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Published: July 27th 2006
Chengdu, Xi’an and Beijing - three cities of immense importance in China’s history. All three were past centres of imperial power and maintain their importance in the modern era. Obviously, it’s now Beijing that is pulling the strings, and they give them a good old tug on a regular basis. The only English language TV channel in China is the internationally broadcast CCTV9, and their news reports are the mouthpiece of the central government relaying their policy to the world. Each political piece is formulaic - foreign leaders are always at pains to support the “One China Policy” (i.e. supporting China’s claim to Taiwan, Tibet etc.) and the dismissal of the environmental concerns over the Three Gorges Dam project couldn’t be better spun by Shane Warne. It is well known that modern day China is subject to heavy censorship (for example, many websites are banned in China - even good old Auntie Beeb). It’s somewhat unsettling.
In the centre of Chengdu there is a huge statue of Chairman Mao overlooking the reorganisation of the city centre. You wonder how he would feel about the new direction taken by the CCP. Mao is still widely revered despite widespread knowledge of the
deaths that occurred during his tenure (it’s suspected that up to 60 million died during the “Great Leap Forward”). Surely, this could only signify solid adherence to his ideology - but when you read his pronouncements in the little red book, they are very difficult to square with the capitalism that has exploded throughout the country. You could only think that he would not be impressed by the U-turn.
Anyway,we were in Chengdu to visit their most famous current inhabitants. Viz once memorably stated that you could pretend to be one by giving yourself two black eyes, eating bamboo and refusing to have sex with your wife. Yup, Chengdu is the home of the most captive Giant Pandas anywhere in the world. Obviously, it would have been better to have seen them in the wild but they have difficulty enough finding each other so we didn’t hold out too much hope of tracking them down in the hills of Sichuan.
It’s best to visit the Pandas early in the morning. This is when they get fed and therefore when they are at their most active. “Active” is a relative term though - the Pandas are mostly to be
found slouched on the grass munching on bamboo. Their huge white bellies are exposed and covered with leaves and bits of bamboo stalk - a bit like Homer Simpson eating chips slouched on the sofa while watching American Football. Occasionally there will be a disagreement as to who should rightfully devour a certain choice stalk but that’s about as animated as they get. In fact, watching them lazily lope around you wonder how they have survived at all!
Giant Pandas are notoriously useless when it comes to procreation. This is partly due to the fact that they live a solitary existence and find it difficult to locate each other during their mating season. However, when they do manage to bump into one another at the right time they are also extremely picky when deciding with whom they will mate. Not only that - they are also completely clueless when it comes to childcare. Apparently, they just don’t have innate parental instincts. Firstborns often have to be taken away from new mothers in order to avoid their mothers killing them by mistake.
You can’t help but love the blundering oafs though and it’s worth visiting Chengdu just to see
Pandas
Nature's couch potatoesthem. Thankfully, the central government has recognised the importance of saving the Giant Panda and the conservation efforts seem to be working. The penalty for killing a Giant Panda is death! While we cannot agree with the death penalty for any purpose, it is good to see animal welfare being prioritised in China (if only within very narrow parameters). Unfortunately, there is some dreadful exploitation and abuse of animals in China. It’s common to see monkeys and Peacocks dressed up, shackled and offered for photo shoots. The zoo in Guilin is a depressing sight - each enclosure is bare concrete with a very sad prisoner inside. Endangered animals are all too often to be found on restaurant menus. Hopefully, attitudes will change with increased international contact.
Something else from our guidebook that caught our eye was People’s Park. There was supposed to be a place called Funland, which reputedly had some rather bizarre installations. We thought that we had found it - though you’re never really too sure most of the time because of the difficulty trying to decipher Mandarin characters. We had a bit of a shock when we went in. There was no Christmasland or Age of
A Dongba in Lijiang
The last users of hieroglyphics in the world! the Dinosaurs. Instead, we were confronted with disembowelment, mutilation and torture. We had unwittingly entered the Chengdu Dungeons! Mechanised ghouls came flying through doorways and the air was pierced by screams. To be honest the scariest thing about the whole thing was the building, which was dank, dark and crumbling. It was an old air raid shelter in a very run down state. We have to admit that the knees trembled just a little bit…
The other trip that we made from Chengdu was to Qingcheng Houshan, a nearby holy mountain. The journey wasn’t long, and the bus driver did his best to shorten it. Ironically, this made the ride seem all the longer as we swung around blind hairpins with horn blaring. Chinese driving really is truly terrifying.
It was a relief to finally arrive at the mountain. We chose Qingcheng Houshan as it is the “back mountain” and a lot quieter than Qingcheng Shan - the regular route up the holy mountain, which is packed with tourists. The trek was through a beautiful deep gorge alongside and over numerous waterfalls. At the top of the mountain is a temple complex that can only be accessed via
steps that pick their way up a cliff. It’s a wonder that all the materials for the temples were lugged up there. All for the glory of the gods! The mountain had been a retreat for Buddhists for many years.
We were accompanied on Qingcheng Houshan by our friends Rob and Anne, whom we had met in Lijiang. It was on this trip that we started to play the card game 500. At this point it was fairly sportingly played. The games got progressively more keenly fought until they reached a crescendo of foul play in Beijing! The boys turned out to be the sneakiest…
Chengdu was a major city in China and was the first place in the world to use paper money. However, Xi’an was the nation’s capital for decades, facilitated by its central position in the country and it’s fantastic city walls. You can climb up onto the walls and ride around them on bikes. It’s a bone juddering ride but gives you a fantastic feel for the old city. Outside the walls is the Big Goose Pagoda which housed the scriptures that were carried back to China from India by Hang Tsuan, also known
as Tripitaka from the legend of the Monkey King (that’s Monkey Magic to you Pigsy!).
The must see sight here is the Terracotta army, the legacy of the “first emperor”, Qin Shi Huang. He was so paranoid that he would be assassinated that he lived in virtual isolation, never sleeping in the same place two nights in a row. When he died he was buried in the biggest tomb in the world, larger than the great pyramid in Egypt. As with the Egyptians, the workmen were buried in the tomb in order to ensure that they would never tell anyone the secrets of his subterranean army and his booby-trapped tomb. Qin Shi Huang had been so worried about his enemies (a man that has a penchant for burying people alive tends to amass quite a few) that the megalomaniac decided to protect himself in the afterlife by creating an army of warriors to protect him. The terracotta army were individually fashioned - each of them unique, with all the different ranks and types of soldier that he had in the real world.
The army were discovered many years ago and the underground chambers were looted and destroyed, burying
Hmmm - gotta get your ears cleaned at a public event!
The brushes looked like mini chimney sweep brushes. Chim chiminy, chim chiminy, chim chim cheroo.... the army. Their rediscovery in the 1960s was a remarkable moment. Slowly they unearthed thousands of warriors aligned in battle formation. Although the army are heavily reconstructed, they remain a powerful symbol of the power of ancient China and the mania of its first ruler.
Our other excursion from Xi’an was to Hua Shan, a large holy mountain nearby. Many Chinese do the climb overnight in order to reach the summit and hopefully catch one of the stunning sunrises from the East Peak. Quite frankly we were happy that we did it during the day. OK, the heat didn’t help but it’s a tough climb and not being able to see where you’re going wouldn’t have helped! The first few hours are OK but then you hit the wall, quite literally. The path suddenly turns vertical - each step is narrow in width but very high, forcing you to cling on to the chain hand rails. We had been wondering why the stall-holders had been selling gloves!
Finally we had reached our last destination. Beijing. It had taken us three months to get there and thousand upon thousands of kilometres of travel by every means available. It was
a fitting end to our travels. It’s a grand city of power.
The Forbidden City is awesome. Enormous red walls encircle the outer and inner court, enabling the emperors to live in safety and isolation for 500 years. You can hire an audio guide and listen to the stories of the emperors, the power struggles that went on over the ages and the decadence of the court. What a world it must have been for those fortunate enough to have been on the inside.
We also visited the Summer Palace, the court’s retreat from the burning heat of the summer. It sits next to a large beautiful lake fringed with willows that sway in the breeze. Not far to the north are the eastern sections of the Great Wall, designed to keep out the Mongol hordes (though it was no problem for Ghengis Khan). Obviously, this is one of the world’s premier tourist attractions and we heard some horrific stories of travellers stuck on the wall in log-jams that hardly moved. We therefore chose to take the “secret tour” from Hostel Leo. They took us to an otherwise unvisited section of the wall. The section that we saw
was unreconstructed. Some of it had virtually fallen apart but other parts were remarkably intact. On a wonderfully sunny day we marvelled at the 2,000 year old wall that snaked over the hills into the distance. Our guide was a cheerful old fella from a local village. He merrily chatted to himself in Mandarin as he led us around. Unfortunately, he seemed not to know where the hell he was going and he led us in the wrong direction twice before we had to show him where the path was!
Tiananmen Square is also impressive. It’s the biggest public square in the world and a mighty symbol of communist power. It’s also crawling with undercover police eager to avoid any repeat of the 1989 uprising, following which thousands of students were massacred in the adjoining streets. Those streets now contain another unsavoury sight for the CCP, beggars - beggars who have been mutilated, burned or contracted leprosy. It’s a very distressing sight. Obviously, all thoughts of equality and social support have gone out of the window since the CCP decided to chase the green. By all accounts all of the unsavoury elements of the street were rounded up when
the Olympic committee visited - the government recognises the problem but just wants to brush it under the carpet when they find it embarrassing.
Another part of society that is disagreeable to the CCP is the Falun Gong. They are a spiritualist movement that teach freedom of thought. This hasn’t gone down well with the CCP, especially since their numbers began to exceed the CCP’s own membership. A crackdown ensued and the Falun Gong were battered by the authorities. In 1999 the Falun Gong met in Tiananmen Square to protest at their treatment by the government.
Followers of Falun Gong handed us leaflets (not in China I hasten to add) describing their treatment at the hands of the CCP. They allege that their followers have been abducted, imprisoned in Inner Mongolia and have been subject to surgery against their will. The allegation is that their organs have been harvested for sale in the west - while the victims were still alive. These are horrendous allegations and it is awful to even consider that these activities are really taking place. What is not in doubt is that the CCP are continuing their campaign against the Falun Gong. It’s been
said that the government wants to see the back of them before the 2008 Olympics.
China’s ancient history and bright future make it a fascinating place to visit. It’s wonderfully friendly people and dramatic landscapes will long be burned into our memories, though we will also find it hard to forget the millions of people that continue to suffer in this waking giant of a country. Unfortunately, now China is an important trading partner for most major nations the human rights abuses tend to be ignored.
We’ve had the time of our lives travelling. We can hardly come to terms with the fact that it’s now over. Thanks for following us along the way and particularly for all the comments - you really have no idea how much they have been appreciated. It’s so great to get messages from home and to know that our friends and families were always there for us. We'll try to post some blogs from Australia when we arrive there in September.
Until next time!
T&S
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Dan
non-member comment
how curious
How did the panda get in the tree? It kinda looks like he's not entirely sure himself. It's a funny thing conservation. Not content with ruining our own evolutionary development with western medicine we now have stringent laws to ensure that celibate, infanticidal, lazy idiot animals propagate their celibate, infanticidal, lazy idiot genes into a new generation! WHY? Who's the guy in the taoist temple who looks like the one who chose poorly in Indiana Jones and the last crusade. Most of all how come I've only just got this almost a month after seeing you in Battersea Park and a couple of days after the "come to our leaving drinks" email? Good work by the way. Dan