Swopping Japan for China

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Last week was "Golden Week" in Japan. This is a week that contains not one, but three national holidays. Since Japanese people generally don't like taking leave, this tends to be the peak period for travel in Japan. Prices go up, places get very busy, so not the best time to go travelling around. As such, I decided to join my friend Amy on a trip to Beijing. I'd always wanted to see the Great Wall of China, and what better opportunity would I get. The flights were only 4 hours (which to me now seems like hardly anything).

Travel in China is much cheaper than in Japan, although when we booked the trip we didn't realise one of the days we were there was the Chinese equivalent to Golden Week (Labor days), and so Beijing was pretty busy when we first arrived.

The first thing I noticed when the plane touched down - even though it was a warm, sunny day, it looked very misty. This was the dusty smog that hangs over the city in summer. It felt quite a challenge getting the bus from the airport and not understanding anything of the language. It made me realise how much Japanese I have picked up. Amy is pretty fluent in Japanese now as she's been there for two years and she could guess at some of the signs where the Chinese characters are similar (they have the same origins), but not many people spoke English and the only words we knew where "Ni how" (hello) and "Shie shie" (thank you).

Despite our lack of Chinese we made it to our hostel in the old part of Beijing. We'd rejected the western style hotels and were staying in the Hutongs, which are maze like alleys formed by lines of traditional courtyard houses. Our hostel was full of character. Pretty basic, but beautifully decorated and the staff were really helpful and there were many friendly Chinese students staying there. The hostel was right next to a bustling local market, which was fascinating to wander around and look at all the exotic fruit, vegetables, fish and meats. Amy was a little taken aback when we wandered past a fish stall to see the trader hook a large fish from a tank and whack it over the head with a bludgeon before selling it to an old woman. I couldn't believe just how much of a chicken they make use of....

Because we only had two full days in the city we decided to hire a private guide to help us get round. We looked at cheaper group tours but personally I hate the way you get herded like cattle on these things and I'd also seen many reviews that warned about group tours including an unwanted "shopping trip" to jade, silk and pearl factories....something I really wanted to avoid like the plague (had enough of that kind of thing in Bangkok to last a lifetime). So we hired a really lovely Chinese lady called Jessie and I was so glad we did, because although I think we could of made it round some of the city on our own, we wouldn't have packed quite so much in or enjoyed it quite so much without her. She used to be an English teacher, so she spoke excellent English.

The first day we met Jessie at our hostel and she helped us navigate around the city by taxi (most journeys cost less than £2!). We started at the Temple of Heaven/ Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. To get to these magnificent temples we passed through the surrounding park. Here we witnessed the wonderful social side of China. The park was full of ordinary people doing a vast range of activities. Some people had set up little karaoke stands and were singing their hearts out to passersby. Further on a group of fifteen or so people were ballroom dancing, some line dancing, others practicing Tai-Chi. We got roped into playing a quick game of foot badminton, which is another popular park past-time (although I couldn't kick the shuttlecock to save my life). One of my favourite areas was a playground being used by the over fifties as an outside gym. In an area of willow trees I spotted an old man lost in the enjoyment of spinning a diablo. Families were flying kites. I was quite moved to see so many people coming together and taking simple pleasure in activities they loved.

This day fell within the Chinese national holiday, so we were grateful to have Jessie taking us around. She could cut the queues and get us "group" tickets with her guide status, and in the crowded temple complex she kept a good pace, steering us in the right direction, patiently allowing for us to take our photos (and taking photos for us), telling us interesting historical facts and pointing out interesting features.

We headed for Tiananmen Square next and boy did the national holiday become apparent there. The vast square was packed with Chinese tourists. We saw hardly any westerners, and drew quite a lot of stares. Jessie explained that although people in Beijing are used to western faces, many of the people visiting the city from villages and towns never get the opportunity to meet people from other countries. I lost count of the amount of times we were approached and asked to join in group photos. We now feature in at least a dozen Chinese family albums!

The queue for Chairman Mao's Mausoleum stretched as far as the eye could see. People were standing in line for hours for a quick glimpse of his embalmed body. We gave that one a miss and headed instead for the gates of the Forbidden City.

Although this area was also jam-packed with tourists, I'm glad I got the opportunity to go there. It is the world's largest palace complex and for almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. It was the imperial palace for twenty-four emperors which ended in 1912 with the abdication of the last Emperor of China, and finally, after five centuries, it opened to the public in 1924.

Just outside the palace we climbed a hill in Jingshan Park and got a great view over the Forbidden City. The only shame is it was shrouded in the smog, but it gave it a kind of otherworldly appearance. The park had the most beautiful peonies blooming everywhere you looked.

In the evening, Jessie got us some great seats at an acrobatic show. The highlight was a crazy huge ball cage with eight men on motorcycles driving around inside at top speeds. I could only watch through my fingers it looked so dangerous! Afterwards we headed to a very western area of the city with big name brand shops and huge flashing billboards (it felt like we were back in Tokyo!) and was such a contrast to the local area we were staying in. We also stumbled across an outdoor food market that was selling an amazing range of weird foods, including small baby birds, sea horses, starfish, scorpions and snakes skewered on sticks and deep fried. I was tempted by the scorpions but thankfully came to my senses and didn't indulge.

The next day we hired a driver to take us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, which is about an hour and half drive from Beijing. This was probably the thing I'd been most looking forward to and I wasn't disappointed. The Great Wall is simply jaw dropping in its vastness. We got a cable car up and hiked along the wall for about two hours passing about six watchtowers. To come down we took a fun toboggan run, spoilt only by an annoying French git who kept whinging we weren't going fast enough (as we had a guy in front of us filming the ride on his camera phone for You Tube and going pretty slow).

In the afternoon we had just enough time to visit the Summer Palace in the north of the city. The palace is surrounded by a huge man-made lake, where many people were out on peddle boats enjoying the sunshine. We spotted a water calligraphy artist skilfully writing Chinese script with giant brushes. The beauty of the words is their transience - so sooner are they written the water starts to fade. He stopped for a few moments to ask where we were from and wrote us a message of friendship on the ground. He then handed us both a slip of red paper from a small pouch he was carrying and explained the script on it translated as a message of international friendship. It was a beautiful and unexpected gesture and I will treasure this small gift.

We took a dragon shaped boat across the lake and then it was time to head back to our hostel and say goodbye to Jessie. We decided to make the most of our last evening and took the metro (which was really easy and cheap to use) and visited the Olympic Stadium, the aptly named Bird's Nest. The Olympic square was buzzing with activity, all lit up and many people were flying small kites. It was a wonderful place for a stroll on a summer's evening and a perfect end to the trip.

Overall I really enjoyed the visit to China, although my impression of Beijing (beautiful parks and temples aside) is of the noise, dirt and smog. In comparison to the ultra polite and quiet Japanese people we had become accustomed to living amongst, Chinese people seemed (and this is a sweeping generalisation having only been in the city for three days!) so loud, brash, and in queues or crowds, downright rude - but then in a country of over a billion people, I guess being quiet isn't an option. I was, I have to admit, really put off by the amount of spitting that takes place (a pet hate of mine). I mean everyone - men, women, kids, dogs - you name it, they are hacking up in the street, on the seat next to you on the metro, in the restaurant. Amy was also pretty shocked by the fact you can't flush toilet paper anywhere as the sewage system can't cope (I'd come across this in Thailand before, so wasn't overly surprised or bothered). We were also amused to notice babies don't wear nappies. They wear little split pants with their cheeky buttocks on display. Interestingly, Chinese parents begin to toilet train their child as early as one month. Incredibly, most babies are toilet-trained by six months, at least during waking hours. By the time they can walk, usually at twelve to fourteen months, they know to squat down in their open-crotch pants whenever they feel the urge. I actually think there is something to be said for this - must save a hell of a lot of landfill!

Beijing in general seemed pretty western. People generally dressed in a far more western way than in Japan. It was interesting how its communist rule wasn't immediately noticeable at first. We started to spot little things. for example, we tried to log in to Facebook on Amy's iPod touch, and couldn't. We thought there was a problem with the internet connection, then found out from our guide that sites like Facebook, You Tube and Twitter are completely blocked, even for outside visitors. Talking to Jessie about her life, we heard how she is a third child. In a country with a one child rule, her parents had to pay a lot of taxes and fines to have her and her brother. She says her family were lucky. In the past children could be forcibly taken away, parents jailed, women sterilized. This was a dark side of China we did not see overtly, but that is there none the less.

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