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Published: November 8th 2007
Great Wall
Near JinshanlingIf you are not one of our family and friends, we would be really interested to know how you found our blog - please email us at olarse@hotmail.com - many thanks!
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We bussed 3 hours from Bejing to the
Great Wall, quite comfortable in the bus reading and dozing and could've stayed were it not for the impending trek along the Wall itself. T'would have been rude not to give it a go... We set off eastwards from Jinshanling to Simatai, one of the few parts to retain the Great Wall's original features when it was restored in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) using more modern brick techniques. About 7,000km long, the Great Wall stretches across parts of Northern China from the Gobi desert in the West and large sections were built initially in the 7th to 4th centuries B.C. It is quoted variously as:
"an ancient thread through the world's most populous nation" (Travel Journalist Simon Calder)
"a Great Wall and only a great people with a great past could have a great wall and such a great people with such a great wall will surely have a great future." (!) (Former U.S. President Richard Nixon)
For those of
Great Wall
Somewhere on our 10km hike between Jinshanling and Simatai you not aware of the fallacy (including myself until a week ago), the Wall
cannot be seen from space.
I expected it would be wider and more bustling with people but it was quite peaceful, save the hardy sellers of soft drinks and "I slept on the Great Wall"(?) T-shirts who trailed us for a while. I was glad that it is not all restored because I really felt like we were taking the same steps as soldiers defending China thousands of years before. It was liberating walking so high up overlooking mountains after the bustle of Beijing. Nearing the end of the 4-hour walk we crossed a river in the valley and walked to our hotel just a few minutes wall from the Wall. Some took the "flying fox" - kind of a pulley that whisked you across the river about 50 metres above the water.
The guidebook states that
'some of your most vivid memories of a trip to China will be involving food'. We have certainly eaten well. We indulged in a 'Banquet Dinner' that very evening to reward our efforts. "Banquet Dinners" have admittedly been a regular feature of our China trip, although as you
may well imagine they are not of the sort we generally imagine at home (just as well since our rucksacks would not have taken black tie and a ballgown). The Banquet is the preferred style of eating here, where a party orders several dishes to share. You usually eat at a round table and a lazy suzan in the middle helps everyone to reach their desired morsels. Why call it a 'lazy susan'? I wondered. (Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence in the U.S., is often attributed as its inventor, one theory is that the device was named after his daughter Susan, who complained that she was usually served last and left the table hungry!) Interestingly, traditional Chinese culture considered using knives and forks at the table "barbaric" due to fact that these implements are regarded as weapons...
Back at the Wall, some of the group awoke to chance sunrise before the gate guards came on duty at 8a.m. the following day; we thought it preferable to get up a couple of hours later, fuel ourselves with breakfast and have a guaranteed entry and morning stroll (ok, climb) further off to the east. The "Chinese breakfast" we opted
Great Wall
Between Jinshanling and Simatai for certainly woke us up, consisting of (in order of serving): pickled cucumber and radish; peanuts; flourescent pink ham; steamed buns (plain, and with red bean paste filling - actually pretty good); sweet pancakes; boiled eggs.
Despite our comparative laziness, we were rewarded with magnificent blue skies and views so clear we could count back 13 watchtowers on the wall to where we'd started the previous day. See video "Reporting from the Great Wall"!
Bussed back to Beijing for the overnight train to Xian (renowned both for being the fabled beginning and end of the Silk Road, and for the Terracotta Warriors, several of which are ironically being exhibited in London's British Museum at present!).
While Nick internetted, I wandered off on a simple mission: to buy some water for our overnight train. Half an hour later we reconvened as planned, me with the addition of 3 paintings in my hand. Now, we had been warned about being invited by someone to their "
Art Gallery"and more often than not coerced into buying something. I had passed a cursory eye over some of the beautiful art produced in this country, inside temples and shop windows, but knew very well neither
the budget or my rucksack would appreciate a floor-to-ceiling scroll series of flora and fauna through the seasons. Nevertheless, I had some time to kill and happened to be invited, not to a "Gallery" but a "Calligraphy School" - having had basic calligraphy lessons in Japan, I was keen to "have a look". Of course, Chinese writing is a picture in itself so poems are often depicted in art so writing can appear as the picture itself, or accompany the drawing or painting of an object. I learned about a common theme of the same scene depicted in the different four seasons as a series. Chinese associate Spring with youth (age 0-20), Summer with age 20-40 and so on. Horses represent strength, tigers success and cranes and turtles long life. I really liked learning about the meanings and the fact that the shop owners were (so they said) the artists themselves. I emerged with three small pieces:
* Two carp swimming in a circle, a complementary pair representing yin and yang - so that partners may be harmonious and in tune with each other. The characters beside read: "Year after year, always satisfied"
* A scroll of bamboo stalk in
Great Wall Tower
Between Jinshanling and Simatai autumn. Bamboo grows quickly and straight up towards heaven (= flourishing success). The charcters read: "High winds, empty stalk" - People should try to be free inside and say what they feel, like letting the wind blow away any anger or trouble on their mind so they may be hollow like a bamboo that air can flow through.
* 'Venice of China' - Zhouzhuang, Jiangsu Province.
Our train to Xian arrived the next morning at 6.30 a.m. There are a few interesting procedures involved when
training in China. All bags are security checked upon entering the station, as if you were travelling to another country, not another province (although in the vastness of China the distances involved may well think you will arrive in another country). Your ticket is shown at the station entrance, then to the train guard. On board, your paper ticket is taken away and exchanged for a plastic card with your same berth number on it. Then half an hour before arrival the plastic card is swapped again for your original ticket. If you don't have this ticket when
exiting the station, woe betide you...
Also, even if an overnight train is not due to
Great Wall
Some of it is very steep between Jinshanling and Simatai arrive until afternoon, the lights are invariably switched off at 10 p.m. and on at 6 a.m. swiftly accompanied by (as far as I could make out) the local radio station at VERY HIGH VOLUME! Appreciated by some, perhaps. Sometimes there is a TV screen in the carriage, which one night aired "Britain's Got Talent." Ah, just like home...Carphone Warehouse worker Paul Potts was the star, and if you haven't heard him sing, DO SO NOW! As for the choice of ticket, there is no 1st class, 2nd class etc. in China (it's communist, so we're all equal, right?!), therefore your options are hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper, soft sleeper...!
From the bus from the rail station along the main streets of Xian, the early hour let us witness shop staff's pre-work exercise routines. We don't imagine it would catch on back home.
After a tour of the city and a longed-for western brekkie, we hired bike (actually a tandem!) to cycle around the 14km of city walls - one example of the few still intact in China. Not an amazingly picturesque city but much fun was had, firstly trying to steer the thing and then beat the
others in races between the old pagoda-style gateways.
Culture Street housed calligraphy workshops and stalls from way back, and one of my favourite memories of our stay was watching a man write Chinese calligraphy on the dry pavement on the square with a giant brush dipped just in water.
Since Xi'an was the starting point for caravans along the Silk Road to Central Asia and Europe, there has been significant influence from the Middle East and a thriving Muslim Quarter exists even today, incorporating a food market (chicken and duck heads, anyone?) and the Great Mosque, one of the biggest and most renowned in China. A pork and ginger dumpling pit-stop was made near the Bell and Drum towers (existing from when the government would sound them across the city to tell local citizens the time).
The all-you-can-eat dinner buffet restaurant (complete with weighing scales outside...!) that we patronised offered an array of 'edible' (in the loose sense of the word) delights such as live eel (choose your favourite) but brave Nicholas did venture as far as chicken foot. The guide book says that Chinese will eat all 4-legged things except the table, and there is indeed
City Wall, Xian
Indulging in the local craze of tandem riding along the old walls of Xian. more than enough evidence around to prove the point.
Xi'an, was the capital of China during 11 major dynasties (period of Emperor's reign) from 11 B.C. so its history and culture is very rich. There are 30 universities each with 10,000 students (This country is not short of people). Just outside the city walls stands the
Taoist Temple of the Eight Immortals, constructed to protect against "underground blunt weapons and the threat of divine thunder". The Emperor and Empress took refuge here in 1900 when the Allied Forces (including soldiers of Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, the United States and Italy) invaded Beijing. On the street was a Merlin-type figure offering fortune-telling services (see photo).
The
Terracotta Warriors (35km east of the city) are referred to as an eighth wonder of the world, and we found them truly impressive. They exist around the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang (died 210 B.C.), the first emperor of a unified China. He conquered six major kingdoms, created an infrastructure of roads and canals, standardized measurements, currency and the writing system, all before age 40. Dubbed "a chronic overachiever" and "a paranoid control freak", he wanted to ensure his protection even after
death and therefore had an underground Army of over 8,000 Terracotta Warriors made to protect his final resting place. He had the warriors placed 5km away from his tomb, facing the direction from which he believed invaders would attack. Employing 720,000 people and taking 38 years to build, he had his work force buried alive when they had finshed their work to make sure the secret of his tomb and the army died with him.
The 3 pits include 6,000 soldiers plus horses; arrow heads coated in chromium (a material credited as having been developed in Germany and the U.S. in 20th century but here in China 2000 years beforehand!); an Army headquarters, where figures are facing each other as if in discussion.
Each warrior is individual, as in real life, in its facial expression, hairstyle, armour (higher rank more ornately carved), down to the tread on the underside of their shoes!
Despite all this hard work, damage was caused in an uprising by General Xiang Yu who happened upon the Army two years after the Emperor's death. He may or may not have found the tomb several kilometres away, but if so he left it alone, perhaps due
to superstition that a curse may befall him. Even today the tomb has not yet been excavated since high levels of mercury have been found in the soil surrounding it.
One damaged terracotta soldier takes an archaeologist 3 months to reconstruct, and work has been slowed since it was found that oxidization made the painted colour disappear. Also, the terracotta horses once drew wooden chariots, but they are no longer there, perhaps burned in the uprising or have since disintegrated.
Save this upset, the Army stood guard for over 2 millenia and was found unexpectedly by a local farmer in 1974 whilst digging a well. The government gave him 30 yuan (about 2 pounds) for his discovery, but since then he has become a well-renowned figure, often appearing at the site for book-signing and we got to shake his hand! The shop does a roaring trade in all sizes of warrior from edible chocolate ones to lifesize statues. From the bus on way back passed a proud shop sign: "Xi'an counterfeit factory of Terracotta Warriors"!
Another night train took us to
Shanghai. The taxi ride to our hotel alone displayed a world of difference between there and Beijing, its
highrise concrete monsters looming over us and flyovers making us realise this may not be such a walkable city. The Bund (lit definition: "an embankment or an embanked quay, often providing a promenade") is a famous riverside promenade, its grand old buildings are a throwback to Shanghai as an international settlement following the Opium War in 1842 (although now Chinese flags flying defiantly atop them mark them as back in China's hands). Several countries staked out their own part of the city with individual currencies and postal systems, immune from Chinese law. A public garden on the Bund was actually closed to "Chinese people and dogs" between 1890 and 1928. Sellers on the Bund offered interesting souvenirs: glass models of city landmarks which lit up internally, and jelly blob creatures that splat when thrown on the ground, and regains its shape, and .
Across the water from the Bund could be seen the Pearl Tower literally towering above the financial and commercial district of Pudong ('East of the River'). Nanjing Road is the main pedestrianised street, where we were delighted to discover very delicious freshly cooked dumplings from local food chain "Shanghai Snacks". At a roadside stand the queue was
so long (at least 200 people) that we couldn't get close enough to see what the fuss was about. People peddle "DVDs, bags, watches" at every turn; if we'd bought something from each one it would have been enough to open our own department store! A sign at a shopping mall entrance showed Shanghai's committment to stamping out counterfeit goods and their associated image of the city, however, on other streets were shops of "Nibe" complete with (slightly different) tick beneath and "Abercrombie and Titch"!
The metro is very modern, with flat screens on the platforms ironically airing a Spurs vs. West Ham match as we awaited our train. As it arrived, some elderly men alighted with HUGE sacks of rice on their backs, a glimpse of tradition among the high-tech world.
On my birthday (ahh) after the stocking up on the hotel's Chinese breakfast of boiled eggs, noodles and bread, we wandered from the main roads for a taste of local life and got caught up in the throngs of people in a street selling D.I.Y. wares. At first sight you wonder how anyone gets anything done, but the more you watch, there slowly emerges a sort of
unspoken order among the chaos.
Huxhai Road is dubbed "the Champs Elysees of Asia". We stopped in the Sony showroom and a modern tea house for lunch: Nick, sandwich and fried radish cake (actually quite nice!) with an Iced Tea and me, Purple Rice Cake with an Iced Jasmine Tea with Pearls (pea-sized balls of jelly floating, looks a bit like giant frogspawn, though (I presume) tastes a lot better).
The former French Concession suburb still survives with tree-lined avenues and has a slightly calmer feel to it. In nearby Xiangyang Park were people strolling in their PJs and practicing Tai-Chi routines and also men playing mahjong (type of Chinese dominoes) and cards. We were going to purchase a tea to sit with them awhile but it appeared it was a case of 'bring-your-own'. The guys were very welcoming to us though, although a little bemused by our interest.
We skirted the old city walls, sadly mostly demolished to make way for Shanghai's long-term urban plan to replace the old for new. A short boat trip along the river was next, we saw low boats so laden down with goods looking as though they were about to sink, and
on the other riverbank near the Pearl Tower was a building under construction with an interesting story attached: a Japanese company had its plans approved for a skyscraper with gradually narrower floors towards the top ending in a point, like a blade. On top was to be a circular disk. However, the council apparently believed (too late) that the plate would signify the sun of Japan, and the building's shape a dagger - which would cut into and wound China. They could not stop construction of the building but subsequently disallowed the plate on top.
Halfway through the boat trip came some bubbly and my surprise birthday cake (embarassingly with candles in the shape of my age for all to see) but my upset was soon eclipsed by the delightful tiramisu flavour and the group's renditions of the birthday song. Thank goodness there were no bumps...
Evening meal was a very international affair, as Nick and I headed back to the French quarter to a Nepalese restaurant and indulged in some delicious curries set off with some red Mendoza wine to remind us of Argentina...We were about to make tracks when (presumably pre-warned) the waiter brought out a complimentary
dessert: a mountain of meringue and fruit, which of course had to be eaten. The Spanish bar we finished off at had fish tanks built into the tabletops (- how much wine had I drunk?!).
On our final day we headed back to a tea shop on the main drag (with the hope for a cup of more water than flowerheads this time), when on the way Nick had his shoes cleaned, almost by force: as we walked along, a man squeezed shoe cream onto his boots, but when Nick said "No, thanks" and asked for a cloth to wipe it away, the man squeezed cream on the other boot! It was a lost cause, and so the boots were cleaned. A final visual memory of Shanghai came into view from a food store, that of a pig's whole face flattened and hung up in plastic wrapping. What on earth does one do with that...??
*****
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Richie
non-member comment
"a Great Wall and only a great people with a great past could have a great wall and such a great people with such a great wall will surely have a great future." - wow, Nixon really did have a way with words. Also, interesting to see that the British government have today announced some measures they're clearly copying from the Chinese... security checks at major rail stations.