Beijing - Closed for Repairs

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Beijing.

Before I even begin I would like to stress that no matter what I go on to say here, I love Beijing. I think it's an amazing city - it's full of history, beauty & some decent Chinese people. Sadly the imminent arrival of the Olympics in 2008 mean that Beijing is undergoing a rather rapid & largely unrequired transformation.

Almost every 'sight' has scaffolding on it somewhere & almost every intersting old street is being replaced by apartments & shopping centres. A sad by product of this is that tens of thousands of locals are being moved out of their homes forever. Not that anyone here seems to care.

Fortunately it's unlikely to go quite the way of Shanghai - there's just so much history in Beijing that it would be hard to ever eradicate all of it. There's ancient walls & buildings generously dispersed just about everywhere.

We arrived in Beijing two years & one day before the start of the Olympics. The way it's being covered in the media you would think it was all happening right now. The main news story as we arrived was that the powers that be had decreed that 'the sky would be blue & the roads free of traffic' in time for the opening ceremony. Hard to see how on earth they will do that - we never once saw the sky, just an ever creeping foggy haze of pollution. Some days you couldn't really see the other end of the street. And as for traffic - think M25 on a bad day.

We were constantly finding other things the powers that be should add to their 'to do' list before 2008 rolls around. I'm sure we'll get around to most of those before I finish here today......

You could keep yourself busy for weeks seeing the sights & enjoying every day life in & around China's capital. We crammed as much as we could into about a week. Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Mao's Mausoleum, The Summer Palace & the Great Wall - we saw them all. At most places at least one major part is closed & covered with scaffolding. Luckily at nearly all the sights there's so much to see that the scaffolding doesn't ruin it - but it was still a great shame. At a few places there were warnings
about closures, but even those warnings weren't too accurate. It seemed strangely ironic that so much work is being done for so many years leading up to the games - everyone who visits Beijing in the next two years will miss out on a few sights so that the few who visit over a few weeks in 2008 can see it all. To add insult to injury the entrance fees have gone up for everything - by a lot. And to add to that the scaffolding hides not just the sights, but the strange fact that there's no one actually working on most of them.

But that's China for you.

In some places it was a pleasant surprise to find it wasn't all being retouched - the Chinese can go a little over the top with the renovations & a number of places were just a little too bright & colourful. A little dirt & dust can make a place seem far more interesting. After all if you're looking at a building that's a few hundred years old, you don't expect it to look like it was built last week.

One of my favourite places in Asia is Beijing's Temple of Heaven. The grounds of the temple are vast with the main part being the 'Praying for a Good Harvest' hall. As with many Chinese attractions, the gardens are full of locals who are as interesting as the sights. Every day they come to relax & enjoy themselves - playing cards, chess & mah jong; practicing dance moves, opera, tai chi & aerobics. It's common across China at the start & end of the day to see locals congregate in parks & on street corners to enjoy themeselves in similar ways with friends. Health, fitness & enjoyment of life seem to be important concepts here. Many streets are dotted with free open air fitness parks too - a great idea that could do well to be adopted in the west.

Many temples in China seem to exist only as tourist sights - an interesting example being The Lama Temple, one of the 'most important' Tibetan Temples outside Tibet. It's a beautiful temple but there's no feeling of it being a real living temple at all. In the grounds of the temple are a series of photos & some stories about the Dalai & Pancheon Lama. Most people would miss these as they are tucked away - however it's looking at these that bring home the realisation that this 'Tibetan' temple has nothing much to do with Tibet at all. Perhaps one day many years ago it did, but today it's a serves as a tool of the Chinese government, nothing else. We'll save the politics of Tibet for another time though.

I doubt you've heard, but the Chinese are building a new Great Wall. We found it by chance, after a mammoth walk to a vegetarian restaurant we'd read about, that had in fact shut down the day before we arrived. This new wall has been very hastily put together along the entire length of a couple of streets near Tiananmen Square. It took awhile to work out the wall's purpose - it has been built where the pavement meets the road in an area full of typical Chinese shops & cafes. It blocks them all off from the road & makes for a very claustrophobic experience on the pavement. Finding the vegetarian place behind the wall being closed was a disappointment - but then we realised that more & more places behind the wall were closing
down. One particular area (behind Qianmen Gate) is a famous shopping area, full of traditional old buildings & shops that have probably been there forever. Apparently this whole street is being demolished - and to make way for what? A new shopping area full of fake old style buildings to impress the fans that come to the Olympics. For some reason the Chinese are obsessed with knocking down beautiful old buildings & replacing them with new ones that are supposed to look the same.

As for the old Great Wall - well you've perhaps heard that it's visible from the moon? That is of course not true - how on earth would you see anything through all that smog? I had secretly hoped that the smog wouldn't reach as far as the wall - it's a good few hours away from the city. But it does. For those who don't know, the Great Wall isn't really one wall, it's many walls built over hundreds of years that over time were linked together. On average you could say it's about 1000 years old. The most visited part is Badaling, which is home to a fairground, KFC & millions of Chinese toursits. It has also been largely rebuilt, so you could say that it isn't the real wall at all.

Last time I was here we visited a remote part of the wall & managed to spend the night camped in a turret. It was an amazing experience - we felt so remote & the wall was so impressive - the fact that it was crumbling away just adding to the experience. The whole time we were there we saw just a handful of other people. It seems the authorities realised they are missing out on valuable revenue by having people go there unsupervised so have closed it & are preparing it for tourists (translate as rebuilding, adding a cable car, hotel, cafe, charging a huge fee etc etc).

This time we found ourselves at Simitai - not completely deserted, but not over run with tourists (or KFC) either. There is an entrance fee, there's even a cable car (if the Chinese see a mountain they build a cable car, that's just the way it is) but once on the wall you don't have to walk far to be totally alone up there. Although we nearly didn't make it - we'd avoided the many tour options & gone for the local bus instead. Except we ended up taking a minibus that didn't go where we'd been promised & ended up landing us miles from anywhere. Luckily the driver knew a woman who could take us - at a price (how very convenient). Things came good, but cost way more & took much longer than expected leaving us thinking we had no money or time left to even climb up the wall. Without enough time or stamina to take the lengthy hike we jumped in the cable car which gave just enough time to climb the rest of the way to the top. Despite the foggy haze the view is magnificent as the wall snakes off into the horizon. We walked as far as we could - until we reached a point that is apparently too dangerous to proceed from. There's a sign saying a fine will be charged if you go further. It does look precarious from there - the wall rises steeply & appears to narrow at the same time. A couple of Italians wanted keep walking despite the warnings. Two young Chinese teenagers were guarding the point of no return & it seems that if you give them some cash you can pretty much do what you like.

When I was in China before I liked the way it was so different to anything I knew. That was part of what made it so unique. Simple things like no signs being in English were all part of the charm. However when you're constantly bombarded with 'BEIJING 2008' every single day you can't help but question what on earth the mainly middle class western tourists that are likely to come will make of it all. They will perhaps live a sheltered life that takes them from air-con hotel to air-con bus to each sight & back, but surely there will be a few that will want to take a bus, a train, or perhaps use a public toilet. There is no English bus map & no busses or bus stops have English information. Train tickets are always sold out - and they'd have to get through the pushing & shoving crowd first. As for toilets - well there are a surprisingly large amount in Beijing but they are not places you want to spend more than a few seconds in. Simple things like brochures in English at the main sights would be nice - you pay a lot to get in, yet all of the brochures, pamplets & displays are only in Chinese. Much of the time we had no idea what we were seeing at all.

We spent most of our time in Beijing staying in a 'Hutong' - a traditional old style street, more like an alley, with traditional old courtyard style buildings. These are great places to explore, normally a peaceful escape from all the cars & city noise. Many of these old alleys are giving
way to high rise appartments as you may expect. Another benefit of hutongs is that most people don't have toilets in their houses, so there are public WC's everywhere.

Early one morning in Beijing we found ourseves at the centre of a surreal experience - a real queue. The first real queue we've seen in months - a beautiful long single file line. It was at a bus stop, waiting for a bus to Tiananmen Square. We even boarded the bus in a very orderly fashion. Of course a few minutes later the bus was full, we had armpits in our faces & manners were again forgotten. As we disembarked we had to physically force our way out, using elbows, feet & occasional verbal abuse as usual.

On another bus in Beijing we found ourselves sat near the back & needing to get off to change busses. The bus was moderately full but we didn't expect it to be too hard to get off. Except that someone had been eyeing up our seats, knowing we were getting off. The behaviour of some Chinese simply defies belief - before we were even out of our seats, someone was sitting in them. Yes - a woman was as good as sat in our laps trying to take our seats before we had even finished standing up.

Chinese people are loud people, and they don't seem to mind having arguments in public. We all argue now & then, but we are normally keen to keep it to ourselves. I've never heard as many public arguments as I have here. There was a guy having what must have been an argument on his cellphone, on a bus that we were on in Beijing. It went on for almost the entire journey and was the kind of argument most of us would have been just a little embarrased by. Normally Chinese people seem happy to ignore these seemingly every day occurencies, but for once people started to make comments to him & each other. Of course, he ignored them & the argument continued.

With Beijing came our arrival onto the official China Backpacker Trail. We'd kind of known that until now we weren't really following a 'traditional' route, but we weren't really expecting quite what we found. Gone are the Chinese hotels where no one speaks English, but we get towels, toothbrushes, Chinese tv & bathroom slippers. Now it's a world of Backpacker Hostels, Western food & lots & lots & lots of European backpackers. A few years ago this scene just didn't exist. And I think I preferred it, I like a challenge now & then (but don't worry we were soon off the trail again).

What I've realised since we've seen the 'backpacker trail' is that there's a lot of backpackers out there travelling through China who will never have to work hard to get by in China at all. They'll stay in hostels where they meet other Europeans. They'll eat Western food & a little basic Chinese food at the hostels. The hostels will tell them what to see. They'll go on tours booked through the hostels with other backpackers to the Great Wall. The hostel will help them book train tickets. They'll even be picked up by the hostel from the station when they arrive (ok I admit that we have enjoyed this luxury now & then). When we tell people our stories about our frustrations & challenges they'll look at us as if we are travelling in a different country to them. I would much rather have our experience than theirs.

In the centre of Tiananmen Square lies Chairman Mao. He's been there almost thirty years now, but for many Chinese it's still a pilgrimage to come & see him. Around the world some believe that he was a callous murderer, others that he is largely misunderstood. Perhaps 30 - 60 million people died while he was Chairman. Perhaps it was his fault. Perhaps not. The official line in China today is that he was 70% right & 30% wrong, and you are very unlikely to ever hear a bad word said about him.

It's unlikey that he wanted to be left in formaldehyde in a mausoleum for eternity, but for now he looks set to stay there. Allegedly when his body was being prepared for the mausoleum a waxwork dummy was also made as backup in case anything went wrong. The story goes that this still lays beside him. Mao is kept refrigerated below ground & raised for public viewing six days a week. No one really knows if it's Mao or the dummy that really goes on show. Perhaps they are on rotation....

Apparently around 30,000 people a day were visiting the Summer Palace when we were in Beijing. Mao is a lot more famous & to see him is free, so I imagine that many more people head to the maosoleum to share a few moments with him. As you wait in the exceedingly long line to see him, it's hard to fathom what it can mean to the Chinese you are surrounded by. The mood isn't sombre; it isn't particularly jolly either. Many buy flowers to place inside & most are quiet as they wait. Once you are in it's over before you know it. There's a spotlight shining on his face, the only part you can really see. You really have to wonder if wax or human could withstand the heat of that for 30 years.

I had great memories of the last time I shared this moment with Mao. As you left his chamber you were swamped by souvenir stalls selling as much 'Maomorabilia' as you could possibly imagine. It was tacky & in your face, the ultimate contradiction - here lies the father of Chinese communism surrounded by all this extreme capitalism. I particularly remembered the Mao cigarettes, a great irony as he died from cancer. The cigarettes are gone & the rest has gone upmarket. It's all gold this & glass that. Fortunately you can still get you musical Mao lighters elsewhere.

I've been asked if I think China's changed in the past seven years. I think in that time we've come to see China more as a 'first' rather than 'third' world place. Just watching tv & observing people in the cities it has changed. I remember being surprised at how anti western the tv was. But now it's often no different to watching CNN or Fox, which is tragic. That said they do still manage to have at least one story a day about Tibet (how great things are) and another about Taiwan (reminding people it should be recognised as part of China even though Taiwanese think otherwise). The airwaves aren't yet full of American reality or police dramas, but you get the feeling that's on it's way. In the cities everyone seems to want to be American, they want to meet at Starbucks & eat McDonalds. Once you leave the cities though you could be almost anywhere in third world Asia.

Although this blog starts & ends in Beijng, we're now many thousands of miles away. Some day soon I'll get this thing up to date. Thanks for listening. And thanks to those who've added comments - it's appreciated. And if you think I'm exaggerating about Chinese 'habits' then take a look at this article from The Times a few weeks ago:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2318551.html

I've added the 'dog bbq' photos to 'Pots of Tea & Dog BBQ' - if you're really keen to see them then take a look. Some people may be offended. You have been warned! Take a look here:

http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yangshuo/blog-76374.html

And a final note - you can no longer text me, only Kylie

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Photos

Mao watches over Tiananmen Sq.
You would have thought they would have used a picture without bags under his eyes

Prayer Wheel
At the Lama Temple

Shiny
Temple of Heaven gets a paint job

Great Wall
I know it's hazy, but it's in there somewhere...

Temple of Heaven
As with the rest - the smog does it no favours. But this is still a pretty special place.

Rebuilding Beijing
Locals watch as another street is destroyed

Squirrel
There is wildlife in China!

Tiananmen Square
The largest public space on the planet, not that you can see much through the haze. This is taken from exact spot where Mao would have stood while millions of Chinese filled the square waving their little red books.

Asleep
People will sleep anywhere....

Sign
'No blowing up your car'

Comments

[Dom]

Hello
Hi guys, good to hear you made it through China, I'd have probably gone for the easy backpack trail myself but that's because I'm a lazy westener! Becks wished she could have tried some of the dog!!? Take care, the buses out there sound similar to the DLR...