Crazy. 

Once there, we bought our tickets and began the journey through the site. The first bit was to find the dragon escalator in the photos, which we did - it stood out like a sore thumb next to the dam. Up a series of escalators contained within the dragon and then we were herded into a boat. From there we took the boat ride through the gorge, surrounded by beautiful scenery - sheer cliffs all around, green with foilage. I'm sure I snapped a hundred photos. We passed by the sites for bungee jumping and ziplining but couldn't work out how to get to them as the boat didn't stop there and there were no roads, so ended up passing on it. My daughter had been determined to do the zipline, but I was still fence sitting when we arrived. From the boat we were left at another dock where the Flower Caves were. Talk about bizarre...a series of joined caves filled with artificial landscape - flowers, grasses, bushes, trees, etc, with the most random and sometimes ridiculous things...tigers, leopards, peacocks, cabins, waterfalls, gardens - all fake. Very weird indeed!

Climbing the Great Wall of China

Early rise today and had breakfast, such as it was. It was included in our tour package we bought last night. It was toast, cut up french fries (for hash browns I guess), a fried egg (regardless of how you like your eggs), 1 strip of bacon like substance, jam, and rancid butter. Yes, rancid. I don't think they understood that you must keep butter packets in the fridge...so dry toast it was. The day did get better, thankfully. We were met at our hotel by our tour guide who led us out of the hutong and into the Main Street where the minibus was waiting with other tourists. The minibus had the illusion of air con, but it wasn't very efficient. We picked up the rest of the tourists who had booked and before long were on our way out of Bejiing, bound for Mutianyu section of the Wall. It was a gorgeous day for it, blue skies, and trying to burn off the haze/smog. 

Once we arrived at the site, we had to climb up a fair distance to get to the cable cars which would then take us to Tower 14. We were given just over three hours to make it to Tower 23 and back, after which we would have lunch together before heading back to Beijing. The hike to the cable cars was hard enough, but nowhere near as hard as the wall proved to be. My daughter and I started out together, but before long she could see how slow I was going to be, considering I am overweight, not in great shape, and have asthma. I cut her loose and told her to go on ahead as she was determined to make it to Tower 23. I was quite certain I could/would not, so after a few photos of us together, she was off. I took my time then and moseyed, taking a ton of photos with my camera and my iPhone. There were endless breathtaking scenes to capture. I slogged on from Tower to Tower, all the way to Tower 20, which was quite an accomplishment. I had thought I would give up at 19, but then another gal on our tour, about my age, also with asthma inspired me to continue at least to Tower 20. The climb to Tower 20 was nearly vertical with large steps in places and small ones in others. It took a number of stops to get my heart back into my chest as it was pounding so heavily, it must have been outside of my body. I stopped for photos, drinks of water, and to catch my breath a number of times, but before I knew it, I was at the top of Tower 20 and I entered the Tower with a hooray, I finally made it. One of the local vendors came running over and gave me a high 5, and put a medal around my neck with the Great Wall on it, then ushered me into a chair in the shade. I bought a can of Coke and the medal for 100Yuan, which severely overpriced generally, but given they had to lug up the drinks, the ice, and souvenirs, I didn't mind paying for that. I waited about 15 minutes or so and then my daughter was in sight again, making her way back down. We had to meet our tour guide at 1:20pm for lunch as a group, so we headed straight down after meeting up again. We made good time, and landed at the restaurant at 1pm. 

The Great Wall and surrounding mountains are just breathtakingly gorgeous. I snapped so many photos on my camera and a number of iPhone photos, which I've added to the post here. My daughter ended up going much farther than the markers at Tower 23, and actually went onward to closed and wild sections of the Wall. She thinks she went as far as Tower 27 or 28. Good on her! I knew I couldn't make it that far. 

Goodbye Shanghai and Hello Suzhou

Well, I had a long post written and then lost it so this will be the abbreviated version. We went up in the Oriental Pearl Tower yesterday which is like the CN Tower in some ways. Talked Amber out onto the glass observation deck. Afterwards we went to the indoor market stalls near Yuyuan Garden, which we did not find (the garden) but scored some great buys, so happy about that. Slogged back to the hotel, hot, sweaty and tired, rested for a bit and then went out for supper and to take in the bright lights of Shanghai's Bund district from the other side of the river. Spectacular! This morning we got up early and  made our painful way to the train station, burdened by our large packs that seem to gain weight overnight. My daughter's seems to be the worst! She can hardly lift it now. We took the fast train again, and managed to find our hotel with the help of a taxi and the address in script. 

Spent a frustrating day trying to work out how to get to the Zhouzhuang water town - language barrier at it's worst. We ended up pissing the day away, being chased by aggressive taxi, rickshaw and motorbike drivers wanting us to take their overpriced service. We paid 16 RMB to get from our hotel to the bus station but they wanted 50-100RMB to get back - get stuffed we said. We took a bus, got lost, so got another taxi, fairly priced via meter back to our hotel and said to hell with today. We went out later for some food, and decided we will go to the water town in the morning before heading back to Beijing for the rest of the week. Great Wall on Wednesday!

Finding the Feel Inn

We decided to forgo the water town as it was turning into a bloody shitshow of misinformation. We packed up our things and headed to the railway station to catch the next fast train to Beijing. Managed to get a taxi straight away and off we went. We arrived at the rail station, got in line to get tickets, and the next ones with 2nd class seats didn't leave for another 6 hours - shit. Well, not much else to be done, so we hunkered down and read most of the day, and my daughter took a nap. When it got closer to our departure time, we started looking for our train on the departures screens, only to discover it was not listed. I went in search of information then, and was promptly informed that our train did not leave from that station, but from another one about 17kms north of where we were - WTF???? Why in hell did they sell me a ticket from a different station? I pitched a bloody fit right there in the station, and before I knew it, we worked out that a taxi would take too long, but the metro subway went right there and would be fast. We had an hour and 15 minutes to get there, find the right platform and board the train. The station security fella was nice enough to take us right to the metro stop as it was in a whole other part of the station, and lugged one of our bags for us. Mad dash to the metro, then to buy tickets and get on the train bound for the right station. We made it with just 20 minutes to spare before loading - THANKFULLY!!! Another Amazing Race Moment as we ran pell mell through the station. We finally boarded the train and whistled across the country towards Beijing again. Good bye Suzhou - you were an asshole.

Finally arrived at Beijing about 8pm, took the metro to where we could then take a taxi to the hotel we had booked for the next four days. Metro was a breeze - finding our hotel was another bloody nightmare and added to our mounting frustration with taxis and directions. We flagged several down only to discover they had no idea where we needed to go. Then a nice young man who spoke some English offered to help us. He phoned the hotel and got directions then attempted to inform a taxi driver - nope - still had no idea. Then we made the desperate decision to jump in another motorized rickshaw box of some sort...and agreed on the price of 20Yuan (which is about $3.50 to take us to the Hutong where our hotel was. After stuffing us and our large bags in tightly (couldn't see anything or barely breathe) he putt putted around for the longest time, asking directions as he went, seeming to drag us into the middle of nowhere at which point my daughter lost her shit and told him to let us out and get lost, after paying him the 20yuan. We stopped a few people to ask them where we were or if they knew where our hotel was - we got answers such as just down the street and turn right, or 7 kms from there...dammit. Then my daughter had enough and just sat down on the curb, utterly frustrated. The hotel had given us walking directions of just 6 minute walk from the metro station but yet no one had any idea where we needed to go. So she turned on her mobile service, knowing it would cost a fortune, but we could at least see where the hell we had been dumped out. Turned out we were not far from the hotel but unsure just how safe it was to wander through the various hutongs it would take to get there or if we had it in us to drag our packs any further. We took a leap of faith and struck out, not wanting to sleep in the street tonight, managed to bump into a nice lady along one of the hutongs who recalled a hotel like we described just around the corner with many lights and many foreigners - THAT'S IT! So off we ran and sure enough, we located our hotel, more than 2 hours later...I could have kissed her. We were breathless and steaming hot by the time we fell in the doors of the hotel/hostel so they gave us water immediately - nice cold water too. Then we checked in, and booked our Great Wall tickets for tomorrow. Pick up right at the bloody door, thank GAWD! 

Bonus of the hotel - onsite cafe that served Western food!!! We ordered some supper and dug in before settling into our hotel for the night. We leave at 7:30am tomorrow morning and cannot wait - this is our biggest reason for coming to Beijing. Hope it doesn't rain!

Crazy Pearl Market and Temple of Heaven Park

We woke early again today after passing out early last night. More drama in the night - my daughter woke from a terrible nightmare she couldn't shake for several minutes, and left her shaking and freaked out. Turned the lights on and talked her awake and it passed. She dreamt she was stuck in an underwater cave calling for me by name, not as ma. Weird!

We scarfed down our crappy free breakfast and headed to the Pearl Market for some serious shopping. OMFG they were as aggressive as I've ever had it - grabbing me by the arm, trying to pull me into their shops, shouting out to us at every turn - it got a bit ridiculous so we left after only an hour. The markups were crazy and I still think we overpaid despite her price coming down from 3500Yuan to 600Yuan...I managed to score a beautiful silk dressing robe, a jade bracelet, and some other souvenir type things. Neither my daughter and I were interested in pearls, so we didn't even bother after the craziness of the other floors. We had Pizza Hut for lunch at the Pearl Market, which I thought was quite good but my daughter didn't care for her chicken much. Our stomachs are saying NO to local cuisine after a few bad experiences, so we are sticking to western foods more. We had supper tonight at The Palms again, and it was delicious and exactly as ordered. 

From the Pearl Market we decided to head to Temple of Heaven Park which is right next door, and lae around for the afternoon, strolling here and there, stopping to take long breaks, do some reading and people watching. It was nice to have a bit of a slower afternoon after all the treks we have been on. The park was beauitful and huge, so we didn't get to see it all. The heat wasn't as bad today as yesterday, but my daughter didn't think so. I wore a long sun dress today so my sunburned legs wouldn't be exposed and it made heaps of difference. 

Tomorrow we head out on the fast train to Shanghai for the weekend, and back to Beijing on Monday. We're looking forward to an even slower day, just riding the train and dozing. It moves at approximately 300kms/hour, so that will be FAST! Tonight we must pack up and be ready to head out early in the morning. My daughter is napping at the moment, so I shall have to rouse here with some loud rustling of things as I pack. 

Summer Palace

I'm pretty tired but thought I would jot a few lines about our adventures today. We woke early and headed out to the Summer Palace in northwest Beijing. The skies were clear blue, not a cloud in sight, which was impressive as we had not yet seen the sun. The temps rose to about 27C which was a little warm at times, but there was plenty of shade and when that wasn't available, we did the Asian thing and popped open our umbrellas. It is a HUGE area! We must have walked about 15kms today, and my feet are crying for it. The Palace grounds were beautiful as were the many buildings. I started out with my small Canon camera only to have the battery die on me, despite bringing it to full charge before leaving last week. I had to rely on my iphone then as I hadn't brought my SLR with me as it too was also dead...dammit. I had also charged that before I left, and used it just at the Ming Dyasty Tombs. In any event, the iPhone takes pretty good photos and the panoramic feature is just amazing, so I have some awesome panoramic shots. 

We arrived at the Summer Palace and paid for the multi venue ticket so we could see it all. The buildings are so very ornate, and colorful, it was a delight to the senses. There was also significant greenspace around the complex which provided lovely shade, and peaceful surroundings. We climbed hundreds of stairs, if not thousands throughout the course of the day! Our thighs and calves are also crying. There were many museums of artifacts, some dating back to 1600BC, which is mind blowing. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite that old. I think one of my favorite parts was Suzhou Street, which is an old street that runs around a small lake, with narrow walkways and NO guardrails between you and the steep drop to the water! For this reason, they ask tourists to go in one direction only. We did a bit of shopping and then decided on some lunch at one of the little cafes there. We were not too adventurous, and ordered pork meatballs and rice. The dish came with seaweed as well, which was a bit rubbery and weird to eat so we left it on the plate. 

After lunch we decided on a boat tour of the small lake and the bigger lake which took about 45 minutes. It was a lovely tour, met a nice Chinese family who were quite entertaining. The boat tour ended at another part of the huge complex so we then had a fair bit of walking to do to get to the signature Buddhist temple, along with many stairs...pant pant pant. My puffer got a workout for sure. Thankfully I brought two brand new ones with me. Once we arrived at the top of where you could go, we were afforded the most stunning view of Beijing. It was breathtaking. Tomorrow we head to the Forbidden City!

Touristy Kind Of Day - Finally!

We fell asleep quite early last night after such a frustrating day, so were up bright and early this morning to hit the road. We headed to the Canadian Embassy once again to drop off the fruits of our labours from the day before - new passport photos, police report, confirmation of police report and then paid the $350 it cost for the temporary passport, the new passport, and the lost passport fee...I still have to get a new Chinese Visa once my temporary passport is ready, so another $100 I think. Thankfully I do have travel insurance and can claim it all back with only $100 deductable. Tried to call my insurance company but the phone number did not work...it figures...so I will email them tonight. 

From the Embassy we started walking towards the subway station to head to the Ming Dynasty Tombs. We stopped briefly at Starbucks at a nearby overpriced shopping centre and had some breakfast - Starbucks was overpriced as usual...then we bought our IC cards - like a myki card in Australia - bus pass you can load up for multiple use. We had spent enough on taxis getting all the passport stuff done. Public transit is actually pretty good, not nearly as crowded as we thought, thank goodness! From the train stop we then went in search of the right bus to take us where we needed to go. After several inquiries, we located the correct stop and before long the bus turned up aand we were on our way to finally see some sights! It was an hour long bus ride and we weren't sure if we would know when we got there as it was a city bus with several stops, but finally got to the main ticket gate, so jumped off, and went in search of tickets. Ticket buying was rather frustrating as they had some signs in English but no one spoke English or could understand their own menu of ticket choices in English when we called them out...then they were downright rude and laughed at us, the bitches....we managed to buy a ticket for the Underground Palace where an Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and his two Empresses were buried in tombs underground. It was like going into a time warp...we took 7 flights down and only 3 up, coming out at the same place...

The Underground Palace was not particularly spectacular, but intersting. There is money thrown all over each of the tombs, the stele's and the thrones of each of them. We chucked some in at one of them. The view from the Palace wall was stunning - mountains and fields of fruit trees. We bought a couple of HUGE peaches from the vendors and snacked on them in the woods sitting on marble stools shaped like elephants. They were so delicious! The vendors for figs were quite aggressive, thrusting them in our faces, but my girl and I are good at deflecting so it wasn't a big deal. Before we started exploring the grounds though, we went for some lunch at the one restaurant at the site. OMFG. No one spoke English and the menu was not in English so they pointed to pictures of animals to tell us what each dish was. I chose the pork and my daughter chose the chicken. We should have known better...the pork was mostly gristle, bone, and fat. It was kind of tasty so I choked it down. My daughter's was significantly worse...she ordered a chicken dish...what she wasn't prepared for was just what part of the chicken was being presented to her...first off, there was a chicken foot sticking out of the top of the stewed chicken...the pieces were similar to what I had at the airport - chicken pieces hacked up with a cleaver, bones, entrails and all...and had the texture of shoe leather. She tried to eat what she could because she was hungry but gave up in the end and had a little pork. The bigger shock was the bill. They charged us 197RMB which was absolutely ridiculous. The most we have paid for a meal so far was $78 and at least that was a good meal. The staff sat and watched us eat the whole entire time, laughing and making jokes behind our backs, staring at my daughter most of the time. We finally gave up and left without a word. I think they jacked the prices just for us...bastards. 

We still want to see Chang Ling Tombs so will have to cover that another day. It had started to rain again, so we just headed back into the city. Walking from the subway back to the Hutong Inn (which is on a hutong - narrow alleyways dating back several hundred years). We came across a Chinese McDonalds and decided to indulge in something that we were familiar with after the lunch fiasco. From there we bought more water and some beer and headed back to the hotel for the night. I went for a walk later on to buy some snacks and came across a hooka bar...didn't go in as I was alone and don't know the rules. I also came across a chicken tied up to a tree outside one of the tiny restaurants...she might be tomorrow's dinner...

So overall a pretty good day. My head still hurts as does my neck and it didn't help when I smacked it not once but twice on the bus rail bending over to reach for something...time for some Panadol and bed!

Do You Speak English?

So last night we had a bit of drama. I got up at 2am feeling sick to my stomach so headed to the bathroom, but instead sat down on the can (sorry, TMI but it ties into the story). I'm not quite sure what happened next, but apparently my daughter heard a moan from me and then a loud CRASH. She came to the door to see what happened, tapping on the door and calling out my name, and got nothing, then finally just opened the door to find me on the floor, having passed out somehow and smashed my head and teeth on the wall or floor. I had fallen off the toilet with my shorts and undies around my knees and was out for nearly a minute before she came in and I woke to hear her calling out "mom, are you alright???". I wasn't. I don't know what the hell happened, but clearly I passed right out and smashed my head and teeth, chipping my front teeth both top and bottom, and splitting my head out a little and got quite a bonk on this big giant head. I felt like absolute rubbish after that but it finally passed and then I was a little afraid to go to sleep, just in case I had a concussion. My neck was killing me, probably a bit of whiplash from the fall. My daughter was understandably freaked out...thankfully I settled okay and no more upset stomach, but had a pounding headache and a terribly sore neck. Took some Panadol (like Tylenol) and managed to get back to sleep for a few more hours. I haven't passed out in many years, having only passed out 3 times in my life until now. Funnily enough, twice before in the bathroom, but for different reasons - once after I gave birth - first trip to the bathroom, and once as a young teenager after my brother slammed my finger in a door, I happened to knock it in the bathroom somehow and woke up on the floor between the toilet and sink. This one tops the list though - never really hurt myself before. This time I crashed into marble walls and tile floor. 

So this morning when we woke, we got ready to head to the Canadian Embassy to start sorting out my temporary passport. Of course, since nothing is easy...it took awhile. We had to go off in search of a bank machine that would take foreign cards first as we had no cash left for a taxi. We managed to find one not too far away but it didn't open until 9am, so we had a bit of a wait. Got the cash okay, no fuss and headed out to find a taxi to the Embassy. Not an easy task. We had two stop for us and had no idea where we wanted to go. Apparently most taxi drivers only read script and not the English versions of the street addresses. It took about an hour of walking and trying to hail taxis who didn't know where we wanted to go. Finally managed to get a young gal to speak a bit of English and tell him where to go. We landed at the Embassy with claps of joy that we finally found the damn thing! We then had to pass through scrutiny and security before being admitted to the Embassy and headed right up to the Consular Services section. The first person I spoke to was French Canadian - was I ever glad to speak to a Canadian!!! We found out I needed to get a police report and new passport photos as I only had one and they wouldn't accept it as it didn't meet the criteria. I has used the others for my Cambodian visa some years ago. The one VERY LUCKY thing is I needed a guarantor and they accepted Amber who had her passport and visa, so that was good. Then I had to provide two references of people they could call to confirm my identity. With the time difference, it would be tricky as we were nearing 11am and many would be heading to bed in Canada. I could use Australian friends, but they can't call them direct from the Embassy - they have to contact the Canadian Embassy in Australia and have them make the calls. I filled out all the necessary forms and found out I can get my temporary passport in 3-4 days, depending on how hard it was to contact my references.  Then she gave us direction sheets in English and script to find the police station to get a police report, and a photo studio to get photos. Then we headed out to get some lunch as we hadn't eaten since supper the night before. We managed to locate an Italian restaurant across from the Embassy, and the pizza was really good, but drinks and pizza was a bit pricey - we just weren't up for experimenting after my bathroom episode and my daughter burning her mouth on supper's spice. My daughter noted that the cashier spoke good English so I went back in to ask him if he knew where the passport photo place was. He told me there was a much closer one just 3 minutes walk from there and then left with us to show us the way. He then spoke to the photographer (old Chinese lady with an ordinary digital camera) and got me sorted there. It happened to be in the same building as a chemist, so I also got him to tell the chemist I wanted an antidiarrhea medication and my daughter needed cold meds. Mine came in all script, but the cold meds were Tylenol cold and flu, so perfect. What a nice young man to do all of that for us!

After lunch we headed to the Police station (or so we thought) for the police report. Turns out she sent us to the Visa and Passport office for China...and they do not do police reports. Great. Now what? so the gal at the office wrote me a note in script and English telling the police at the train station that I made a report about my passport but they did not give me a report - please give me a police report. Well, little did we know how damn complicated that was. She told us to go to the train station where I lost it as I did report it to the transit police but they did not give me any report. Off we go to the train station...spoke to the first guy we saw who then went off in search of someone else who might know what to do. We traipsed around the train station for hours, following one person after another to little offices here and there, being told to wait, wait, one second and then having no idea what I wanted, despite the note I had in script. I had met a lady at the Embassy who was Chinese and gave me her phone number to call if I needed translation, so we tried her. Nope, train staff could not do what I asked, and then they took us to the small police station at the train station and had an hour of debate with a guy there - no help. Then a transit policeman took us to the subway and went one stop with us and walked to another police station, told them a little of what I needed and left. No one spoke much English of course but we finally worked out they wanted us to wait for someone who spoke English to take my statement as they cannot take one otherwise. Perfect, he finally arrived from another staton and took my statement and typed it up all official like and we were off to the Visa and Passport office again. It took awhile to get a cab but we finally got one and we thought at first we were being taken on another goose chase but then lo and behold, we arrived at the right place. Ran in with just 15 minutes to spare and got my Certificate of lost passport which the hotel will take and the Embassy needs, and got her to make me a copy too. By then it was too late to go back to the Embassy as they had closed, but at least I had the photos, police report and Certificate I needed for the hotel. It started to rain a bit but we got lucky and hailed a cab in rush hour and headed back to the hotel, once the driver phoned them and asked for directions - despite me having the hotel card with the address in script. My daughter was convinced he didn't know where he was going but he had put it in his GPS and we arrived eventually in the rush hour traffic. It began to peck a bit of rain, so we decided to grab some supper and drinks from the shops nearby and head back to the hotel for the night. We managed to get there just in time before the rains began to DOWNPOUR!!! We had our supper and a couple of long neck Chinese beers (actually pretty good beer and cheap as) and have retired to our room to dry out and get comfy. My daughter finally managed to find a VPN to access Facebook and Google, so I can post my own blog posts from now on, yahoo, and update Facebook. I didn't miss it that much but my daughter sure did!

Tomorrow we head back to the Embassy to hand in my papers and photos and then we are finally going to play tourist and see some of the sights. We have been trying to see the silver lining in our ordeal, and it will be one hell of a story to tell about our trip. We did meet many very nice people so far who were willing to help us with the language barrier. At times the barrier feels 100 feet tall but at others, not so much when we find someone who can understand what we are asking. The lady at the Visa office was also quite lovely and friendly. I still have to take my passport back to them and apply for yet another Chinese Visa straight away as it takes 7 days to get. Thankfully they are open on Saturday. If it doesn't come on time, I'm not sure what the hell I will do but as Scarlett O'Hara said - I'll worry about that tomorrow. 





Sent from my iPad

China Woes!

My daughter arrived in Beijing last night about midnight. Of course nothing is easy over here. I had told her to take the little airport train to pick up her baggage and then I would meet her at arrivals at Terminal 3. She somehow missed the Terminal 3 part. I had given her instructions based on my own arrival the night before. I was so wrong. Her flight arrived at Terminal 2 with no option to head to Terminal 3 on the airport train. But the trouble started before that. When I finally found my shuttle on Friday night, I told them about my daughter arriving the following night and I wanted to take the free shuttle to the airport to meet her and then bring her back to the hotel as I had booked two nights at the airport. Sure, no problem. So the following day I spoke to them about it again to ask when to catch the shuttle to the airport - 11:50pm to meet her 12:05 flight. No problem. Then when the time comes, different staff, little English and after waiting for an hour, they told me they cannot take me to the airport because I do not have a new reservation...wtf? So by 1am I was panicked that my daughter had arrived and there I was still at the hotel. Frig...so told hotel staff to hail a taxi for me, which they did and it was cheap enough, only 30 RMB. I went to Terminal 3, waited at arrivals for nearly an hour - no sign of my girl. I scoured the airport with no luck. Then I spoke to a Pakistani guy who had perfect English and lived in Beijing and told me her flight would not bring her to Terminal 3 and I must go there. So I went out where the free shuttles were and asked when the next one was - 30 minutes from now, as I just missed it. Damn, if I wait, she will be panicked about where I might be. I couldn't get the internet to work even though it was free wifi. Little did I know there was self-serve machines for login passwords or I could go to the info counter and they would give me one. So I finally sorted that, and had 2 panicked emails from my girl. By this point it is 1:30am. I decided to take a taxi to Terminal 2 and sent her an email telling her so. I overpaid to get there and found no sign of her and couldn't work out how to get on the internet at that terminal as the info counter was closed. I scoured the terminal, panicked that she had gone off somewhere. Finally got on the internet and emailed her to say I was at Terminal 2 but will come to Terminal 3 and for her to stay put. She emailed back where she was, and so I grabbed another cab and headed over. This guy was nicer, but still overcharging me. I was beyond caring about that by then, and finally located my daughter - reunited like long lost friends! I was so frigging glad to see her after spending 3 hours looking for each other. We were off to the hotel then, thankfully - overheated, starving, exhausted both physically and mentally. We ended up talking for a few hours before finally getting settled enough to sleep about 5am. Check out was at noon, so back up again at 10:30am to shower and get going. We managed to get back to the airport on the shuttle, found the train to the city, and off we went. Then it all turned to shit again...

For some stupid reason, I had my travel wallet out of my bag looking at the map I had stored in there. I also had my passport and some money in there. I put the map back in my bag, and left the wallet on the train - yes, the wallet was left on the train. I didn't notice until I got off the train and upstairs about to buy another train ticket for the exchange...and then omfg I noticed it was not in my purse. WHAT????? Major panic set in...I could deal with losing clothes, luggage, even money, but not the bloody passport. I was literally sick to my stomach and couldn't believe I was so damn stupid. I am such a creature of habit, so I don't know what the hell I did. In any case, we enlisted the help of security at the train station, who called the two other stations on the line to see if anyone turned in my wallet - of course not. We also met the returning trains to search for it, but no luck. Panic level escalates - WTF to do??? We did have a very nice young man who helped us speak to security Mandarin. We then decided just to head to the hotel, check in with the Canadian Embassy about what to do. Well that was easier said than done...

We exit the train station, parched from sweating and stuffing around for so long. We had a power rickshaw stop to offer a ride, but had no idea what the address was we were showing him. Then we tried to get a taxi - no idea what the address was as it wasn't in script. OMG. So then we got stuffed into another power rickshaw as he said he knew where the hotel was - Yes, yes, hotel,,,Yeah, should have known better. He brought us to one with the same name, sort of, but it was closed and not open for business. We went inside to look for an office, but were promptly shown back out again by the owner. FML. Now what? Sweaty, panicked and thirsty, where do we go now? We managed to find the main road again and track down a proper taxi who took us to the right hotel - thank goodness, and they showed me my reservation right away with my name on it...wish that was the end of the story...they refused to let me check in without a passport. We offered my daughter's passport and told them what happened with mine. No can do. We were told I must go to some Chinese office to get a certificate of residence and then they could let me stay. So we grabbed another cab to the office she marked out on a map for us in script. Problem was, it was Sunday and the office was closed. The guard at the gate had no English. Then a lovely young man who spoke good English stopped to help us. Phew! He spoke to the guard, and then called police for us when we couldn't work out how to call the embassy. While waiting for the police, I became in urgent need of the bathroom...very urgent. So the young man took us down the street to some sort of bus terminal and I used the public toilets. He said they were smelly but there weren't too bad - but they were squat toilets...alright, lets hunker down and hope my knees don't give out. Did my business, and then the police came, could not really do anything. So we decided to go to the Canadian Embassy hoping for help there. Off we go in another taxi, and arrive at the Canadian Embassy. My god it was good to see the Canadian flag!!! The dude at the Embassy counter outside the gate had little English but managed to finally call a Canadian military policeman from inside to come and help with language. The officer was from Truro, Nova Scotia of all places!

After much discussion and production of identification - I had my birth certificate and an Australian Driver's licence, and Amber had her passport. They tried to get the hotel to accept my daughter's passport but they refused. Then we tried to get them to agree to have my daughter make a new booking in her own name, which initially they refused but then the Canadian told me if my daughter was to go inside alone and book a room, I could join her later and they could not stop me. I wish it was that easy...we grab yet another taxi to the hotel - thankfully the right one - I had taken a business card from the desk when we were there earlier and it was in script so easy enough for the cabbie. Arrived back at the hotel, my daughter went inside while I went to a tiny pub across the road for a beer while she sorted shit out. Of course, it was not that easy. They refused to give her a room because they said they knew I would be coming into the room to stay and I did not have a passport. Amber threw a hissy fit, and demanded a room, saying we would have to sleep outside if they didn't. I had already paid for 4 nights to it was a bit ridiculous, but again - this is China...Amber came stomping out to where I was, and we attempted to locate another hotel that didn't know us so we could get her to pay for another room and I would just go up later. Thankfully, just as we were talking to the tiny pub owner, the staff from our hotel came out and said to come back in, that it is okay, they will let us stay. THANK FRIGGING GAWD! Finally something going right. We checked in, settled into our room and then decided we needed to go out for food - I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before, and my daughter hadn't eaten since her flight from Shanghai to Beijing. It was raining a torrential downpour so we got soaked, even with an umbrella. We could not find an ATM to get more cash, as we were low after spending a small fortune on taxis!. We managed to find a half decent restaurant though and sat down for our first meal.

Well my daughter loves the hot spices and ambitiously poured a significant amount onto her bowl of rice, veggies and pork. What came next was hilarious - steam rose out of her head and she nearly passed out it was so hot. I got her to stuff some rice into her mouth to cool it down, but it took awhile. I did not have the hot sauce...I opted for simple soya sauce. The food was cheap, just $4 for our meal, including bottled water. Then it was back out into the pissing rain, slogging through the back streets to our hotel again.

So it has been a very taxing day. I have to go to the Embassy again tomorrow to see about a temporary passport now, and hope against hope I can get it either tomorrow or the next day. I cannot take the fast train to Shanghai next week without a passport, let alone get back on a plane to Australia. I can't believe I have lost my passport, I was so dumbstruck this morning, even too shocked to cry, which is impressive. I've since had a look online to see what the Embassy could help me with, so hoping tomorrow will bear fruit. As for now, I am damned exhausted and so is my girl. I'm running on about 7-8 hours sleep in the last 4 days...I think it is time for bed...