Changchun - The Biggest City You've Never Heard Of...

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Summer 2010 and I learned my fiance and I would have to travel to her home province of Jilin to be married. Prior to this I had never heard anything about Changchun, I didn't recognize the name, didn't recall anything from travel guides, books or movies. A friend back home told me it was the biggest city I had never heard about. He was right. Changchun is massive! I fully realized it the first day we took a cab from roughly one end of the city to the next and what felt like a one hour drive past seemingly endless sections of city.

We were there in late August to early June and actually we were happy to find a fairly new, modern, 'western style' hotel just about a block away from the main train station and one that accepts foreigners (me). If I can find the name I will post it because the rates were reasonable too.

My first impressions? My Canadian reference was to think of Changchun as the 'Hamilton of China' but my American friends might call it the 'Detroit of China'. By this I mean it is their 'motor city' and it is an industrial 'working mans' sort of manufacturing city. In fact there is a downtown monument with a plane on top symbolizing the plane factories I'm told. I also heard they built a lot of cars and motorcycles in Changchun. Having said that, like so many cities in China - Changchun is changing. Modern shopping centers, retail outfits, iMax cinemas and what might be a more technological and professional culture is emerging. You can still find huge industrial areas and feel the 'factory worker' heritage but yes it is changing too.

The first impressions people seem to have of me? Apparently I was the first Caucasian to ever visit Changchun if I am to go by the bewildering stares and attention I received. If I stood outside the hotel I could nearly instigate car crashes and cause pedestrians to trip over their shoes. People followed me and took photos from their mobile phones. Passers-by would turn (as seen in window reflections) and at least two different people were absolutely convinced I was tennis player Andre Agassi and one even took a photo with me. The only time I received less attention when was we happened to come across three Arab Muslim men in traditional white robes who may as well been space aliens and made me relatively boring. Another time we met a young black lady who was there from the USA as an English teacher who also earned so much attention and bewildered gazes that I suspect she must have been the first black women to ever visit Changchun. Of course I am being a little comical here but it may be helpful for some to see that Changchun isn't overly familiar with tourists and foreigners in the same way Shanghai or even Beijing is accustomed. Expect to stand out of the crowd and be prepared that many people may be especially interested and excited to learn about you. This is actually refreshing and you can more easily meet new friends.

Getting around Changchun is grueling, terrifying, difficult. The city is massive and well spread out over an astonishing expanse. This means you won't easily find everything in some kind of walking distance. Unlike Shanghai and Beijing they haven't arranged tourist-orientated bus routes (though you could find a way to most things) and we found taxis were frequently full and difficult to find in some areas.
Did I mention the absolute mad death-race chaotic bedlam of Changchun traffic? Before I arrived I was absolutely terrified and boggled by (what I thought was) the insane 'anything-goes' traffic/pedestrian insanity of Beijing. Well, that is nothing compared to Changchun where there often appears to be zero rules, no sidewalks, no lanes, people swarming into oncoming traffic which can be going any direction or speed. I saw a city bus stop in the middle of sheer chaos and actually do a u-turn (pulling back and forth 10 times as it was nearly longer than the road was wide) whereupon another impatient bus driver had a 'bus fight' by deliberately running at the other bus in mock 'bus punches' and as this was going on a cab driver attempted to sneak through the middle only to get trapped by a donkey-pulled cart who was also trying to one-up the situation. No less than 400 people were swarming back and forth the street at the same time. Honestly, I have no idea how they do this. I once tried to cross a street and never came so close to death.

Did I mention the mule?
In Changchun you will see mules or donkeys (which is which?) and they are hauling carts up and down the streets. This is not a romantic thing. This isn't a city project to show 'olde Changchun lifestyle' or some tourist attraction. These are peoples actual modes of transportation.

Perhaps not coincidentally, there are mule meat restaurants in Changchun and you can also find a good variety of dog meat restaurants. My understanding is that some of these are Korean (many ethnic Korean in Changchun) but some are Chinese as well and sorry I did not get to try any of these restaurants. We did however visit some of the popular late-night back alley 'barbecues' and often this will be a gentleman with a sort of mobile system of outdoor grills and a selection of meats he will cook for you as ordered and for a few yuen you can take away or sit down with the crowds who pull up stools around the chef. Westerners be fairly warned - many of the 'meats' may be parts of the animal you would not associated with food. intestines, eggs with fetus inside, one thing I was convinced was possibly a penis though i never confirmed it.

Shopping in Changchun is interesting. One dilemma I faced in Changchun was the same as in Beijing and that was finding decent 'mid-range' quality shopping. There are a number of markets where rows upon rows of what I will call 'imitation' clothing, shoes, toys are sold. The price is right - you can find a pair of fantastic looking 'adidass' shoes for less than 5 dollars but expect them to disintegrate in less than 2 weeks as well. Then we found the other options were mainly high-end retail stores and some with prices and high-quality fashions comparable (or even higher) than some western stores. The rule was to actually walk somewhere between the counterfeit market towards the high-end shops and somewhere in the middle we would find a 'mid-range' store where you could find that happy-middle of quality and price. Interestingly, there is a Walmart in downtown Changchun. More interestingly, we thought the prices were a little too high and not enough variety.

Now a comment about the cleanliness issue. I am not one of these neurotic 'germophobe' westerners obsessed with our own peculiar hygiene myths or customs and I don't mind a bit of dirt and grime in an urban street but honestly Changchun had some of the most blatantly filthy streets I have seen or ever even imagined. Not in the high-end or retail sections and not even in some more industrial or business park sections but for many of the areas in the hotel, shopping, market sections, near the train station and back alleys was garbage nearly covering the streets. As it is, many sidewalks were in such disrepair, under construction, uneven and with enough mud puddles but added was food products, rubbish of all sorts, animal droppings, kitchen waste. The first time I saw a plastic bag full of food smeared over the sidewalk (perfect for slipping on) I assumed some poor pedestrian must have lost their lunch. The next 10 bags of food I avoided stepping made me wonder until I witnessed (numerous times) restaurant owners throwing the food into the sidewalk. I guess it was old or gone cold so thrown into the sidewalk? What really baffled me was seeing a large 'recycling bin' the city had parked in the alley and for who? Why? Actually we did see one poor lone city worker come at night and try and sweep up a pile with a sad looking old broom. He got a massive pile of rubbish, old food (barely a dent in the larger mess) and though beside the rubbish bin he chose instead to douse it in some flammable liquid and lit it on fire! Had a nice blaze for about 40 minutes leaving a pile of blackened mushy ashes in the middle of the street. Problem solved!

One thing I loved about Changchun was spotting 'rat bikes' I saw another travelblog member mentioned this and I really agree its a fascinating thing to see all the customized motorcycles in town. Changchun motorcycles may be leather-clad, they may be carpeted. You could see ones with what appears to be a small 'doghouse' framed to the back or maybe a cage welded to the gas tank (not sure why?) where as others may be fitted with every accessory known to man from running boards to sissy bars to backrests to windscreens and all dressed in hand-sewn hand-crafted quilts, embroidery and saddlebags.

Things to do?
I don't really have a lot of suggestions here. For the most part we had marriage business to take care of and paperwork to chase down so we never did much in the line of tourism though at one time we made it roughly city centre to take in a rather beautiful and large park which may be known by the gigantic white Mao statue seen towards the front of the park. There was an interesting theme park for children with many rides and comical characters and various interactive exhibits. Reminded me of something in my childhood called 'Flintstones Park' based on the cartoon characters with colourful swings or playgrounds based on themes. There are quite a few shopping centers if you like that sort of thing. A number of new cinemas, iMax cinema and we did spot a large cultural events center where orchestras or traditional high arts were advertised as well as those big-budge sorts of 'Broadway plays' though I forget the names.
Now thanks to an internet photo of a giant penis statue allegedly taken in a Changchun religious-themed park I was convinced I should find this thing. To this day I regret never finding any such thing. My wife insisted that there is no giant penis statue and the internet photo is a hoax. I was convinced she was just trying to prevent me from finding it and to this day I do not know if such a thing exists. I never found it or found anyone who knew of it. One person did believe they had heard of a some kind shrine related to Manchu Shamanism where they may have some kind of phallic symbols or statues, however, they had no idea where or how to find such a thing. boo.

Services?
Yep, before we arrived a broke a front tooth down to nothing. Fortunately the tooth was already 'dead' and had a previous root canal so it did not hurt but did little to improve my looks and not exactly photogenic for our upcoming wedding photos. Thankfully the wife is fluent in Mandarin because finding out how and where to get dental work was quite confusing at first. Unlike Canada, dental work is part of the hospital system. At some point the main hospital in Changchun had been moved. We found this out when taxi drivers drove us to former hospital only to find it closed. Somehow we managed a series of buses and arrived at a rather beautiful new hospital. Now inside we found ourselves slightly confused as there seems to be a system of taking a number and waiting a turn and expect to go back and forth and up and down a few floors for x-ray. Not long after that we went to the main dental room and wow its wonderful. If only Canada had something like this. Its really a vast room with maybe 50 different dental chairs each with its own team. A sort of 'factory line' of Dentistry. When your number is called you go to your designated chair (sectioned with office dividers) and they do their job and send you off. The chairs and equipment are all clean, high-tech and modern and the dentists really seem to know their stuff.
Having said that, we had to leave Changchun in 2 days and could not wait the 3 days required for them to order a replacement tooth (or 'crown' i think its called).
No problem. A dentist advised us of a private clinic not far away. We walked down there and a lady Dentist was happy to examine me, take impressions, measurements and promised a tooth the next day. We returned to her private clinic where she easily fixed me up with a perfectly nice permanent repair. Again, a wonderfully clean, modern, high-tech office and she was without a doubt the most skilled dentist I ever had and so straight-forward and efficient and the price? I was estimated $800 minimum in Canada as my dentists less modern clinic. It cost me $80 in Changchun and she even polished a second tooth for free.

I can't imagine how anyone on the internet managed to read this small novel to the end so I will wrap it up now and leave you with that and a few photos I can find on the hard drive.

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Photos

Changchun Snacks
Boxes of Chicken Feet of all Flavours in a Chanchun Corner Store

Mahjong
Groups of men like to hang out on the street corners playing Mahjong although it seems to me this was something else reminding me of a 'shell game' in this case.

Foreign Civil Marriage Office
May not only be for foreigner/local marriages but I just know we were expected to bring them some candies. They also sell bags of Candy for newlyweds to give away.

Mule Cart
Just a mule parked on the side of the road. He seemed happy enough.

Big City Lights
This isn't downtown but somewhere near the train station and our hotel.

Hospital
This doesn't really show you anything but in case you are looking for a hospital then it will have this kind of solarium roof.

Outside Hospital
Not entirely sure what this space needle is about but it was outside the hospital and seemed interesting.

Private Dental Clinic
I think the dentist also believed I was Andre Agassi so you may see this celebrity photo hanging in her waiting room.

My adoring public
For some reason people took photos of me and especially teenage girls with camera phones. Here I turn the tables aha!

Changchun City
Don't expect a lot of sidewalks, crosswalks or road rules.. .just make it up as you go.

Back Alley Barbeque
Buy yourself some fresh grilled mystery meat products to enjoy on a nice nighttime stroll.

Not food.
Coy pond in local shopping mall. Oddly enough these are not to be eaten.

Playboy Mansion
I spotted the Changchun Playboy offices but to my disappointment it was Playboy Air-Conditioning Unit Distribution Offices and not the good kind of Playboy :(