This week I have done lots of 'big name' sightseeing, including the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace. The Great Wall was steeper than I anticipated it to be and was very busy. We visited a section which is located about 2 hours outside of Beijing, which also has a cool toboggan slide to get from the wall back down to the car park, which was really fun! The toboggan goes really fast and probably should not have been open as it was a rainy day, which added to the speed immensely!
On Wednesday, I visited the 'Temple of Heaven', a large site for the Chinese to worship heaven. There is a convoluted worshipping process involving slaying and skinning a cow and the use of a ceremonial oven. A large park surrounds the Temple, and I followed my ears to find a patch of grass covered with people dancing to traditional Chinese music. Whilst happily snapping photos of dancing couples, an elderly Chinese gentleman motioned for me to dance with him. I am keen to promote good Anglo-Chinese relations, and therefore I happily accepted. He was an excellent leader and soon we were dancing to the same rhythm. The problem came when he tried to spin me around, as I am a good head taller than most Chinese people, but we made do and it was certainly an experience I feel lucky to have had.
No visit to Beijing would be complete without a trip to the Silk Market, which sells literally anything and everything. I love a good bargain and the vendors will ask an outrageous price for something. You haggle it down, and usually end up paying about 10% of their original price because, for you, they 'do very good price, lady, very good price!' I found that this was another interesting way to do McGuire contacts, and I notched up high numbers very quickly indeed as everyone is so keen to talk to you (and sell you useless rubbish!).
Thursday brought an overnight train to Shanghai, which is where I am writing this from. The train was clean and comfortable, and each cabin slept 6 people. There was plentiful hot water for the pot noodle eaters amongst us, and it was a pleasure to wake up and do my McGuire warm up with the Chinese countryside passing by.
Shanghai is a wonderful city; architecture is incredibly modern, yet intertwines well with historical buildings on the Bund, the main tourist area. On Friday night I went to 'Amazing Friday' Toastmasters and spoke at Table Topics again. I felt that this week went better because the goal for Beijing Toastmasters was simply to speak, and to be honest, I was so nervous that I had no idea what I was saying or how. This week, I was much more aware of what I said and I used strong, eloquent technique. I still did not win the weekly 'best speaker' vote, but I am proud of myself and if I keep going to these meetings whenever I can, one day I might win a ribbon!
I have now been in China for one week and below are some observations about Chinese life that I have noticed so far:
* Boyfriends carry their girlfriends' handbags for them, irrespective of size, shape or colour
* A 'green man' symbol at traffic lights does not mean it is safe to walk or that cars will stop for you. Cars only stop if they hit you, or if they are a taxi driver looking for a fare
* One day, a red wrapper Magnum might be a milk chocolate covered ice-cream. The next day, the same red wrapper Magnum might be white chocolate covered ice-cream. Just eat it.
* Every hostel and hotel I have stayed in so far has had a plentiful supply of new toothbrushes and I have used a new one every day.
* The Chinese love taking photos of Westerners! I have been asked by so many people to be photographed with them that at first I thought they had mistaken me for someone famous...but then I realised they just really like Western people. It's very sweet.
Next up is the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, so expect an update from me soon!
