January 1, 2008 - 11:52am
By Rebecca Shoval
While taking pictures at the Great Wall, a group of three tourists asked us to take a picture of them. It seemed commonplace, until we realized that they wanted us to be in the picture with them. Tourist sites are not as full as they would be in the summertime (especially this summer with the Olympics), and almost everyone is visiting from other parts of China. As we are often the only non-Asians in a crowd, people regularly stare at the four of us. Several have taken our picture, and many try to discreetly do so by standing close-by while another shoots them or holding up their cell phone as if text messaging.