Today is our day to visit the Great Wall of China. We have been in Beijing two full days now and feel that we are getting oriented with the city so why not venture an hour and a half outside downtown for a hike up the wall?
Our sever at the hotel restaurant recommended we talk to his friend who is a guide to take us to the Wall, Ming Tombs and the Olympic Stadium. He introduced us to Mr. Lee outside the hotel entrance at his “shop”. His shop is a 6 x10 foot hole in the building where he sells the traditional Beijing souvenir junk. It’s no different than a multitude of others we have seen. He sets out a two chairs around a table on the sidewalk so we can “talk.” He shows me his business card and tells me he is “#1 tour guide in Beijing.” “See I have nice photo of Wall on my card.” Yes, the card was slick, made to impress tourists from around the world, I’m sure.
We talked about the tour, English speaking driver, vehicle for 5 people, and price. Once all the details were agreed upon I put down our 50% deposit, shook hands and agreed to meet him or one of his drivers at the hotel’s entrance at 8:00am.
All five of us made it downstairs, fed, dressed and ready to go by 8:00am to find Mr. Lee waiting for us. Mr. Lee was standing next to another man and a Volkswagen Passat. The man, who didn’t speak ANY English was our driver and the car was designed to seat 5 yes, 4 + the driver! Mr. Lee assured me we would all fit “no problem.” The boys and I climbed in the back seat. We did fit, because myself and Ryan, who were on the outside, had to sit on one cheek pressed against the door the entire way.
Here was our first mistake. Since two parts of the deal were not satisfactory, the car and non-English speaking driver, we should have demanded our terms or get a refund. Due to our eagerness to see the wall we did neither.
The Great Wall was awesome! We spent two and a half hours hiking and climbing up and down its terraced levels from one watch tower to another while Ryan stayed in the first watch tower throwing up.
The whole ride he was complaining of an upset stomach but we thought it was due to the crazy Beijing style of driving we endured. No it was not the driving but the stomach bug that has plagued the brothers.
After the Wall the plan was to drive to the Ming Tombs. With Ryan feeling so terrible we talked about going back to the hotel. Ryan told us he could rally and wanted to go on. He said he was feeling better after throwing up and doing other things your body does when your intestine is not well. So we did, mistake number two.
The drive to the tombs, down the back side of the mountain, was enough to make a well person spill their lunch. It was so twisty and curvy plus the driver would go fast down the hill then slam on the breaks into the turn. Ryan asked the driver to pull over twice so he could leave a piece of him on the side of the road. We were all thankful for that short reprieve.
We ended up at a local restaurant for lunch called The Sweet Sauce. Our non-English speaking driver told us, the best he could, that this was our place for lunch. Our hostess escorted us to a “private room”. She handed me the menu and began suggesting things. I tried following along on the menu and saw a few of the dishes she described. She then asked if we liked fish. We responded yes. She described a sturgeon of sorts that “I do nice for you”. We agreed, mistake number three, and lunch was ordered.
It was delicious just as promised. Robert walked Ryan back to the car since he was still not feeling well and left me to pay for lunch. She presented a 1090 Yuan bill for lunch!! That’s $160USD for pork, lamb and some local fish. I was pissed! I sent Taylor out to the car to get Robert. He was equally pissed!
The server tried to tell us this was some magical, special, local fish from the Ming Tomb pond. I said I didn’t care and that she did not ever show us the price or tell us it was so special. We said we were “tricked” and “lied to”. It was par for the course with the events of the day thus far.
Here we were the naïve “rich” American tourists coming to lunch and they were going to serve us their version of King Crab. We raised hell and said we would not pay that amount for being tricked. Our server who spoke decent English now all of a sudden played ignorant.
Our driver was no help since he didn’t speak English either. He called his boss, Mr.Lee, and he told us he would get us Chinese price. Ahh, so they did overcharge foreigners. I am also sure that Mr. Lee, our driver and the restaurant were all in on these together, getting kick-backs from one another.
Robert threw 800 Yuan on the table and walked out. Our driver ran after yelling who knows what in Chinese while dialing a call on his wireless. We asked him to drive using hand gestures and such but he sat there on the phone. Next thing we know the lady from the restaurant came out and handed us 300 Yuan and said “I give you Chinese price.” Then the driver drove away headed to the Ming Tombs.
At this point Robert and I and the boys were ready to go home. Again, using non-verbal communication we told him to take us to our hotel.
On the drive back we discussed with the boys exactly what happened and explained we could have been smarter in decisions for the day to protect against getting ripped off just because we are Americans who in their eyes have all the money in the world.
Hard lesson learned for us all but we were able to see the good in the entire situation too.
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