The Great Wall Part 1: My Not-Tour
My agenda for today sounded quite simple: take a tour to the Great Wall at Badaling. Badaling is the section of the Great Wall closest to Beijing and most overrun by tourists. I had only been to other sections of the Great Wall so far, but never to Badaling. I had, however, taken various tours before in China, so basically I knew what I was getting into. Taking a tour in China is a well-balanced mixture of having to wait for hours, then being rushed through a couple of sights, taken to some tourist shops, and paying twice the price originally agreed on. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get to wear a hat. This was pretty much what I expected from what I knew from previous tours – and I was not disappointed, although I never got around to taking the tour.
I meant to take The Tour Bus No. 1 from Qianmen bus station and reserved tickets the night before. We agreed on 70 Yuan for the bus and the entrance tickets, which was a bit less than I had expected. “No hidden fees?” I asked. “No hidden fees,” the guy reassured me, “everything’s included.” “Are you sure?” I asked and almost felt guilty for being so persistent. Yes, he was absolutely sure.
Buses leave between 6 and 10 a.m. Since I live quite a way from Qianmen, I got up at 5:30. Once I got to Qianmen, the first thing I learned was that I would have to pay 100 Yuan. “We don’t take anyone for 70 Yuan,” the colleague of the person I had talked to the night before informed me. I called the guy again. “No problem, 70 Yuan, that’s what we agreed on.”
“No extra fees?” I asked again.
“Absolutely everything included,” was the answer, “hurry up and get in the car!” He took me to the tour bus, about half a mile away.
Once I got there, I was asked to pay. “That’s 70 Yuan for the tour,” the lady said, “plus 80 Yuan for Old Beijing.” (I.e. Hutongs and neighborhoods with traditional courtyard houses.)
“I didn’t book a tour to Old Beijing,” I said.
“Either you pay for it or you’re not going.” The lady said, and the guy I had talked to and who had assured me about ten times that 70 Yuan was all I would be paying just shrugged. “Up to you.”
I decided that I was not going, at least not with them. The guy drove back to Qianmen, but of course refused to take me, so I had to walk back. I was beginning to be annoyed, but since being annoyed is what taking a tour in China is all about, I wasn’t too worried, yet.
There are plenty of other tour buses leaving from Qianmen. Basically if you go there before 10 o’clock on any day, people will shout “Badaling! Great Wall!” at you from all directions. I asked one of the ladies how much her tour was. She showed me a card with all the prices listed. 150 Yuan alltogether. “Any other fees?” I asked. “No.” She said. “Everything included.” I asked her whether I had to go to Old Beijing if I took her tour and whether that would cost me any extra money. After a short pause, she nodded. I left.
On my way back, I passed the guys from Tour Bus No. 1. The guy who had refused to take me back was already sitting there in his car eying me suspiciously. His colleagues all thought the whole situation was very funny. I asked them whether I could just go and see the Great Wall for 100 Yuan, the price they had originally told me. They said I had to go to Old Beijing and pay for it, otherwise I could not take their tour, but they would still take me for 180 Yuan. It was then that I decided I would not be taking a tour.
I do not think that 180 Yuan is an awful lot of money. Nor do I mind seeing old courtyard houses; on the contrary, I like old Beijing, although 80 Yuan is really too much for that. The problem here is one that you will most likely also encounter when taking a tour. People will talk you into coming with them offering you a really low price and then charge you much more in the end. If you’re lucky, you find out before you get in the car. Usually, they won’t tell you about the extra fees before you actually get to the place. Sometimes, you don’t have much of a choice, but have to take a tpur because there is no other way to get to a place . I probably would have still gone with them had they been friendlier, despite the fact that they had tried to trick me. But I just couldn’t get myself to get back in the car with the guy who had lied to me and refused to take me back to Qianmen.
I did get to the Great Wall though, and I will write more about Badaling and how I got there in my next post.
That is so hilarious!! I mean, I’m sorry that you had so much trouble, but I’m laughing out loud.
On another note— the Amazing Race has started, and they started out in China, of all places. So, we’ve been watching people at The Great Wall on television. After Beijing they went to Mongolia, which brings me to a question. The signs in Mongolia were written in English and Russian. Not to sound like an ignorant American, but is Russian, rather than Chinese, the primary language in Mongolia?
Can’t wait to read about the rest of your tour adventure.
By the way, Mareike, do you have any recommendations for a GOOD way to take a tour? Is it best just to skip them altogether? What if you really do need some guidance getting around and seeing the sites?
I think it’s pretty funny, too, how tours over here are just so predictable. I’m not saying that taking a tour is something you should never ever do. It can actually save you some trouble if you don’t know how to get to places yourself. You just have to live with the fact that people consider you an ATM and might become unfriendly if they find out the ATM does not work properly. If you’re going somewhere near by (like other sections of the Great Wall such as Simatai, which is really beautiful and a lot better than Badaling), hiring a taxi for the day can be a really good option. That’s more expensive than taking a tour, but you can decide where you want to go, how long you want to stay, and especially what you do not wish to see (i.e. tourist shops from the inside).
Mongolian, as far as I know, is written in the cyrillic alphabet. So my guess is the signs were probably Mongolian written in cyrillic letters rather than Russian.