Last night, I had a really hard time getting to sleep. I was so keyed up; I only got about three hours of sleep. I had a feeling something bad might happen on the Tongli trip. Tragic foreshadowing.
I'm going to start this entry by talking about the good aspects of the day. Our guide, Frank, met us reasonably on time. The trip to Tongli took about 90 minutes or so, but it wasn't too bad. We proceeded to the Tuisi Garden, the Meditation Garden, which was really lovely, reminiscent of Yu Gardens in Shanghai. We also got a chance to took a boat tour in a canal in Tongli, which was nice--we didn't get to do this in Suzhou. Furthermore, we toured an old house, Jiayin Hall, built in 1922, and our lunch was quite good: two pork dishes (one with veggies, one sweet and sour pork), some broccoli, and some fried rice with eggs, peas, and other sundries. I also did some shopping: got some panda-related gifts (including one for Carol), some fans, and even a faux-copy of Mao's red book.
The worst thing that happened, though, is that WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE THE ANCIENT SEX CULTURE MUSEUM. Frank said that he asked the folks there and they told him that it didn't exist anymore. What the actual hell? We came all this way; it was our primary reason for going to Tongli. I ended up calling the company, Isango, and they just said, "Oh, you have to send an e-mail about the situation." So when we got home, I did. We'll see what happens.
The second worst thing that happened is that, after lunch, we were pretty much scammed into a sales pitch. Frank mentioned that we were going to a silk museum in Shanghai. I thought this was a bit weird because it wasn't on the itinerary, but I said, "Okay..." So, after lunch, we went. At first, everything was cool: we were shown around a factory by a guy named Lee...but he seemed overly-friendly and a bit slick to me, in spite of his pink shirt. I didn't like the way he kept correcting our Chinese. Seeing how the silk product was made, was cool, I must admit. However, he eventually ushered us into a room with a ton of silk blankets and then tried to get us to buy one. "It would be easy to take on a plane," he said. We were then ushered into another room to "look around" at silk products, where we where bombarded by more salespeople trying to push over-priced shit off on us. I had had it by this point. Frank mentioned that he wouldn't be going home with us, which was fine by me at the point: I was beginning to feel set up. The guy at the silk museum was probably a friend of his; Lee was the one who took over, pretty much, when we got to this "museum" and Frank went God knows where.
Even though I was livid, I was still gracious and gave Frank a 100 RMB tip. I'm not totally sure why; I guess because we did have some fun today. I also gave the driver 50 RMB; this situation was likely not his fault. Perhaps both of them were just being told what to do. I will probably never know. But I definitely feel like I've been had today. And I'm really, really tired of pushy Chinese salespeople and feeling gypped in China.
In some ways, after a day like today, I like China less. I will be glad to go home.
A few pics...
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| The Meditation Garden. |
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| Frank took this one of me and Kerry at the Meditation Garden, by rocks. |
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| A view from the boat, going down the canal. |
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| The table at which we ate lunch. |
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| The silk "museum" that turned out to be a sales pitch for buying silk. |
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