Our journey began early Monday morning as we metro'd our way across Beijing to the pre-arranged meeting point. We piled into a TINY van and 10 of us headed on out of Beijing. This is my first time leaving the Beijing area- but we traveled into the Northern reaches of Hebei province. This is the province that Beijing is nestled in- but is a different province. It's weird. Sort of how Washington DC is neither a part of MD or VA- it is it's own district.
We drove and drove and drove in our tiny van- our legs all cramped up- and watched as the surrounding terrain switched from the mountainous edges of Beijing into the flat and water covered parts of Hebei. We passed a Nuclear Power Plant with 6 cooling towers. And we passed fields and fields of Wind Turbines- which I find very delightful. It's like giant pinwheels thrown across fields.
Slowly but surely the landscape begin to change and get more rugged and mountainous. And then- before we knew it- the ground was covered in snow- as well as the street. A few more kilometers and we were pulling into our ski resort. Our hotel was NICE! Each room has two full size beds, a flat screen T.V., a western toilet, and hot water form 8pm-12am! :) It sat ON the ski slopes and allowed easy access.
As soon as Jill and I got there we were ready to hit the slopes- we had a few snacks- and then we were off. Jill is an avid snowboarder, so it was the first time in a while that she was skiing. And it was the first time in 5 years that I was skiing. We both tentatively scooted out on to the bunny slope and slid down hill. Now instead of the typical t-bar ski lift, they had a giant conveyor belt lift. It was painfully slow- and generally resulted in Jill and I as quickly as we could slowly scooting ourselves forward.
Nana and Max were inexperienced skiers and hit the slopes about an hour after we had. With two bunny slopes and one blue square open- it definitely was a beginners resort. Jill and I came down from our run of the 'big slope' to see Nana stuck on the edge of the bunny slope. Max was no where to be seen- so we skied to her and gave her our first official ski lesson (pizza/french fries!). Nana told us that Max had decided to go up on the blue square and she had decided to stay. Jill and I stayed behind and bunny sloped it up a lot. Nana was very fearful and shrieked and screamed out a lot as we skittered down the bunny slope. At one point- she fell over on the conveyor belt and began screaming 'Save my life! Save my life!' (hilarious- yes. But don't worry. Even though I was giggling to myself as the ski employee dragged her off- 10 minutes later I too fell over on the conveyor belt and only could right myself but knocking a ski off....half way down the hill. Karma!) 45 minutes later Max reappeared- he had not had a 'successful' run down the mountain. We were encouraging Nana at this point to TRY the blue square- just to have the experience. Jill and I seem to be from the Nike school of thought- and 'Just Do It' seemed to be our motto. Max though put his foot down. As the male here he told us that it was 'Too dangerous' of a slope for Nana to try and attempt. Jill and I laughed. But- the more we talked about it- the more we just noticed how different gender roles are here in China.
In America, women are raised with the idea that they can do ANYTHING that their male counterparts can do. And other then the physiological differences- men and women are equal. Here in China women are raised as the weaker sex. Our male employees struggled for a long time to let us move the equipment around the gym. They truly believe we were not physically capable. At our gym, men gawk, open-mouthed, as Jill and I get on the machines and manage to lift anything more then 10 lbs. There is a list 10 miles long of what Chinese women CANNOT do during 'that time of the month,' most of which are laughable to a western woman (they aren't allowed to eat ice cream!)
And once more, we were seeing this gender inequality on the slopes. Even worse- women seem to agree with the idea that they are fragile little flowers. Ski instructors would run across slopes to help a woman who had gently taken a tumble. And now Max has deemed the mountain too dangerous and Nana would not be going on it. That immediately made me cross- my inner feminist wanted to come roaring out and ask him 'How he knew what Nana could and couldn't do.' But, I backed down.
Jill and I started to feel very out of place. Here we were- the freakish American women who could ski successfully and do so with out shrieking or eating it. Nana stayed on the bunny slope for the rest of the day. Max actually joined her- I think he had over estimated his own skiing ability.
The next day, Jill and I got an early start. We ate breakfast, bundled up, booted-up, and were on the ski-lift lickedy split. Nana had gotten separated from Max, so she decided to sneak up the mountain with Jill and I. Jill and I waited at the top, but when it came time to disembark, Nana freaked out again. She put the bar up, and as soon as she got near the station she slid out, flopping on the ground, screaming 'HELP! HELP!' Those ski-park employees we're earning their money that day. We got Nana situated- and we all set off. We pizza'd the whole way down. Nana fell once- but got right back up and kept pizza-ing. Max eventually caught up to us- and was happy to see Nana on the slopes. We ended up doing the run again and again. But before too long it was time to pack it up, and head back to the big BJ.
Eventually I hope to get some video on this blog- and show you guys a bit of what we did.
But my days here in BeiJing are numbered- well for the first half of this voyage at least. So- hopefully a few more blog posts and I will be writing to everybody about how weird it is that EVERYBODY speaks English, and how good PIZZA tastes, and how my table manners are now atrocious. :)
Love. Love. Love.
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