Day 11 – Today we took an hour long bus ride to an alcohol factory, Nulanshan. As soon as you stepped off of the bus you could smell liquor. We walked around and saw the history of the factory and bottles of very expensive alcohol. Then we went to see their assembly line with a few hundred workers putting stickers on by hand and they looked miserable. According to Vanessa they only made about 3000 rmb a month. We were offered 30 proof and 85 proof shots of their alcohol. The first shot wasn’t bad except for it got caught in my throat and burned. People said it tasted like grass but I didn’t taste anything. In Chinese culture it is rude to not accept the alcohol even if you didn’t want it/ were feeling tipsy in events such as a banquet or reception. I didn’t take a shot of the 80/85 proof but I had a sip of the shot from someone else. It was not very tasty but it felt warm going the whole way down.
Next, we went to Jangho, a window/glass making company. The person who was speaking didn’t speak English so he had a translator. She was very quiet and we couldn’t really hear/understand her. But looking at the pictures we were being shown that company had built the windows for some of the tallest buildings in Beijing. Afterwards we took a tour of the assembly line/warehouse and inside it looked like a home depot or lowes. We walked around and saw more assembly lines with workers doing repetitive steps of the manufacturing process. This was a very short tour.
Next we went to lunch at a government owned restaurant and had some good food. We also got carrot/orange/mango juice which was delicious and so much better than drinking coke. There was a lot of tofu, fish, some cornbread type things stuffed with cornbread, and shrimp. I was so excited to eat the shrimp until I saw that their heads and legs were still attached. I tried one and it wasn’t worth the effort to eat it with taking it apart. I went to use the bathroom before I left and there was a little washer and dryer in the bathroom. Complete with clothes line.
After this we went to the Fragrant Hills which were not hills. It was a hike to get up to the top. There were cable cars that took people up and I was the only girl who didn’t take one. I was walking up and kind of got behind the group. There were smaller paths that I went down and once we got so far up you could see Beijing in all directions. The city is huge. Even further up the hill, once I made it to the top there was a temple. Everyone was taking pictures on some huge rocks up top and everyone was amazed by the view. There was also another little path that led to a pagoda that overlooked the mountain. There were 2 amazing views at the top of the hill. The city and the mountain/hillside’s views were phenomenal. I was disappointed in the fact that there was no fragrance on the fragrant hill. However, I did get a mango popsicle at the end and it kind of made it better.
When we got back we rested for a little bit then went to eat dinner at Papa johns. This was different because In America you just got pick up your pizza but in China it is a sit down restaurant. There were other things on the menu such as shrimp, pasta, spaghetti, and other traditional Chinese foods. My group ordered breadsticks, cheesesticks, a cheese pizza, and a pepperoni pizza. We went all out and it was delicious. We also ordered a pitcher of orange Fanta and went through 2 of those because we were so thirsty. Afterwards we went to KFC and got some ice cream. I really miss drinking milk so ice cream kind of helps with that. Plus, I really like ice cream.
fawcettplus3china2012 