BEIJING: A CHINESE ESCAPADES In 5-12 March 2010, year 9 students went to Beijing for a study tour.

The purpose of the trip was for learning histories and culture of China and it will being used for our future studies. Not only students who were joining the trip, some of the teachers were accompanying us on the trip, even 4 persons from the tour operator. Before the trip goes, I was hoping that trip went well, I coped well with my friends and made some good memories during the trip. On the first day of our trip, we were departed to Beijing from Jakarta at 8.50 am. But, we have to transit to Hong Kong before we continued our flight to Beijing. It takes around 4 hours and a half to Hong Kong. When we arrived in Hong Kong, we were having 4 hours of free time wondering around at the airport. At approximately 6.00 pm, we continued our flights to Beijing for two and a half hours. What a long and tiring journey. I arrived at Beijing around 10.00 pm. My first impression at Beijing was the weather. I was arriving there at night, so I could feel the windy and cold weather that I have never feel in my hometown, Jakarta. After waiting for the bus, we were going straight to hotel for rest. The adventure started on the second day and ended on the seventh day. We visited some of the historical places in Beijing such as Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tianamen Square, Great Wall and Temple of Heaven. But, one of my favorite was Forbidden City because I can learn a lot of Ancient China history from it. Forbidden city is the palace complex in the days of imperial China. This place is situated in the middle of the ancient city of Beijing. The area of the Forbidden City is approximately 720 000 m2 and there are 9999 rooms in it. The building is dominated by red and gold colors that mostly related with Chinese culture. Great Wall also one of my favorite historical places because we were not have to listen to our tour guide, lots of time to walk around with friends, taking pictures, climbed up the Great Wall, going on a cable car enjoying beautiful scenery of the Great Wall. We weren't only visits some of the historical places, but we also looked for some modern places like 798 Art Centre, Capital Museum, Bird Nest Stadium and Wang Fu Jing shopping avenue. It is quite interesting though. But, there were some of the places that I dont really like much. Panda Zoo is one of them, because what I saw there is less than I expected. The pandas were dirty and rarely to move around. We are not only visiting places during our trip in Beijing. We also done some of fun activities that related to Chinese culture such as making dumplings, watching acrobatic show, drawing with tints, bargaining stuff on a market and took a rickshaw ride to see around chinese Hutongs (narrow street with some traditional houses). But still, my best moments in Beijing was bargaining in a market called Xiu Shui. Xiu Shui is a wholesale shopping center in Beijing, where we can get specific items with special price. Xiu Shui sell all kinds of goods such as clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, souvenirs to electronics equipment. Uniquely, we can make a bargain here. So, be clever to get the lowest bid here, if not, we can

be fooled by the price that the seller gave. Every seller there, always gave different prices to tourists or local people. Because we were only given 2 hours, I only get 2 scarves, 1 bag, 1 shirt, 1 fan and 1 hat. Personally, I was not satisfied because there I was putting presents for families first compared to myself. The funny thing happened when I was trying to buy 2 scarves for my mother in the Xiu Shui Market. This is my first time for doing a bargain. I started asking how much does it costs. The seller put 800 on her calculator. My friend and I started to get mad at the seller because we thought it is really expensive to buy 2 scarves for 800. And I put 50 on the calculator as my first price. The seller feels annoyed. And I tried to increase my price and the sellers price getting lower and lower. And my final price was 200. She got her angry face at me. She always said this is a good quality. You cant take it 200. When the price reached 350, my friend said No, thats still expensive, try to get lower. I could said that I was really struggling for these 2 scarves because I used to act to leave the shop and being pulled by the seller so many times. So pathetic. And finally she gave me 2 scarves for 250. I look out for some money in my wallet. I gave her 200 and I forgot to give her another 50. She also look out what inside my wallet. She wanted my 10 000 Indonesian notes. Its Indonesian rupiah, not yuan I said to her. Okay, can I have this? asked the seller while she hold my 10 000 rupiah notes. Well, okay sure, just take it! I replied to the seller. The seller got her happy face. Well, I felt happy, too because she took 10 000 IDR as a substitute for 50 RMB. Based on international conversion 10 000 IDR is equal to 8 RMB. So, I thought I had another 42 RMB saved. Lucky me. Of course, during the trip I learnt many things. Well, it changed me quite much. Before I went here, I didnt really like Chinese culture, except their culinary. But after the tour, I realized that Chinese culture was extraordinary and amazing. And also, in this trip, this is my first time learned how to bargain a thing. This kind of activity that I never done before, and I did it successfully.