Great Wall

Great Wall – In China, it takes patience to get things done.

 Since I wanted to go with a travel group to the Great Wall, I followed the Lonely Planet online guide to buy real government sponsored tickets.

The ticket office I went to sold tickets for one of the Heavenly Gates on Tiananmen Square. It’s legit. I buy the gate ticket, I see the gate. In order to get in this area, there is security. At the same office, I bought a great wall package that includes a wakeup call at 5:30am to see the flag raising at 6am and a visit to Simati, a part of the Great Wall that is less touristy.  

I get two calls the night before. One guy saying he’ll pick me up at 5:30am, which is right in line with what I purchased from the ticket office. An English speaking tour guide calls at midnight saying she’ll pick me up at 8am. I tell her that’s confusing. She says she’ll call the ticket office to clarify for me. I wait 20 minutes – no call.  I try calling the number on my ticket. No one picks up. I call the tour guide back, she says she’s just a tour guide and to talk to the office….

In the morning, at 5:30am I get a wake up call. At 6am while I am in the lobby, the tour guide calls again and asks me if I’m going to Badaling. I say no – I’m going to Simati. I do not want to go to Badaling since I’ve heard it’s over crowded with Chinese tourists.  I told him I paid extra for this part of the wall. He is shocked I’ve already paid and says he’s no longer going to pick me up. What?!?!?!! It’s my last day in China – how else am I going to get there?

Confused, I call the number on my ticket. A lady answer then a man answers in sleepy incomprehensible Chinese and mumbles something about English tour guide.

10 minutes later the English speaking tour guide calls and says she’ll be there at 8am. WTF? Why I am up at 5:30am in the morning then? Why did the ticket office promise to take me to see the raising of the flag?

At 8am, I get on the bus. After 20 mins on the bus, I hand over my ticket. The English speaking tour guide, Tina, says that I’m on the wrong bus. This bus is not going to Simati! In fact, Simati has been closed for 2 months!

Tina asks how I got on the bus.   I ask how she got my number.  She says from the ticket office – I say well, I paid for that ticket.

She offers to drop me off the tour group so I can take a bus to go to Simati….Errr…didn’t she just say that Simati was closed??!?!?! Why would I take a bus to a part of the Great Wall that is closed?!!?!?!

I told her no way – I have no idea how to get to the other areas of the wall on my own without my Beijing guide book! She asks me if I want to go tomorrow. I tell her no – today is my last day Beijing. If I don’t go today I won’t see it.

Then we both agree that I should just stay on this bus. Very very confusing.

The ticket office completely promised me so many invalid statements just to get the sale. This was from an official government ticket office too!

 On the random plus side, my trip was 310 RMB – the usual price was 350 RMB.

 Finally, I went to the Great Wall – it was great. We only had 2 hours – I would have liked to hang out more but with the rain, that was enough. We also stopped by a tomb (cool), a jade store (interesting but tourist trap), and a tea tasting session (free samples! but also a major overpriced tourist trap)  

Ahhhh…Chinese tour groups…

Morale of the story: Try to do things yourself in China. For tour groups, go through your hotel.  Have a good attitude. Take lots of pictures at the Wall. You earned it.