Beijing is Not Olympic-Ready

My recent trip to Beijing with my hubby... I shall say... Not Enjoyable. We didn't have that great after-trip feeling, don't have that feeling that we would want to go back there again(except for the fruits).

I have to say, it is quite disappointed. I complained to my cousin that now I wished I was not born a chinese.
Well.. of course, that's out of the context.

Although my hubby can speak & understand Mandarin very well, Beijingers couldn't care to make themselves understood. Mandarin is their mother tongue. It is a dialect of language they treat as their town language and they have spoken it their lifetime. They are not careful about it. This, in turn, unfortunately cause a great diffivulty for my husband to understand them. They slur their pronunciation (I thought I misheard them or just plainly have very poor understanding of Mandarin, which I do), making themselves very very unclear.
They are not patient when you asked them to repeat. For some, they shouted/spoke louder when you asked "Ni chiang se mor?"(Wat did you say?). And if you know Chinese nationals.. when they speak at their regular voice, it's already very deafening.

The most disappointing part was: Beijing is not tourist friendly. Apparently, they have a bit of this mentality: You have got to be poor to not join a tour group from your own country.
We stayed in a 3star hotel in an absolutely fantastic location. Right in the middle of old town, it's jus minutes away from everything.

Unfortunately, they seem to believe that 3star hotel does not need to provide anything. There is no proper Concierge counter. When staffs are asked of tour information, THEY WERE NOT SURE OF ALMOST EVERYTHING.
And not only that, one staff was particularly rude to a guest. Luckily, we were Chinese & able to speak a bit of mandarin, he was rude to the caucasian but a bit better on us.

Both the airport & bus terminals... No. The Airport, the bus terminal & the train station have no tour information at all. No brochurs, no counter, nobody to provide these information. Worse was, there were hustlers for tours & drivers everywhere that it's worse than deafening. I thought I was really used to all that since I've encounter KLIA, Bali & Thailand markets, but in Beijing, it was like that everywhere!!!
Forbidden City, Heavenly Temple, Great Wall, outside hotel, Bus terminal, all e rest of e famous sights are all full with rude & physical hustlers. We looked Chinese, they walked with us, selling themselves to us. No matter how we said no. They pull us physically & talked to us until we must lie that we had either went there or I rudely brushed them off with "DO U HAVE ENGLISH?" with a strong American/Brit accent. I dislike doing that. It's not me. But I had to do it. N I had to do it many times!

When we went to train station to find information & buy tickets for our 2day excursion to Chengde, my hubby was rudely turned away. Naturally we couldn't understand their system. They used terms that aren't used in this side of the world (actually my hubby is well read, he understand HK & Taiwan media no problem). When seeking clarification, they shouted back at him.
The public is so huge & uncontrollable. THey are very rude. They pushed their way through to walk through. So much so that, the stations all hired unnecessary guards to control the crowds just so they'd queue. Simple & basic like that. Barriers had to arranged long & far before entry into train stations.

There is really no brochur & although there is a computer terminal with information, it didn't telly with the information given by the officers at the counters. Most of the time, we were turned away. Major information counter directed us to counter 108 to buy (night) ticket for Chengde, but we walked round the whole station.
There is no counter 108.

Came the day we supposed to go to Great Wall. We were still clueless about the transportation. Travel guides had no information about it either. He read about 5 different travel guides, both mandarin & English.
Instead, we were swindled by this lady in the public bus uniform jacket. We were told there is no such thing as public bus to go to Badaling, Great Wall. It all had to be tour.

We, being experienced traveler, hate tour groups. I especially hate Chinese ones. They don't speak English & yak yak yak yak all the way in Mandarin, non-stop. I simply don't understand why they had so much to chatter when the information given is probably only 3lines long in English.

We wanted to see both Ming(dynasty) tombs & Great Wall on the same day. They were both about the same direction. However, the tour group did not want to go there, hence bullshit about the tomb being very superstitious (a lady dropped dead at the area, or a kid cried non-stop for days post-trip). AS usual, they took us to 2 stores for shopping. And some rundown place called "Old Beijing" which is not the real Old Beijing.
The tour guide did try to be nice to me, knowing that we aren't Chinese. But I frankly was so turned off by how the thing was turned out.
She talked from the moment the bus started the journey to the time to the time we reached Great Wall, and all the way to the both stores & to the old Beijing. That's 5hours trip of her talking!!!! O yes, she talked on the mic. AND, she'd stopped short to go wake all those who fell asleep while she giving her speech.
No, it's not a joke. My hubby laughed at this. I was pissed. I was tired. I wanted to sleep.

Ok, here's the greatest irony. When we finished the trip, we saw the counter that is legally & publicly the Beijing tour groups booth opposite the bus terminal.
That morning, we happened to get off at the wrong side of the bus terminal(out of the subway).

Fine. Recover from that. It happens. We look forward to another trip perhaps. Our Ming tomb excursion wasted & burned. WE went in to look for information. It was 7pm. It was closed.
There were posters of the tour trips information. THey have destinations, they have price. They don't have the timing.

We came back the next day only to find out almost all the trips depart at 7am. As usual, there were hustlers outside. I should have bring ear plugs.