2nd day in Beijing

So I was robbed and gone from rich to broke on my first day in China. I decided to not make a rational decision. I went to bed and got a good night sleep. The next day, I saw things differently. It wasn't a good beginning but it might get better. If I stayed away from the shopping malls and traveled only by train, I would be fine. Now that I came this far, why not try to see what China has to offer.

If I hadn't booked the Great Wall tour, I would probably stay all day in bed, thinking about how everything happened. But I had to be at the lobby at 7:30. While waiting for the tour bus, I met a lovely older man from Vancouver who gave me some advice on how to carry money while traveling, and then offered me some cash. I had no Chinese yuan on me, so I accepted only if he agreed to get it back later when I exchanged some Korean won into yuan.

On our way to the great wall, the tour took us to a Jade factory and store, where I saw two young boys working on the machine, carving pieces of jade with electric razor under running water. Their fingers were blue out of cold. Beijing in January is very cold and the factory was not heated. I can imagine how cold the running water was, I was thinking to myself how they are able to carve such great details when their fingers are cold, blue and numb.

We then were taken to a Chinese medicine clinic, where if we wanted, we would be examined by an old Chinese doctor and prescribed Chinese medicine. I was told I have poor circulation system and if I don't fix it now, it will lead to anemia. I wonder if he told the same to all the female "patients".

After lunch, we were finally at the Great Wall, sitting in a cable car to a place where we could walk on the wall to the top. Legend says you can only become a true hero if you walk the wall to the very top. It was too windy and cold, I was in heels and didn't feel like becoming a hero at all. I was just happy standing on the bottom of the wall, enjoying the mountains and my coffee, watching people walking their way toward the title.

On my way back to the hostel, I asked the driver to drop me at a Bank of China to exchange some Korean won into Chinese yuan. I was dropped an ATM bank of China instead, and had to walk an hour to find a branch. After, I went to the Tian'anmen square. This was the place where I got robbed, but I was not about to give up the market. On my way to the market, I saw a police station with 3 foreigners in there. It was right next to the bag store where I got robbed. I knew filing a report would not get my money back, but I thought reporting it might help fixing the problem. I walked in the police station. There were a couple, reporting a stolen camera, and a French lady, reporting stolen wallet. We all filled out some forms and pointed to the location where it happened, and walked out, feeling like these cops we just spoke to don't give a damn and nothing will ever change by our reports.

I went to the market, holding tight to my purse, bought some gloves and a scarf and called it a day.