The word of the day for Tiananmen Square is Boo Yau. Boo is negative and Yau is want, so the term means, “I don’t want it”, in Mandarin.
My son Michael helped me pronounce it. I can’t imagine that I wouldn’t want to buy anything and everything I come across in this interesting country, but saying this in the local language helps to deflect the aggressive vendors. And there are many, many vendors trolling through the massive square – once a tribute to Communism and now the site for small petty commercial triumphs.
Everything, every building, every exoneration to be polite and not spit, every flower planted and sidewalk rebuilt, every crane, is devoted to the 2008 Olympics. We are the guests to arrive at the house on the Wednesday before thanksgiving.
We aren’t the real guests, the real guests are coming a year later.
The Great Wall - named by tourists to China, not the Chinese themselves, is 3,750 miles long, half of the original length. So, as you can imagine, there are many spots to experience the wall all along the northern China plains and mountains. This part is categorized as "Wild Wall" which is separate from the renovated wall at Badaling. Badaling is beautiful and restored and looks like a wall should. It also hosts a selection of western toilets, An official Olympic store and a Friendship store – which, loosely translated, means expensive.
We liked this wild wall better. We hiked a narrow trail to reach the ramparts in the first place, then a few of us carried on and hiked up the wall. The narrow wood stairs that covered some of the rubble helped in the effort traveling up the wall, but they were rather precarious (as they were uneven) as I inched my way back down.
Andrew and Michael leapt and hiked and scrambled as far along the wall as they could before an official guard stopped them. The guard was there to help us and keep us from pitching over the side of the crumbling wall and down the mountain rather than interfering in any way. Even in the relative isolation of the Wild Wall, we were visited by two vendors Tee Hello Tee, when we climbed to the base of the wall.
At the Potola palace, we walked up 300 steps to gain 13,000 feet in elevation at the very top of the palace. My mother, at 72, was a trooper and walked up to the top with only a little help from the team, me, Andrew and Michael.
The palace is replete with Dali Lama tombs and rooms but most important, the books, books and books of history are hidden away in the palace. The books make the palace precious and worth protecting. And of course, I love books.
I learned the word for thank you and tried it out at Breakfast in Beijing. The waitress just laughed and laughed, but since she continued to give me coffee as I ate my (admittedly western breakfast as eggs are more appealing than congee) breakfast I wasn’t so concerned.
Now I knew that the Chinese language – all of them – are tonal, so that the same word, let’s say thank you, which is xie xie is pounced she she, or shi shi, or shea shea. And of course, a small variation will result in a completely different meaning.
So, in my case when I thanked the waitress for my coffee, I was actually saying “I want to take a shower.” That would be different.
The next morning I tried again with a slightly different emphasis. Xie Xie. She laughed again. Because this time I was explaining how I wanted to wear new shoes. Fortunately we left Beijing and I had another opportunity to be foolish in Xi’an. It reminded me of my generous calls of Good morning to the shop keepers in Mikonos, good morning! which I understood was Kalamera. Well, imagine my chagrin when I discovered that yes, Kalimera was indeed good morning. But I was pronouncing the greeting as Kalamari, which is, of course, squid.
By the time we reached Hong Kong I was greatly relieved to disover the British had reached there before me, and everyone understands thank you. Mostly I just smile.
The word of the day for Tiananmen Square is Boo Yau. Boo is negative and Yau is want, so the term means, “I don’t want it”, in Mandarin. 
The Great Wall - named by tourists to China, not the Chinese themselves, is 3,750 miles long, half of the original length. So, as you can imagine, there are many spots to experience the wall all along the northern China plains and mountains. This part is categorized as "Wild Wall" which is separate from the renovated wall at Badaling. Badaling is beautiful and restored and looks like a wall should. It also hosts a selection of western toilets, An official Olympic store and a Friendship store – which, loosely translated, means expensive. 
At the Potola palace, we walked up 300 steps to gain 13,000 feet in elevation at the very top of the palace. My mother, at 72, was a trooper and walked up to the top with only a little help from the team, me, Andrew and Michael.