Advertisement
Published: April 15th 2012
Tang-Dynasty Palace Music and Dancers
Wonderfully professional and delightfully entertaining performances at the Shaanxi Grand Opera House in Xi'an.I'm thinking about investing in
Crane Manufacturers and
Spitoon-Making companies. I know a few years ago, ginseng growing in Canada was all the rage, because a billion Chinese consumers supposedly ate and drank ginseng like it was candy or Coca-Cola. I even bought some shares in a company that grew and sold ginseng in China … but of course the hype didn't hold up and the Chinese don't really buy any of our crappy Canadian-grown ginseng. But cranes and spittoons … the perfect China investments. I've seen for myself ALL of the cranes blooming in the sky in every city … it's like dandelions sprouting in your lawn in the spring. And Spitting looks like a Chinese national pastime like Mahjong or card playing … everywhere you look there are men AND women spitting … but good news here … I think the government has had a chat with each and every citizen because they are quite careful, by and large, to aim their spittle into garbage cans like good civilized people everywhere😉 There is money to be made here, but forget minerals and fast food …
think cranes and spittoons, investments for the future. Mark my words
Beijing Architecture
Many modern and imaginative towers grace the Beijing skies and plunk your money down!!
BEIJING Not unlike the rest of the world, the Chinese have fought amongst themselves and with neighbours for millennia and moved their capitol (and capital!) here and there, north and south … but for about 600 hundred years now, Beijing has been the "official" heart of this behemoth country.
Beijing -- an elegant name that when broken into its components, simply means "north capital". Our morning flight from Xi'an touched down in Beijing flawlessly, now let our first real traffic jam begin!
Other Chinese cities we have visited seemed to have enough limitations and levies in place to keep traffic under somewhat reasonable control despite huge populations …
BEIJING? … not so much. Gridlock is still pretty commonplace, and traffic is a major menace in this city. The government has tried to find ways to cool things off, such as furiously building more subway lines, and making shared-taxi travel more attractive. Most of the big cities also limit the number of licences they'll issue for cars used within their bounds. Some hold auctions for licences, and the price for these can go sky-high. Funny, but there seems no shortage of Chinese millionaires
The Beijing Zoo Panda Exhibit
Pandas are solitary and prone to napping. This chap entertained the crowds by choosing to sit back and snack. Apparently they spend 14 hours each day eating. who can afford both the car AND the licence. Beijing was issuing 62,000 licences a month in 2010 before capping licences available at just 20,000 per month.
20,000 additional vehicles on the roads per month!! Add to this a freelance style of driving ... U-turns as desired, extra lanes where none exist ... sitting in the front seat of the bus becomes a constant gasp as traffic weaves and jumps all around us. Oddly enough we didn't see any accidents and we didn't see dented cars. Must just be our bad eyesight!
On the way to our hotel we stop for a brief visit at the Beijing Olympic site with its iconic
Ice Cube Swimming Pool and the
Bird's Nest Stadium where the opening ceremonies and track and field events were held at the 2008 Summer Olympics. I'm wondering if maybe they would let me in to the "Cube" just to swim one lap … I think I could call myself an official Olympian after that ... but I digress. There is a cool, fairly vigorous wind in the huge open-air plaza, "Cube" on the left, "Nest" on the right, and lots of kites (or were they CATS!) flying
overhead. This is hard-sell kite domain - how many tails would you like?, 5 for the cost of 1 in Xi'an (darn it!) and a little more for the string to fly it! Crowds of people are snapping photos of each other with their smartphones. Like movie stars we're asked by a couple of Chinese people if we will consent to having our photo taken with them.
WHAT … no autograph? The hotels we stay at here in China are first rate or as they say, five star ... but the last two we've stayed at are a bit strange in that when you enter, you pass through the bathroom to get to the main bedroom/seating area. Open the door, sink on your left, toilet and shower on your right. Have the
Chinese Red Guard been watching and know that I sweat a lot and need a shower before anything else when I return to the room? They DO know that I always have trouble finding my toothbrush in the deepest recesses of my suitcase and so they provide me with a complimentary toothbrush and toothpaste each day ... I love this! There were many giggles over the plastic-wrapped
Tian'anmen Square, Beijing
A rare sight for us, these uniformed young men were on parade at Tian'anmen Square perhaps to replace the young women standing at attention at the base of the Monument to the People. package that looked like chewing gum in the bathroom, but wasn't complimentary, and would be charged to your room if opened ... the whole bus would know that your room was billed for condoms!
Surely tourists don't have intimate relations in far-flung hotel rooms?! TIANANMEN AND FORBIDDEN CITY Tiananmen Square on a Sunday of the QingMing Festival. We decamp our hotel at 8 am for a 10 or 15-minute bus ride to Tiananman and the enormous square that can hold up to a million peace-niks or rabble-rousers is already jammed with predominantly Oriental people. A number of major buildings such as the
Mao Zedong Mausoleum and the
National Museum of China are either held within the square or surround the border area on this surprisingly bright day … even the air itself is relatively clear and cool compared with the haze we've seen so much of in China. A mix of small flags from different countries waves in all corners of the square as tour guides lead their legions around the parade ground. Sounds of German, or Spanish, or ? drift by as the groups move by in concert, like sticky rice. Walking around Tiananman with the sun
The Forbidden City
The first courtyard before the throngs appeared. shining and a lot of excited, smiling faces makes it hard to see this as a place of dissension and violence 20 years ago even though we know that this is where that brave/foolhardy student stood defiantly in front of the tank that threatened to mow him down like a blade of grass.
Across the street from Tiananman, a bridge takes you over a moat and through the entrance gate to the
Forbidden City, the walled complex that for almost 500 years (through the Ming and Qing Dynasties) served as the home of Emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government. The name Forbidden City, refers to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission.
Another huge complex, the Forbidden City is like a monstrous outdoor house ... one huge "room" leads to another and another. There are over 900 buildings within the walls, and it was the home to a succession of 24 emperors before it ceased being the political centre of China in 1912 with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. Despite its enormity, it feels like the entire population
Little Emperor
The family of this young man placed a blonde wig on his head for fun formal photos along the Bund in Shanghai. of China has squeezed within the walls today!
THE LITTLE EMPERORS Delightfully Cute or "What Have We Done?" Scary? China is full of "Little Emperors"...because of the one-child policy implemented in 1978, the country is rampant with little families of Mom/Dad and Grandma/Grandpa (possibly four) and the "Little Emperor", the one child (usually a boy, but often a girl) that the family dwells on and dotes over...the little guy knows just how special he is and just kind of floats along in his exalted little world. Some little emperors have found that stubbornness or tantrums are quite effective, and you can watch the poor parents/grandparents working feverishly in any way possible to calm the little urchin.
THE GREAT WALL Well ... a tourist trip to China could never be considered complete without a visit to one of the
NEW 7 Wonders of the World ... yes, the Great Wall! We looked forward to a fun trip strolling up and down the mildly undulating stone walls snapping photos of beautiful serene countryside ...
NOT! The section we visit is like walking to school uphill both ways through 3 feet of snow in bare feet...This thing is built
on the side of a mountain and only goes steeply ...
UP!! I'm thinking that this could be the Mount Everest region of China.
Our bus trip takes about 40 minutes to arrive at the Great Wall near Beijing on a cloudy, cool morning. The surrounding hills are grey and dry-looking as we first spot the famous wall. The
Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials that was built along an east-to-west line across the northern border of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nasty warlike peoples. Several walls had already been begun to be built beginning around the 7th century BC...these were later joined together and made bigger, stronger, and unified. Especially famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first
Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang ... yep, the same great guy who had the Terra-cotta warriors built in his honour back in Xi'an. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Wall has been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced from time to time.
There are large crowds of tourists of various nationalities gathered at the bottom
When In Doubt Wave
A voice and a wave from above on the Great Wall begets two waves from below. section as we head out to view and visit the WALL. It immediately turns into a mountain climb with the added complexity of trick stairs. Apparently the builders were clever enough to realize that should invaders get onto their wall, they would necessarily have to have their heads up to evade spears and arrows coming their way. The stairs are built in totally uneven increments, some a short up-step, others a large climb, some stair treads narrow, others wide. There is no way an intruder could run up these steps without looking very carefully at where they were placing their feet.
After a warning from our local guide, no tourists go rogue and attempt to climb the less crowded hillside outside the Wall ...
"jaguars and wolves and bears, oh, my!" Every few hundred steps upwards brings us to a new watch-tower, and a slightly fewer number of gasping tourists. Busmate Frank and Maureen struggle to stay in sight of Larry's bright orange raincoat as Larry weaves in and out of the crowd, up and up. It's no use, tricky Larry removes his coat as he overheats, and disappears into the crowds (or maybe it was the clouds?). The
The Great Wall, Juyong Pass
Larry and Maureen pause to pose on the way down from their summit. The Juyong pass lies below and other portions of the Great Wall ride the distant ridge. attrition rate climbs just like the steps, and when we reach
our summit tower (yes, Frank and Maureen do find Larry as he calls out for a wave from the top of a watch-tower), the climbers have dwindled to a hearty few with sweaty, red faces and a great view across the mountains to more of the Wall that can be seen far off in the distance. Our lunges and squats back home have paid off!
Important Message to future Great Wall visitors: Do your Hi-Intensity Boot Camp classes before popping in on the WALL ...
FINAL STICKY-RICE AND FORTUNE COOKIE DIGESTIVE THOUGHTS There is more to digest in China than food. After 16 full days of traveling and listening and looking, our heads are full of new information that will require time to cogitate. In the tourist areas we saw no obvious signs of communism, police or military control, abject poverty, or rebellion. Instead we saw a diverse community in the big cities that could be downtown Vancouver with all the hairstyles, trendy clothes, and bling.
The book stores are full of books with inviting and potentially informative content (even about Obama
The Silk Street Market
Knock offs here we come! Just be prepared for aggressive sales techniques. and Putin), but, not having the ability to read Chinese, the text may well be party line.
Our security experience at airports etc was cordial and respectful, more civilized than our experiences with USA or Canadian security! The Chinese people with few exceptions responded to a friendly
Nihoa with a warm smile and a returned greeting. In fact smiling and saying hello was a great defense against aggressive vendors - by the time they smiled and said hello back, you could be safely out of range😊!
CAPITALISM seems to have a firm foothold with the Western influence apparent in billboards and magazines, KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, Subway, and Walmart.
Of course, Chinese-style capitalism doesn't allow total freedom ... Facebook and Twitter and horrors, even porn sites are blocked (of course this is purely hearsay😉 !) . Knock-off stores and street sales of "Brand Name" items eg.
Gucci, Rolex, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, are rampant and appear to be sanctioned by authorities. The cities are chock-a-block full of beautiful and highly-lit up skyscrapers that magically go dark in the late night when most residents and tourists sleep ... what a great power saving idea!
TOUR GROUPING It's quite
Saucy Sisters from Saskatoon
Part of getting to know your travelmates is unravelling who is connected to whom. While the family ties are obvious here, it took the first week to figure out that June, Donna, and Jackie were sisters, 3 of 21 siblings! unusual for us to travel
en masse like we did on this journey. Conclusions?
Like it AND hate it! It is sooo easy to just cruise along and let someone else tell you where to go and what to do, when to pee, where to look, what to eat, where to sleep, which line to stand in,
how much hotel condoms cost!! Returning to the womb is warm and cozy, and for a country such as China where English is not as widespread as most other countries, group tours offer a great deal in cost, convenience, and number of sites visited ... and you meet some of your own fine countrymen and women as part of the package.
On the other hand, freedom to do what you want when you want, to walk down an intriguing alley, to spend time chatting with a street-market lady selling fresh dates, to take a bike ride into the countryside for an afternoon, to just sit and people-watch in an interesting square, to argue (in hand language) with a hotel clerk over a dirty room, to eating a funny looking thing cooked on a stick in the street --- these fun things are
Not On The Tour!
We just happened to glance out of the airplane window at the right time as we flew over Japan - our reward was the amazing vista of Mount Fuji - Wow! all missing in the tour itinerary.
So ... I think we'll save group-touring again for a future day when we're worn down from travel and the energy needed to find our own way in a fascinating world of vivid colour, and pungent flavour, and turbulent crowds and traffic, and strange sounding foreign languages.
Adventure needs the unexpected ... and the unexpected materializes magically out of the ether. And as it's been said so many times,
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away ... NIHAO Friends!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.146s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0579s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Trevor Green
non-member comment
the game
The game the older gentlemen are playing is Xiangqi, known to us Westerners as "Chinese chess". Very popular in China, almost unknown to anybody but your game-playing nerd-cousin outside. Very entertaining and illuminating post - thanks for sharing!