M-whY

"[Are there any tickets left to Datong for tomorrow?]" I asked. Nearing the end of the holiday week, everyone was going home and I wasn't sure what would be available.

"[No,]" came the curt reply from behind the window.

"[How about the day after? Yes? Give me two hard sleepers.]" I was just about through with Beijing's sights, and wasn't sure how I'd spend the extra day, but I'd address that question tomorrow. A day at a time is how to approach things.

A trip to the Summer Palace near the city outskirts would round out the must do's of Beijing. Bus #808, according to Cherry, would get us there. A stop after Jon and I climbed on, an older caucasian couple got on board. The attendant, after seeing me talk to Jon with no problems, came over and asked if I would play interpreter for her. Bus fares varied according to distance travelled, and she wanted to know where they were going. Like us, they were also headed to the Summer Palace.

"[Can you teach me a couple english phrases, for the future?]" And so I gave her a brief lesson on how to say 'Summer Palace', 'five yuan', and 'last stop', making her english as good as Jon's chinese.

Clear on the other side of Beijing, the ride took a little over an hour. Route #808 terminated right outside the north entrance. From here, the park's first sight was Suzhou Street, a shopping street that, like the city it was named after, wasn't very interesting. Continuing up Longetivity Hill, we reached the 'Realm of Popular Fragrance'.

"Look, at all these buddhas missing their heads." They were probably broken off and stolen, as the ones higher up out of reach remained intact.

Like the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, many buildings were being restored, and maybe one day the little buddhas will given a new cranium. A sign confirmed my suspicion that China was looking forwards towards the 2008 Beijing Olympics and wanted to have everything in pristine condition in time to show off to the world. This was a little inconvenient for me, because I'd miss out on things like 'Tower of the Fragrance of Buddha' and the 'Hall that Dispels the Clouds'. Still, there'd be more than enough to see.

Such as the Long Corridor, a name that for once isn't an exaggeration. Half a mile long and featuring intricate paintings of chinese legends, landscapes, battle scenes, and as the tree hugger kept pointing out, peonies. I walked with my head tilted back, marveling at the sheer number of them. 14,000 in total, according to the brochure. We sat under a section and had a bowl of instant noodles for lunch.

"This is kind of (spicy) hot," noted Jon.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, you probably didn't want to put in the entire packet of chili powder..."

Sinuses cleared, we finished off the last 100m of the Long Corridor and ended up at the Marble Boat. Several more sights followed in quick succession, including 'Walking through a Picture Scroll' and 'True Meaning of Scenery'. (Don't you love these names?)

"So is this how you spend your days, while the rest of us are sitting in front of computers?" asked Jon.

"Pretty much. Nice life, isn't it?" I grinned.

Originally I had thought two hours would be enough to see all of the Summer Palace. That turned out to be a gross underestimate. Three days would've closer to the mark. In the interest of time, we gave the lesser structures a miss and concentrated on the main ones, like the artificial Kunming Lake and the 17-Arch Bridge that spans it. In one of the rooms at the Grand Theatre, there was another one of those dress up and take a photo things.

"You know you want do it. It's only 10 yuan," Jon egged. Ah, what the hell. I, too, got into a yellow robe and hat, and posed for a picture. The difference? I made it look good.

We had an acrobatics performance to catch and needed to be back at the hostel by 6:30 latest, so around 4:00pm, we began making our way towards the exit. Fortunately, route #808 began at the Summer Palace, and we got seats, because very quickly, it became crammed with people. I didn't think there'd be rush hour traffic, after all, wasn't everyone supposed to be on vacation? Certain blocks though, we found ourselves moving at a snail's pace. 6:00pm rolled around, and street names were still suffixed with 'west'. We needed to be on the east side of town.

"We're not going to make it," I told Jon. "We're going to have to get off and catch a cab." I requested the driver to go as fast as he could. Timing couldn't have been better, as we pulled up at the hostel with five minutes to spare.

"[Where were you two?]" exclaimed Cherry as we trudged through the doors.

"[Traffic,]" I explained simply. They gave money for taxi fare, and with two other Pittsburgh residents, we rode to the performance hall.

"So this is how you spend your days? Running around from place to place all day?"

Teaching locals english phrases, strolling through imperial gardens, watching amazing feats (that kid is standing on one hand on a tightrope!) performed by acrobatics troupes. Yeah, just another typical day in the life of a backpacker.

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!