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Over the weekend, we went to the Simatai Great Wall. We climbed
for hours and hours just to get to the 15th tower, where we were stopped by some
farmer dressed as an imperial guard or something.
Just to prove we're not
foreign weenies or something, we snapped a shot with the guy in hopes of being
able to tell our friends, "See! Look! It's not because we can't _get_ to
the 18th tower, it's because some Ghost of Ming Dynasty Past stopped us!" And
that was that...
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...or so we thought! Then this guy, he pulls out
this piece of paper with a big 'ol chop on it. "Wow!" I think,
"A souvenir!" So I grab it and we start to walk away.
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But
then this guy starts a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' at us, shouting "Five Yuan!
Five Yuan!"
We book it down the mountain and barely miss getting hit
by this ox cart (which gets turned up, leaving the ox five feet straight up in
the air!) and we finally make it back to the little Korean restaurant around the
corner from our dorms. We tell lil' Jin Kimbo about the whole mess, and
she soothes our troubles with that great barley tea and explains the whole situation:
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The piece of paper the guy gave us had a big red Gong
Zhang on it -- Gong meaning official, and Zhang meaning seal. The Gong
Zhang, or official seal to those that still don't get it, is a requirement for
almost every business transaction, as personal signatures are rarely used.
So,
as the story goes, whoever collects money needs to have something (preferably
paper) with triple-sheets of mint green, Post-It Note yellow, and tacky pink,
all with an official seal stamped right on them. In our case, the guy only had
a crisp white sheet, no triplicates... so of course lil' Jin could see our confusion.
So
anyway, kids, if you're ever in a downtown area and happen to feel that urge to
spit, right along with the next model-cum-yuppie, someone will probably jump out
from the middle of nowhere and start asking for "Five Kuai". Just be
sure they show you their Gong Zhang before you
start forking the cash over - at least you can write it off.
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