Saturday – July 10, 3pm
After getting waterlogged at Mutianyu, I welcomed some ‘inside activity’… Jason was perfectly willing to deviate from the tour and so we skipped the Cloisonné Factory and Tea Ceremony (which I had done before) and went to a government-run silk shop. I had seen this setup before when I first visited the Beijing Underground… and where I bought my much-loved Silk Quilt. I patiently watched the demo about the cocoons and how they spun those fibers into silk strands… Then they finally turned me loose in the clothing section. I’ll tell you – I’d much rather shop for clothing in India! This place is pricey pricey pricey. But I neeeeeded something – in case my luggage doesn’t make it back tomorrow (wink/wink), so I made it out of there with a really nice jacket.
Jason then took me to a Chinese Medicine Clinic. They rub your feet and then a ‘professor’ comes in and looks at your tongue and checks your pulse. Then they sell you these herbal supplements that are the Chinese Medicine answer to ‘treating the whole body’… My doctor/professor guy said I had too much HEAT in my body. I tried not to laugh – he wouldn’t have understood my 90 minute workouts in a 107-degree high-humidity room (a la Bikram Yoga CoolSprings). He also said my kidney and liver function was very poor – and I’ll save you guys my personal commentary on that assessment. Oh, but I’m a sucker… I have to blame it on the jetlag that had set in, plus the fact that during the entire “evaluation” I was getting a Chinese Foot Massage… and I ponied-up and bought some herbs. God help me, I hope they do SOMETHING to cure all this ‘excess heat’ in my body.
I came back to the hotel and was absolutely beat. All that hiking in the rain (and getting absolutely soaked on the chairlift) had really really worn me down. I intended to just take an hour’s nap and then go find some dinner… but when the alarm went off, I just couldn’t move. So I grabbed a granola bar and went back to bed. I never the left the room again last night.