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Published: March 1st 2008
Welcome to China
Lanterns are everywhereNi Hao! Figured I'd jump on here and post an entry about Beijing for anyone who still reads this. Since I last wrote I was in Italy, heading to Beijing. I flew into China on 2/25 and have since been in Beijing, but just recently got to Xi'an, where I have been for 2 days. I plan to post an entry about Xi'an when I am done here. For now, Beijing will have to do. Hope everyone is doing well in the States, and thanks for all the comments and messages from everyone,
I appreciate it (probably more than you know). So let's see...
Our story picks up with our hero before leaving Italy
---Met 4 very nice Spaniards. One of them, Isabelle spoke English very well and was similarly impressed with my Spanish. I made fun of their lisp.
They took it in stride. They invited me to eat Spanish food with them the next day, but I was, unfortunately leaving for China.
---Took a train to Fiumicino Int'l. It is a very confusing airport for departure.
Not fun.
---Had a quick flight to Doha, Qatar. My first time in the Mid-East. Very interesting. Also the first time being
Lamp in my room
Not as good as Dan's stuff, but this will do. I am not super jealous, just for clarification. around that many Middle Easterners (is that how it works for the first time somewhere?). Sat next to a very talkative Italian woman. Unfortunately, no parlo Italiano.
---Had a
ridiculously boring layover. Ate samosas. That helped.
---Took a redeye to Beijing. Didn't sleep much. Watched a myriad of movies. Arrived @ 4 in the afternoon.
Enter Beijing
---Immediately got lost.
Took the wrong bus and ended up somewhere in China.
---Took a very expensive taxi to somewhere closer to my hostel. Wandered in the area for some time before stumbling upon my hostel's cross street. Chinese streets are
very hard to understand b/c they are often spelled differently than maps.
Good luck orienting yourself in the orient. Clever?
---Immediately got harassed to get a "massage with sex" from the hotel's doorman next to the hostel. I told him she had better make me dinner too.
Day 2
---Woke up to a non-free breakfast.
I was told there would be free breakfast here. What is this crap?
---Walked for 30 minutes in the wrong direction on Wangfujing towards, what I thought was, The Forbidden City.
It wasn't. Turned back around.
---Got to Tiananmen Square. For all of you that
don't know, Mao Zhedong had it built to be ridiculously huge to represent the greatness of the Communist Party. It was impressively large, but also fairly barren. A million people there. It is across the street from The Forbidden City. Also, for those of you who don't remember, it was most recently famous for a certain Chinese student protest that was interrupted by tanks, and also the 2 million people that came to pay their last respects to Mao.
It took me a long time to figure out how to get across the street. Then I figured out you have to go underground to get there. Victory me.
---Got yelled @ by an Imperial Guard. I still don't know about what.
---Spent quite a bit of time before The Forbidden City in Zhongshan Park. It was named after the professor/scientist who spent time restoring it. It was very beautiful. It was nice to get away from the 15 million people hustle and bustle that is Beijing.
I saw frozen water for the first time. I was thrilled. The moat around The Forbidden City freezes every winter, so I got to catch a glimpse of some areas that were partly frozen
The center of Beijing
All highways lead from this point. and partly melted, as it has started to get warmer in Beijing as Spring approaches.
---The Forbidden City was somewhat of a letdown for me. It was huge, but most of it was blocked off, and you cannot enter any of the tombs or halls or sanctuaries. Some of the architecture was impressive.
The countless Chinese tourists were not. They are
very pushy. I had to play American Gladiator to just get a picture of something.
---Walked a long way trying to find the National Science Museum, but couldn't find it. This disappointed me to no end.
---Saw a lot of hutangs (smaller neighborhood areas) that were destroyed in preparation for the upcoming summer Olympics. The people did not look happy. It was a sad sight to see, I hope that they are compensated for their apartments accordingly. Even so, there is nothing like being told to move by your government to boggle your mind about the purpose of life.
---Met a traveler coming from the States back on his way to Mongolia where he lives. He invited me to stay with him there.
Too bad I didn't like him. He was very condescending. The kind of guy who goes
Typical fortified door
The pegs? I don't know what they do. They just sit there. on for days about everything but what you asked him about, just to show you he's traveled more than you.
---Tried to find a theater that had an acrobatic show every night. Couldn't find it.
More frustration. Need a better map. Also some Mandarin skills.
---Went to the hostel's bar and met some Germans. They were very friendly and replaced my conception of Germans from a particular two I have met in the states, who shall remain nameless. They invited me to stay with them when I returned to Beijing, as they were currently looking for a place to live as they study at a University here.
---Germans can drink
a lot of beer.
Day 2
---Woke late. Too much beer.
---Too late to see the Great Wall that day.
---Took the subway out to Beijing West Train Station. It was as if Buddha had stuffed a million ants into a small building and then let them run about,
except that the ants are people.
---Bought a ticket to Xi'an. Buying ahead is necessary in China unless you don't want to sit on a piece of wood for 12 hours. Two days early and they were almost sold out
of beds.
---Went to see an acrobat show that I booked through the hostel. Not worth 150 yuan, but entertaining nonetheless.
The acrobats were very nimble, especially the women. I especially liked the routines with the long ropes, where they hang from them and do tricks and drop from them and catch themselves right before they hit the ground. Also amazing, were the long steel strips act where they would swing 3 giant poles from the ceiling and do flips and backward jumps from one to the other as they swung. The strength routine was impressive too, with just 2 men performing crazy angles and acts of strength (get it?) on one another. The women had a minimal role, but were impressive. They had one act where the women wove themselves in nets and then performed twists and spins in the air from them.
Hard to explain. Get over it.
---Took a cab home with the 20 yuan the hostel driver gave me. Apparently this counts as
"transportation included" when you buy something in China.
Day 3
---Long day.
---Went to Tiananmen Square to catch a bus that would take you to the Ming Tombs and The Great Wall.
---Had to wait
forever for the bus to fill up before we departed. In the meantime, I watched a Chinese show that was rather entertaining, even though I couldn't understand it. Then met some Aussies and a Swedish/Scottish couple from my hostel.
The Aussies were loud. What's new.
---Finally departed from the terminal and the Chinese tour guide spoke Mandarin for 50 minutes
straight. I put my iPod in and fell asleep.
---Arrived @ a jade factory. The tour companies way of trying to boost their revenue. It didn't work on me.
---Had lunch. It was as good as a free lunch should be, but there was a nice variety of chinese cabbage, some noodles, fish, etc.
---Continued to the Ming Tombs, the Ding Ling one. The Ming Tombs were the imperial burial places of 13 of the Ming Dynasty's rulers, family, and advisors.
It was a very barren tomb; the imperial tombs are not as flashy or impressive as the Buddhist ones. The tombs were originally found underground, and sealed from the inside by giant rocks with script on them. The royalty and advisers were left in coffins that were sealed by larger wooden coffins. Around them lay concubines,
Zhongshan Park
It was beautiful here other advisers, and loved ones. The experience was interesting.
---Continued on to the Great Wall @ Badaling (The Great Wall stretches a vast distance across China, and there are several places you can enter it).
---Before you get to the wall @ Badaling, they have an exhibit/torture pit of black bears. They all live together in a giant pit covered in their own filth. The Chinese are very cruel to them. I felt very sorry for them, but took pictures anyway. (you don't see bears that often that close -
4 feet away from you at eye level)
---Broke off from the rest of the group to go to a section that was less populated.
In fact, I was one of 3 people on that section of wall. Many of the people took a railcar to get to the top, but I opted out of it. The wall is
very steep, and definitely could not be walked by the feeble. It is also exceptionally cold in the winter. It was surreal, as the views took in the distant mountainsides, rolling on forever, with the smog and pollution creating a nice cover in the distance. (Nice? No). The wall itself is
Random bumper cars in Zhongshan Park
Gotta keep the kids happy somehow I guess. I would have jumped in one, but they weren't running. Lame. not straight as well, and snakes and curves in a switchback style. This was to make invasion harder itself. The walls were pretty high, and it was apparent how it detoured the Mongolians for so long. The area where we were at was a circuit that could be completed in 2-3 hours. Unfortunately, We only had an hour and half before the bus left, so I only walked half of it, up to one of the mid high towers. The towers were numbered in the area, and you could see past the 13th that the wall had degraded so much that crossing would be close to impossible.
---Headed back to Beijing (Badaling is about 50 kilometers northeast of the city). It was a windy journey. I felt sick.
The Chinese, much like the Thais are savage drivers.
---Got invited to dinner by one of the Aussies, a Vietnamese 29 year old, but unfortunately had to get going to get my train in time. Nice timing.
That always happens to me.
---Took the Scott and Swede with me on the subway. It was their first time. We got separated. I feared they would never make it back to the hostel, but
Zhongshan Park
Frozen water???? Someone take a picture. ended up bumping into them in the lounge while I was grabbing something fast to eat. We talked for a short while about the burdens of traveling solo (which are immense, especially in a place like China).
---Headed to the train station with all my stuff on the subway.
This is not advised to anyone else in the world. The Chinese do not like to move for you at your stop. They only sort of laugh at you if you if the door closes as you finally get free of their statue-esqe positions. I swore to never eat Chinese food again in the states. I lied.
---Took a taxi from a subway stop after the one I was supposed to get off at (guess why).
---Beijing West Train Station is larger than the airport. You tell me where to go.
---Finally got to the right terminal. Then didn't know where my carriage was. A guard helped me. Nice guy. Nicer than any of the other ones I've met at least.
---Pissed a bunch of Chinese people off b/c I had to put my bags about 3 feet about my reach up into a communal cubby compartment above the bunk beds
by stepping on some of their mattresses. They made gasping sounds.
So much lost face. ---Beds in hard sleeper cars (the one I got) are very tight in space. Three bunk beds on each side. 6 to a room. Chinese people talk very late. I didn't sleep well.
---Arrived in Xi'an yesterday morning.
---That's all for now, folks.
Beijing in Retrospect
Nobody speaks English. Nothing is in English. Don't come here unless you speak Mandarin fairly fluently or have enough money to have people take you everywhere and get you everything. Beijingers are also not outwardly friendly. There is a strong sense of solidarity in the Chinese, foreigners are looked at like aliens. People go out of their way to take a gander at you, open mouthed. Many of them can spot me for a foreigner, while others start to speak Mandarin to me, but then just stop and look annoyed when I can't back. Also, there is a
lot of pollution here. When I dry the insides of my nostrils after showers, the towel comes back black from all the smog and dust. It isn't the most polluted city for nothing. Also, the upcoming Olympics has created an
Zhongshan Park Hallway
The Chinese love bright colors. I love perspective. immense dichotomy of commercialism in an area where there is extreme poverty. The city is industrious to no end, and it's
sprawling. The buses are exceptionally hard to figure out. Again, like I said there is nothing in English, so solo traveling is a very difficult task. I have yet to meet any traveler on their own in China for more than a day or two. This is because it is very disorienting and very lonely by yourself. I have noticed that simply not being able to voice my small frustrations or joys has led to a large frustration later. Also, something that has continued to frustrate me here is the lack of WWOOFing options. The only hosts who have returned my emails have been to tell me they are unable to host me as of the moment. I was planning on doing that for a month here, and hoping to get to know some Chinese who spoke a bit of english better. Unfortunately this seems like a non option right now, and due to funds, I cannot afford to stay somewhere where I cannot WWOOF. For those of you who don't know what WWOOFing is:
click here. We'll see what
Bamboo @ Zhongshan Park
Think it says "Nobody Speaks English: Here" the future holds.
Till next time. Thanks for reading.
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dneal
Daniel Neal
A little jealous, yes.
Applause for the light rays. I demand fifty percent of the profit for copyright infringment. And I like the great wall shots. So super sprawling! Spain has been pretty amazing so far, what with all the architecture and food and flaminco stuff. You would probably fill up a memory card a day if you were here. Oh yeah and you would have laughed if you were in Barcelona with me when a guy playing the violin that I was recording, came over to me yelled at me in Spanish and flipped me off. I gave him the 1000 yard stare though so he lost face. I hope your WWOOF-ing works out and that you meet more people who speak English soon. Remember I will be home on the 11th so if you can get to a phone you can call me so you can speak English. Peace out homes. Dan