Chinese Tourists

The Great Wall and the Ming Tombs were neat. The trouble was that we went with a Chinese tourist group and everything was in Chinese. No translation. I sat and looked out the window and watched the scenery go by. They talked about a lot of things that I did not need to hear anyway, so I did not mind too much. It just gives you a bit of a headache. i got a few stares being the only foreigner and I managed to bump my head on the bus cieling everytime I sat down so I will probably be known as the "peculiar Lauwai" I get called Lauwai a lot which means foreginer in not so nice terms.
Aside from the tombs and Great Wall we stopped at a jade museum (translation: a fake history tour and than a bunch of glass cabinets with people selling Jade), Chinese Medicine facility (translation: a place for me to pee and for "doctors" to help diagnose diseases by touching your wrist) and Nine Dragon Amusement Park. The amusment park basically was not what you thinkl. We went on a ride with a warning outside about people with high blood pressure and heart disease. I was excited but the ride was more sedate than "It's a Small World After All" at Disney world. Alas, Ruby took TONS of pictures of the ride and one guy filmed the whole ride. It was a cheesy journey under the sea. The other things we were paraded to were not that fun either. I have to say that the Chinese tourists were enough amusement. They think the smallest things are hilarious and get such joy out of the strangest stuff.
Lunch was family style affair with plates of food in the middle, a little bowl for you and every man for himself. You had to eat fast!! I am not THAT savy with chopsticks so I did not get much. The guy next to me basically ate the whole fish fins and skin and all (he spit the tail fins and bones on the table). When I saw him eat it reminded me of people in extreme eating "sports". I needed help reaching some things so I felt like a five year old getting served my meal. It was not very good food (Ruby did not like it either) so we had a snack on the bus. That is about is though. Next time we should go on an English speaking tour! The wall was great and my legs got a great workout!