impressions Great Wall for class paper

It has always been a dream of mine to visit the Great Wall of China. I imagined climbing that majestic wall would be a spiritual and enlightening experience; walking along one of the world’s oldest remaining manmade structures would ground me and help me realize what man can do. The wall, which snakes through several thousand miles of China’s countryside over deserts, mountains, and plains, is a testament to China’s ability to live in the future while embracing its history. This past Saturday, I visited the Badaling section of the Great Wall and was amazed and highly disappointed simultaneously.

The Badaling section of the wall is the most popular section of the Great Wall because it is closest to Beijing, only about 45 minutes out of the city. If the day was not so hazy, Badaling would have offered beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Much of this section has been restored to endure the heavy traffic it receives. Much of the Badaling wall has been rebuilt and have handrails installed. The Badaling Great Wall was promoted as a key national cultural relic and protected under the approval of the State Council in 1961. In 1988, it was enlisted in the World Cultural Heritage Directory by UNESCO. July 7, 2007 has once again witnessed the worldwide reputation that the Great Wall gained: it was listed among the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Upon my arrival at the Great Wall, I did not fathom the extent to how tourist-centric it would be. Immediately upon arrival, there were shops selling everything from water and food to t-shirts to mini sculptures of the wall. As we came closer to the entrance, the stores disappeared, but not for long. After going through the turnstiles, climbers have the option of going to the left or the right. Seeing the right path densely packed with bodies made it an easy choice to go left. Taking the left-hand path meant I was climbing the harder and significantly steeper section of the wall. I am very glad that I wore sneakers and a wind jacket because the stone walkways were often slippery and the further I made it up the wall the more the wind whipped my torso.

Lining the sides of the Great Wall were vendors selling more knick-knacks then one would know what to do with. The vendors were aggressive too; the entire way up to the watchtower, I had to fend off merchants trying to sell me things. One could buy wall hangings, painted globes, chess sets, designer knockoffs, hats and t-shirts, engraved plaques, certificates, and personalized mugs stating that you had climbed the Great Wall. What bothered me the most was once I made it to the top watchtower, there was an area set aside where you could dress up like an ancient Chinese warrior and pretend to battle. Everything about this experience screamed commercial tourist trap.

Eventually I made it to the top and kept walking to get a reprieve from the hawkers. To no one’s surprise, when I continued walking there were more stalls of good to be sold to unsuspecting tourists. Since we were making a trip to Silk Street Market after lunch, I thought it would be wise to practice bargaining while I had the opportunity. I saw just how easy it was to negotiate the price down on an item to less than a quarter of its original asking price. While just on the other side of the watchtower, another student and I were negotiating a price on a wall hanging that he liked. We got the price down quite low but then realized that he did not have enough money with him to purchase the item. We had walked back through the watchtower and started to descend the slope when the merchant started chasing after us to continue negotiations. We tried to tell him in our broken Chinese that we did not have the money he offered for him to pay for the wall hanging in U.S. dollars. The price he quoted us in U.S. dollars was more than double the negotiated price in RMB! We quickly walked away and made our way back down the Great Wall.

After we left the Great Wall, the group all went for lunch in HaiDian District and then to Silk Street Market. The bus ride back into Beijing was absolutely breathtaking. The road wound through the mountains, rising and falling with the landscape. My only complaint about the bus ride was that the mountainous terrain caused the pressure in my ears to build up and I could not get rid of it for three days!

When Americans think of shopping for inexpensive, designer knockoff goods, they think of Chinatown in New York City. When shopping for inexpensive, designer knockoff goods in China, people think of Silk Street Market. This market is a four-story eyesore hawking every kind of imposter product you can think of. Floor one is dedicated to shoes, handbags, and accessories. Floors two and three to clothing, not limited to t-shirts, dress shirts, dresses and skirts, and suits. And floor four to appliances and electronics.

Shopping and negotiating in Silk Street Market was above and beyond my expectations after negotiating at the Great Wall. Here the sales people were rude, pushy, insulting, and most of all relatively carefree if they lose your sale because they know that there are more clueless tourists who will buy at higher prices and larger quantities. In trying the buy the same shirt in five different stalls, I was offered the opening prices anywhere between 280RMB-780RMB. I was able to negotiate each vendor down to between 50RMB and 70RMB, and eventually I purchased the top for 50RMB. I was having a difficult time staying in the market long enough to purchase my shirt but others in my group walked out of the market with armfuls of items! As a whole, they all agreed that they felt they overpaid for most of their purchases, yet they all wanted to come back later and purchase more items.