After 30 Days, We Never Saw China

We spent thirty days in China, but we never really went to China. You see, we didn't make it to the Great Wall. According to some, that means that we never really saw China.

We had planned to spend thirty-three days in China. This was detailed on our visa application and, novices that we are, we never really looked at the visa. If we would have looked carefully, we would have discovered a little stamp that said valid for thirty days. Oops.

We returned to Beijing from Datong late on Friday night. The bus dropped us quite a way from the bus station I thought we would land at, and thus, quite a ways from our hostel. We caught a taxi, eventually got the driver into the right neighborhood (having been lost there repeatedly our first time in town, we knew where we were going), and checked in at about midnight. As the attendants were writing down our details (everything is scrupulously recorded in China, I am sure that you could track our trip if you could just find the right paperwork), a flurry of conversation occurred behind the desk. After counting the days out on her fingers, the girl informed us that our visa expired the following day. Saturday, the day we were going to the Great Wall, was also the day we were supposed to leave the country. Oh Sh__!

We dropped our bags in our room, drank a quick beer, and got online to find out if it was possible for us to either (1) extend our visa or (2) fly out a few days early. The answer to the first was basically no and, since we really didn't want to see the inside of a Chinese prison, Joey contacted our travel agent to get her to change our tickets. Which she did, for free (though we wouldn't know that it was successful until the following morning). It was awesome. At 12:30am, we set out for one final adventure to try to find our new friends from Datong at a random bar south of our guesthouse. We didn't find them but we did have a good cooling off wander.

Saturday morning, we headed out to see the last of the Beijing sights before heading to the airport. Tian'anmen Square was packed with crowds; a much better sight than our rainy first visit. We went to Mao's tomb but he is locked away until September. We had Peking Duck; we are still partial to Malaysian Chicken Rice. Basically it was a great day.

Leaving China was easier than anything else had been. We cruised through customs. Our only hitch came at the security check point. Joey had purchased a knife for his dad in Pingyao. He had bargained down the price to half and was quite proud of his purchase. Unfortunately, he left said purchase in my purse without telling me. I got stopped at security and they took Mr. Bill's knife away. Luckily it wasn't sharp or I would have stabbed my loving husband with it for making me go through that. Our picture from the plane leaving China tells the whole picture. We had a good time there but it wore us out. We were ready to go.