The Great Wall and the bananas

I was lucky enough to go to the Great Wall of China twice. The first time I went with a group from the Trans-Siberian to a part of the wall in Jinshanling. This is a part of the wall that is very old and most parts of it has not yet been restored. It was absolutely amazing, and for someone like me who’s not all that into China and all its tourist to-dos, it blew me completely away! Since this part of the wall was a part of the oldest it really was a tough hike including climbing steep stairs and steep descends. Thou the wall was challenging, we ended up walking 16 km. And the best thing about the Great Wall? Ppl are selling beer on top!

The second time I went was with the new group I’m travelling to Tibet with. We went to a more touristy part of the wall called Badaling which has been completely restored. This part of the wall is literally nothing compared to the first part I visited. Since it’s the part of the wall that draws most tourists (it’s only a 2h drive from Beijing), there were a lot of booths selling souvenirs, food, fruit, etc. I was really craving a banana, so I was thrilled when I saw bananas amongst the fruit. I walked up to the women managing this part of the booth and asked for two bananas. How much? 25 rmb. I pulled out 20 rmb and the lady signaled that it was sufficient. Happy with my bananas I walked to catch up with the others, when it dawned on me how much I actually had paid for the bananas. 20 rmb = 20 kr. I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized that I had had my mental currency calculator set on either rubles (Russia) or tukruks (Mongolia), which then would have made it a pretty good deal. What to do, but to laugh and smile that I probably had made someone’s day a bit easier.

When I eventually got down from the wall I wanted more bananas, but this time I wasn’t about to get fooled. Once again I asked for two bananas. I was told 12 rmb. I gave her 10 rmb.

It’s not easy being a bananaholic when dealing with foreign currencies.