2/4/09

Today was worst day so far. But that's still a good day. We had another "Mystery Beijing" tour. We were split into groups of 3 and 4 and given clues. These clues led us to places in Beijing where we would receive new clues. Once we got to the first location by wheeled transportation we were no longer allowed to use wheels - just walking. It was dubbed the Ama-jing Race. (The winning team would win free transportation cards)

It would have been an ama-jing tour...but my group was terrible. The first clue told us to go to the first chinese president's wife's house located on the "Back Sea". I translated Back Sea - Houhai - and suggested we make our way to Houhai. But after we asked a bunch of chinese people on the street about our clue they told us to go to Zhongshan Park, located next to Tiananmen Square. Turns out Zhongshan park is where Zhongshan lived - not his wife. So at this point we are standing in front of Mao's portrait staring at Tiananmen which is about 6 miles away from where we need to be. Awful. We are told to take the #5 bus and get off at a certain stop. So we do. But after a quick study of the bus route at the stop where we got off, it appears we could have taken that same bus all the way to Soong Ching Ling's house. Terrible. For some reason a group of Hong Kongers try to help us by telling us to walk the rest of the way. I voted to wait for the next #5....but we decided to walk the second half (WTF!?>?!1)

 The walk there wasn't too bad. It was a chilly ramble through some old hutongs - from what I can decipher from their descriptions, are sprawling neighborhoods of connected buildings. They're super old and super quaint. They're becoming an endangered species in Beijing - knocked down and cleared for large apartment buildings. Like west campus.

An hour and a half later and with my mouth burning from a chili doused bag of jiaozi we arrived at her house. It was right on the shores of Houhai....like I suggested....We basically gave up after finding the first checkpoint. The race would have been over in an hour and we knew we were in dead last. After chatting with some ice swimmers - guys who had found a large hole in the ice of Houhai and jumped in to celebrate the coming of spring - we just took a taxi back to Bei Wai. Awful, awful day of wandering and getting lost.

I'm not bitter. I'm just mad we didn't get to tour around the Sea district like a lot of the other kids.