Day 9

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Where do I start?

To say that I have been putting off this writing today's post for some time would be a massive understatement. I had even given serious thought to not writing it at all and just hoping that no-one would notice but here goes...

So, we arrived at the hostel, dropped our bags off and headed towards The Bund, an embankment and popular tourist destination (remember that bit) which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River.

True to form, we missed our intended destination and ended up in the Pudong district on the other side of the river. It wasn't all bad though as we got to see the Oriental Pearl Tower and walked down the east bank of the river. About halfway down the embankment it began to rain torrentially and the only place we could find for shelter was a Häagen-Dazs cafe. I should also mention at this point that I felt like my blood sugar was running a little low, ahem. (Mum, I swear to God I am being sensible with my money, but I think even you will agree from this photo that I looked in a bad way when we got there.)

We stayed for about an hour while the storm passed and then made our way back to the subway, when we came across an aquarium and underground tunnel to the other side of The Bund. Seduced by the promise of enclosed sea life and a fairground style ride underneath a river, we went in to investigate. After paying for our tickets we headed in to the "aquarium." Now I don't know about Daley, but I was expecting big things, and all the good work the people of Beijing had put in to creating fantastic Olympic venues was ruined by their pathetic attempt at an aquarium. Ok, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was rubbish. There were more stuffed animals in there than actual marine life, and what little life there was inside the tanks was almost certainly close to seeing the light.

We were out of there in a flash and then climbed aboard these little pods that took us under the river. The light show inside the tunnel was a bit psychedelic and the 'wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men' made me laugh and think of my brother.

So, several hours after setting off, we finally arrived at our intended destination. The Bund. Not much to write home about after all that, just a long stretch of concrete swamped with locals trying to flog cheap tat. We walked all the way down to the end of the embankment, took a few photos and then started to make our way back up towards the tunnel, when we heard a voice call out "hello, welcome to China," we smiled politely and turned to head off when the same voice called out again "where are you from?" Call me anti-social, cynical, whatever but I was still happy to carry on walking but Daley had already replied and before we knew it, we were making polite conversation with Alfred, Jessica and Debbie (Chinese people give themselves English names. Hence Billy the hair stylist in Hong Kong.)

They seemed very genuine and interested in how we were getting on in China, and having spent, maybe fifteen minutes with them, I can honestly say that I was genuinely starting to like them. Alfred then began to tell us about an ancient Tea Ceremony that they were going to later that evening and invited us to come along, as it only happened once every three years. Thinking that this would be unbelievable cultural opportunity, we agreed, and followed them to a small room in a little tea house not far from the embankment.

After seeing the price list, we began to feel uneasy but we were in a tiny room, surrounded by locals, and with plenty more downstairs, so it was a mixture of politeness, not wanting to offend our 'friends' and fear of consequences had we said no, that we agreed to continue. (My initial thought was that we would be made to drink a 'special tea', which would knock us out for a few minutes while they robbed us.) Fortunately that didn't happen and thank God we only selected six teas for tasting, rather than the full eleven on offer.

Two hours later the 'ceremony' finished and we had been treated to some very nice tea and a slice of Chinese history. After that, we were presented with a rather hefty bill, which Alfred, the three-fingered little swine, proposed was split between the three gentlemen at the table, as was customary in his country. We flatly refused and split it five ways. Then, he attempted to persuade us to purchase some tea, again we refused. As we left, we had a photo with our new 'friends' and left thinking we'd had a fantastic, if slightly expensive, cultural experience.

When we arrived back at the hostel and went in to the bar, the first thing we saw was a notice saying:

"To our non-Chinese friends,

We have been made aware that groups of locals have been approaching westerners around The Bund and People's Square, passing themselves off as students and inviting them to 'Tea Ceremonies.' Please be advised, these are fake. There is no such thing as an 'Ancient Tea Ceremony.'

We love you,
Blue Mountain Youth Hostel"

We were absolutely gutted and kept bursting into random fits of laughter in disbelief at how stupid we had been.

This experience, along with a few others so far, has left me with a poor impression of Chinese people as I now feel that most of them just see westerners as cash cows and their sole intention is to make as much money from us as possible, which is a shame as it reflects badly on the many nice, friendly people we have met along the way but unfortunately they are most definitely in the minority.