可愛的加拿大姑娘超激動中國遊：第二天：歷史冰冷的腳趾

Up at 6, but not needing to meet the group until 830, I bundled up against the elements and went for a walk around the block.
百般折騰之後，凌晨6點我終於起牀了，但是我們的團隊要等到早上8點30分才集合。我把自己裹得像個糉子，以抵抗外面的惡劣天氣，然後去周圍街區散步。

I love mornings like this in a new city, getting to see the place wake up, as the working class hits up the food carts for their bag lunches to go, and parents walk their kids to school.
我愛這樣的早晨，在一個全新的地方，看着整個城市慢慢醒來，上班族到熱氣騰騰的早餐車處買早餐，然後把食物打包帶走，父母送他們的孩子去學校。

I feel invisible, but that’s a good thing, as I don’t get the standard cheezy tourist treatment and can just enjoy the everyday life of this great place.
在這裏我就像一個隱形人，沒有人認識我，也沒有人關注我，但這是一件好事情，因爲這樣的話，我就不用被那些俗氣的遊客待遇束縛，可以盡情享受這個偉大城市的日常生活。

Beijing was dawning beautiful and sunny, and the hustle and bustle was there, but still not the craziness or the crowds I had prepped for. Instead it was just comfortable, and being comfortable in a place is a huge, huge factor for me. When I, as a single woman, can walk around a city and just relax and enjoy it, that is the best sign that a city is going to be fantastic.
北京朝霞美麗，陽光明媚，車水馬龍，熙熙攘攘，但仍然遠未如我想像的那般瘋狂和擁擠。相反，它給人一種舒適的感覺，在一個地方如果身心都能感覺舒適自在，這對我而言，是非常、非常重要的因素。我，作爲一名單身女人，能夠漫步於一座全新的城市，真正放鬆自己，就這樣享受它，那就是最好的跡象，表明這座城市將是非常美妙的。
After a giant breakfast at the typical Asian “everything you could possibly imagine – fish and pizza and congee and Cocoa Pops” hotel buffet (they always have Cocoa Pops. Every country I’ve ever been in. Go figure. For this sole reason they have become my strange vacation obsession), we loaded our gloved and scarfed selves into the minibus and headed for Tianamen Square.
我們吃了一頓豐盛的早餐，典型亞洲特色（所有東西你都可以想象得出——魚肉、披薩、白粥、可可麥片粥）的酒店自助（他們總是提供可可麥片粥，每一個我去過的國家都這樣。你可以自己琢磨下，看是不是這麼回事。因爲這個原因，他們已經成爲我奇怪的旅遊強迫症），我們戴上手套，把自己塞進迷你巴士，然後朝天安門廣場進發。

Our adorable guide Jimmy – if keeping him in our luggage had been an option, we would have kept him throughout the whole tour – paraded us around carrying a bright red fabric fish on a telescoping pole, which, despite the fact it looked ridiculous, was amazingly easy to see in a forest of tour groups whose leaders were all carrying identical flags.
我們可愛的導遊吉米——如果在吉米和行李之間二選一，我們肯定會毫不猶豫地選擇吉米，整個旅行中，寧要吉米不要行李——在我們面前揮舞着一面有伸縮杆的醒目的紅色魚尾旗，這看上去確實滑稽可笑，不過令人驚奇的是，你很容易發現自己置身於旅遊團旗幟的森林，所有導遊幾乎都拿着一面差不多的旗子。
There were thousands of people here, and everyone was with a tour group, all moving in little flocks through the vast expanse of the square. If you turned your back on your group to take a picture, you had to be careful that when you turned back you were still with the right people, as it was so easy to get swept up with another group and before you knew it you were on the bus with a bunch of Israeli tourists.
這裏有成千上萬的人，每個人都跟着一個旅遊團，大家在巨大的廣場上分成一小撮一小撮，慢慢地挪動着。如果你轉過身拍照，背對你的旅遊團，那你再回過身的時候就一定要小心確認是不是還和自己人在一起，因爲稍不注意就會跟錯團，否則等你回到旅遊巴士上，看到一車陌生的以色列遊客，你纔會驚覺自己走散了。

The square itself is pretty plain, a big white expanse of concrete with some cool statues on one side, the Mao’s portrait-clad entrance to the Forbidden City on another, and the giant queue to see the refridgerated body of Mao on the other. The lines were too long, we missed him on this trip, but I’ll get it next time…
天安門廣場本身漂亮平整，白茫茫一大片，用混凝土澆築，一側有許多很酷的雕像，另一側是掛着毛主席肖像畫的紫禁城入口，還有一側是毛主席紀念堂，人們排着長長的隊伍等待瞻仰毛主席遺容。這條隊伍實在太長長長了，我們這次旅行只能錯過他了，但是我下次一定不會錯過的……

We found out after the fact that there are a lot of plain clothed securirt patroling the square and the Forbidden City, but you’d never know it, it feels so open and friendly. Got some great pictures, the cloudless blue sky made everything look spectacular, but once again it was really cold and windy, so we spent a lot of time huddling together and trying not to die.
我們發現，在天安門廣場和紫禁城其實有許多便衣警察在祕密巡邏，只是你可能永遠不會知道，這讓人感覺非常開放和友好。我們拍攝了一些很棒的照片，澄澈如洗的藍天使一切看起來都很宏偉壯觀，但我不得不再提一次，這裏真的好冷啊，寒風刺骨，我們大部分時間都擠在一起取暖，以免自己被凍死。
You’re going to notice a trend in these blogs – that we were freaking freezing. The whole time we were in Beijing it stayed subarctic, and, despite the fact that some of our group were from tropical cities like Halifax and Calgary, we just could not get warm.
你肯定會注意到這些博客文章裏的某個發展趨勢——那就是我們快被凍結了。我們在北京的這段時間，就像呆在亞北極，儘管我們當中的一些團員來自熱帶城市，比如哈利法克斯和卡爾加里，但我們還是沒有得到什麼額外的取暖福利。

The wind permeated everything, and before going to the Great Wall we were even warned to really bundle up so to not loose toes to frostbite. There’s nothing more comforting than that. It got to the point that our drivers, who spoke no English, knew the words for “crank up the heat!!!!” by the time we were done with them.
寒風彷彿能貫穿一切，在去長城之前，我們甚至被警告說必須嚴嚴實實地把自己裹起來，以免凍掉腳趾頭。沒有什麼比這更加令人無語淚流。還有一點就是，我們的司機，他不懂英語，但跟我們相處的這些天他學會了一個詞“crank up the heat!!!!”（取暖基本靠抖，抖起來！！！）

Then through the underpass to the Forbidden City. This was the first of many surreal moments on the trip, seeing in person those iconic red buildings and carriageways we’ve all seen on TV a million times. It’s more like the Forbidden City within a city within a city, as you would pass through one massive gate to a giant plaza, explore that, then pass through another massive gate into a larger version of the exact same plaza, with a more gigantic courtyard and even grander building.
然後，我們穿過門洞去紫禁城。此次旅程中有許多超夢幻的時刻，這就是第一次，這些標誌性的紅色建築和通道我們早已在電視中看過百萬次。紫禁城就像一個城中之城，你穿過一道巨大的門，來到一個巨大的廣場，繼續探索下去，你接着穿過另一道巨大的門，就會到達另一個視野更開闊的巨大廣場，庭院更加龐大，建築更加壯觀。

One of the things that really surprised me here was how 90% of the tourists were Chinese. I had expected the standard flocks of overbearing white people (ourselves included), but practically everyone was Chinese. That’s actually a really amazing thing, though, as so often we forget to visit the awesome treasures in our own country, and these sites are definately once in a lifetime, bucket list places.
有一件使我感到吃驚的事情是90%的遊客都是中國人。而我預期的是，這裏有成羣結隊的傲慢的白人（包括我們自己），但實際上這裏幾乎都是中國人。這確實使人驚歎不已，因爲我們常常忘記去參觀欣賞自己國家的珍貴遺產，這些地方一生之中值得去一次，值得寫上遺願清單。

The second half of the Forbidden City, the residential area, definately has more character and less pagantry than the first half. Smaller spaces, the details still ornate, but more homey feeling, cute little courtyards with trees, and a beautiful garden with gazebos and giant limestone rocks.
紫禁城的後半部分是生活區，比前半部分相比，多了些特色，少了些巍峨恢弘。空間變小了，細節依然華麗，更有家的感覺，樹木成蔭的可愛小庭院，美麗花園裏有涼亭、有石灰岩假山。
After the grandeur of the Forbidden City, it was time for the first of many massive Chinese meals. The drill goes like this – you sit in a private room, because they clearly don’t want us in the general population, around a big table with a giant lazy susan in the middle. There’s unlimited tea and one small class of water, beer, Coke or Sprite. Waiters just bringing giant plates of food and you eat whatever you want. Sometimes you don’t really know what it is, so you make an educated guess.
遊覽完雄偉的紫禁城，是吃中國大餐的時間。整個流程是這樣的——你坐在一個包間裏，因爲他們顯然不想讓我們和普通市民坐在一起，大家圍坐着一個大桌子，桌子中央有一個巨大的轉盤。茶水不限量，但是水、啤酒、可樂或雪碧都是小杯小杯的。服務生不時端上巨大的菜盤子，你想吃什麼就吃什麼。有些時候你實在不知道自己吃的是什麼，可以做個有根據的猜測。

Normally most of the dishes are a variation veggies and some meat, not really spicy, there’s a bowl of egg drop soup, one bowl of plain rice, and dessert is always either watermelon or oranges. At this point in the trip, it was all new and exciting food, and we all went to town, so much that only 2 out of the 10 of us even bothered to have dinner that night.
通常大多數的菜餚都是蔬菜和肉的變化搭配，不是很辣，還有一碗蛋花湯，一碗白米飯，餐後甜點要麼是西瓜要麼是橘子。在旅程中，中國大餐是新奇並令人興奮的食物，我們海吃胡塞，肚子滾圓，除了極個別吃貨，大家都撐到甚至吃不下晚飯。

Today was one of those “but wait, there’s more!” days, because everywhere we went there was always another stop on the itinerary, and they were all great. From Lunch we walked through Tientan Park and saw the awesome Temple of Heaven. Lesson learned, everything is bigger here than it looks in pictures. Especially on the nice sunny day we had, it looked really spectacular, and you nearly forgot that the chaos of Beijing was just meters away.
今天是一個“等等，還有更多精彩”的日子，因爲我們每去一個地方，它都是旅遊攻略上的另一站，並且它們全部都很棒。午飯過後，我們步行去天壇公園，欣賞了壯麗的天壇。友情提示，這裏所有的一切實物都比圖片要大得多。尤其是在這種陽光燦爛的日子，它看起來真的非常雄偉壯麗，這種靜謐肅穆的環境讓人幾乎忘記北京城的喧囂吵鬧與自己只有一牆之隔。
An hour commute (which in Beijing commuter minutes is a really short drive) brought us to the Summer Palace. I had always thought this was outside of Beijing, as when they say in the guidebook it’s more than an hour from the city centre, you assume it’s out in the burbs. But as I was coming to learn, Beijing is so expansive that to get to the burbs you have to practically get to Korea.
一小時車程之後（在北京一小時車程真的是非常短的距離），我們到達了頤和園。我一直以爲頤和園在北京城外，因爲看到旅遊指南書上說頤和園距離北京市中心有一小時車程，你肯定會理所當然地認爲頤和園坐落在郊區。但當我真正來到這裏的時候，我發現真相只有一個，那就是北京的規模大到超乎想象，如果他們對你說一起去郊區吧，你完全可以設想自己要去韓國了。

Instead of spreading up, like so many major metropolises, it spread out, and as far as the eye can see from the highest point you can get to, it’s still central Beijing. Back to that “everything’s bigger in China” thing. It’s hard to wrap my brain around just how giant this place is, and how many people are here, but I’m trying.
不像其他的主要大都市，北京城不是聚攏而是攤開，站在你能找到的至高點上放眼望去，目之所及皆是北京市中心。好吧，回到“北京的一切都比圖片所見要大得多”的話題上。很難在腦子裏形成清晰認知，這個地方到底有多大，到底有多少人生活在這兒，不過我在努力。

The Summer Palace, the tranquil garden escape of the “Dragon Lady”, is incredible. She may have been domineering and ruthless as she took over the Empire, but she did build a pretty sweet garden oasis. The fifteen foot stone walls really do keep the outside world out, and if you didn’t see the telecom tower in the background, you’d think you really were away from it all in another world.
頤和園，“龍女士——慈禧老太”度假用的寧靜美麗的花園，十分不可思議。她掌管帝國的時候也許是專制並殘酷的，但她建造了一個漂亮可愛的花園綠洲。15英尺高的石牆將喧囂塵世隔絕在外，如果沒有看到遠處的電信大樓，你一定會覺得自己遠離凡俗，身處另一個世界。
Vast, beautifully landscaped, with a giant lake, rolling hills and pagodas lurking off in the mist more classical buildings and pedal boats that would be a fun way to explore if it had been warmer.
頤和園規模宏大，風景優美，一個碧波盪漾的巨大湖泊，連綿起伏的丘陵和佛塔在煙霧中若隱若現，擁有無數古典建築，湖裏還有腳踏船，如果天氣暖和的話，泛舟湖面將是非常有趣的遊覽方式。

The highlights here are the sprawling riverside corridor covered hundreds of detailed paintings, each one different, and the marble boat, a gaudy, immobile boat used for the sole purpose of sitting in and sipping tea. The ultimate display of self indulgence. Personally, I would have added a slide.
這裏的亮點是沿湖岸逶迤展開的長廊，廊上畫着成百上千幅精緻的彩繪，每一幅圖都各不相同；還有石舫（清晏舫），一條華而不實、不能動的船，唯一的用處就是讓人坐在裏面品茶。這是自我放縱的極致展示。就我個人而言，我會增加一張照片給你們看。

At 5 we were deposited back at the hotel. It had been a long day of sightseeing, but an incredible one, and we were all more excited and energetic than tired, bouncing around like caffinated hamsters. I set off for a little shopping, as I had an hour and a half to kill before meeting with the local Chinese sales rep I deal with all the time, and a giant shopping mall to explore.
下午5點我們回到了酒店。今天去了好幾個景點觀光，這真是漫長的一天，但令人難以置信的是，我們大家都更加興奮，表現得精力充沛，沒有疲態，就像被咖啡因刺激的倉鼠一樣跳來蹦去。接着我動身出去小逛一下，購購物，在和我一直以來聯繫打交道的中國本土銷售代表見面之前，我有大概1個半小時可以消磨，還有一個大型購物商城可供探險。

Moving as fast as possible I hit up all the stores, only to discover China doesn’t carry my shoe size except in Men’s, at Sephora it’s easy to have an entire conversation with a sales clerk using nothing but hand signals to bridge the language barrier, and that I love tacky souvenirs so much that I chose to save my cash for them rather than spend it here on any of the actual functional stuff.
我以最快的速度逛遍所有商店，唯一的發現是在中國鞋店沒有我的鞋號，除非我到賣男鞋的地方去，在絲芙蘭和售貨員進行一場完整的對話很輕鬆，不需要其它，打手勢就能架起溝通的橋樑跨越語言障礙，我太愛俗氣的旅遊紀念品了，所以我決定爲它們留住我的小錢錢，而不是花在這裏買任何有實際功用的東西。

Now that’s what I call a good day. Tomorrow, the Wall!
以上就是我所說的充實精彩的一天。明天，長城！