A few thoughts on China...

Robin here. I just wanted to make some notes about random things we’ve noticed about China. It is an amazing country, and I think that in general Americans really have no idea what it is like here. Most everyone we’ve met has been friendly and if they know any English are very eager to use it—even the construction workers who love to shout out “hello.” Those who don’t speak any still go out of their way to help the hapless Americans who have learned only to say “Nee hao” (hello) and “xie xie” (thank you). Tom was able to get the hang of a few more words, such as “train station” at which point they assume you can speak Chinese and start talking as if you know what they are saying. All you can do is nod and smile.

They love to play cards here. One of our favorite things to do in both Beijing and Xi’an was to find a park, grab a couple of beers and play cards, alongside dozens of Chinese doing the same. We never did figure out what they were playing, and some games involved cards that we didn’t understand; but they were just as fascinated with our game of Spite & Malice. Some folks would stop and watch for 20-30 minutes staring intently at what we were doing. On our train ride from Xi’an to Guilin, Tom even taught one of our cabin mates the game and played a hand with him.

I’ll never look at Chinese food the same again. The good food is fabulous, and some is so far out of our realm of understanding it was hard to eat, though we always at least made a good showing. Many of the restaurants have photos with all of menus, because so many Chinese are illiterate, to say nothing of the tourists. But looks can be deceiving—tripe can look like noodles and fish can be a bit sneaky. One place had neither English nor photos, so we had no idea what we were going to end up with. Turned out to be a large pot of boiling water that became kind of a Chinese fondue.

If I never see a Chinese-style toilet again it will be too soon. And one thing that I’ve noticed that I’m just fascinated with is that you seldom see babies with diapers. Babies not even walking are usually clothed in pants with the crotch and bottoms split open. Every now and then you’ll see a parent or grandparent take the child to the curb and encourage them to go. At this point I realized that what I thought was dog poop (and there are a lot of dogs here—which based on some menus, they will eat as well as have as pets) may well be baby poop. Made me watch my step even more closely.

As a pedestrian you have to learn to negotiate traffic, as you are at the bottom of the heap after bicycles, motorcycles, cars and buses. It’s really a game of chicken and you have to learn when to give way or get run over.

And finally, the growth. The juxtaposition between the old—ancient, really—and the new is everywhere. No matter where you look, if there are signs of people, there are signs of construction. I feel sure that if we come back in a few years, there are parts we wouldn’t even recognize.

It’s Tom now, and I concur with Robin on the above and will add the following: I often think of the U.S. as the center of capitalism, but the Chinese are born capitalists. They are constantly looking for ways to earn money, from hawking goods and services to passersby (we hired two of our guides after being approached on the street) to charging a few yuan for posing for an interesting photo (see the cormorant fisher and the woman with her baby in a basket).

Li River Retreat, Yangshou, May 22, 2010-05-21
After a very long (27 hours) train ride from Xi’an to Guilin, and 1.5 hour drive to Yangshuo, we arrived at the Li River Retreat. It was quite late, nearly 1 am, when we got here and we were whisked directly to our small, but very nice room. The best part—a large private balcony with a view that can take your breath away. As exhausted as we were, we both had an immediate reaction; we call it the “big sigh.”

The two weeks we have been in China have been whirlwind—constant motion and big cities with lots of concrete. The Li River Retreat could not be more different. Green everywhere, quiet (except for the daytime tour boats on the river), absolutely beautiful. For me (Robin) at least, the most stunning landscape I’ve ever seen.

We spent the first full day checking out the town which is very small by Chinese standards and about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. Yangshuo is very much of a tourist destination, both for Chinese and for foreigners. The west part of town is frequented most by the tourists and is exactly what you would expect—lots of restaurants, bars and a market with the typical Chinese wares of scarves and trinkets.

The second day we hired a guide we met the day before and took a bike ride through the countryside, a bamboo raft trip on the Dragon River, hiked to the top of Moon Mountain, and saw the 1500-year-old banyan tree. Briefly, the countryside of farms was beautiful; the raft trip looked like it would be a tourist trap but really was fabulous; the Moon Mountain hike should have been a vigorous climb (more stairs), but because of the unbelievable heat and humidity was draining; and the banyan tree, well, it was a really old tree.

Today is Saturday and our last day in Yangshuo. It’s been raining all morning and that’s just fine with us as we had already decided that today was going to be all about soaking in the view and taking it easy. The plan is to head into town later and at least try to experience a little of Chinese night life, since we haven’t managed to stay out past 8 pm since we got to China.

Tomorrow we travel back to Guilin and fly to Guangzhou where on Monday we catch our flight to Nairobi.

Us on top of Moon Mountain

Karsts

On the Train from Xi’an to Guilin, Beijing, May 18, 2010

Soft sleeper trains aren’t really all that “soft,” we’ve come to find out. This is our second train ride, the first being from Beijing to Xi’an. Beijing to Xi’an was a relatively quick overnighter that lasted about 11 hours. This leg of our journey is much longer, a 27-hour ride from the north to the south of China.

A bit about Xi’an…
Robin totally scored hiring a guide for when we first arrived. Our guide, Penny, was really nice and very sweet. She met us at the Xi’an train station wielding one of the small posters we have come to know and appreciate. Seeing your name on a sign in the middle of all the chaos that is a Chinese airport or train station is a welcome sight indeed.

After tending to some basics (coffee!) we were off to the Terra Cotta Warriors, which lived up to their billing in every way. Enroute, we stopped at a small facto
ry that made replicas of the warriors in various sizes, from a few inches tall to life size. It was such a relatively low-pressure sales environment that it caught us off guard and we actually bought a small series of the different warriors. Now, we need to find a way to ship them back to the U.S before we leave China – they certainly won’t fit in our backpacks when we fly to Kenya.

The first emperor of the Qin dynasty, who was the first to unite all of China, constructed this gigantic tomb (40 sq. kilometers!) so he could continue to rule in the afterlife. They have only excavated a small portion of the entire site, but there are still hundreds of warriors to check out. Reconstructing each warrior takes about a year - apparently, they were all broken when the tomb was raided during a peasant uprising shortly after the emperor died.
As cool as the Terra Cotta Warriors were, we both really enjoyed just talking to Penny for the 6-7 hours we spent with her. We covered all sorts of topics, from the Great Recession and its effects in the U.S. and on the China tourism industry in Xi’an. Family stuff (she has a brother AND a sister, rare in China – “very lucky” she said…), the Second Amendment, the concept of federal land in the U.S. and “owning” property in China (you can’t, just lease for 70 years), the “deposit” that Chinese must pay in cash if they want to leave the country for vacation or work (~$30,000!), and much more. Really fascinating to get her take on China and the U.S., and share our thoughts with her.

Stayed at an Ibis hotel – a very good deal, not a lot of charm but very modern and convenient, too. They must not have gotten the word that the Gerrows were coming, however, and neglected to stock up on the local beer in the lobby bar. So, they soon ran out…

We spent one nice morning taking a bike ride atop the old city wall, much of which runs between tiny parks and a moat. We rode all the way around the old part of the city, stopping occasionally for photos or a beer.

On our last day in Xi’an, we were playing cards in one of the parks by the wall when we heard music from across the moat and decided to investigate. We found what we guess is the Chinese version of a hootenanny, with various women singing to the accompaniment of traditional Chinese instruments. As usual, we attracted a fair amount of curiosity from the crowd gathered there to listen. The singers and band were really quite good, and we were looking for the tip jar but didn’t see one. Not to worry, as we were soon approached by one of the singers who displayed a 20 yuan note and clearly indicated that she would like us to give her one. So we did, happily, but that seemed to open a door. Next thing we know we’re being served tea and encouraged to give still more money, at which time we decided to move along. Still, very interesting encounter.

Really, though, Xi’an seemed very much about the food for us. Lots of it, and mostly delicious. We say mostly, because we frequently didn’t know exactly what we were ordering until it showed up on the table. The menus in most of the restaurants have photos of the food, but even that can be misleading. A small photo of pickled tripe, for instance, looks a lot like a bowl of noodles.

Temple of Heaven, Beijing, May 13, 2010

Decided to do something a bit low key today, going to the Temple of Heaven and stopping by the Pearl Market on the way. Took the Beijing subway for the first time, and it was great. We didn’t really travel all that far, but what a difference from the area where we were. Much more of a modern feel, with lots of high rise apartments and shopping malls, but still with traces of the old tucked away in corners.

Well, the Pearl Market was anything but low key. What seemed liked hundreds of individual stalls selling everything from electronics to silk to knock off designer bags. We spent about 30 minutes there—it was painful for me (Robin) to walk away from all of the bags. I’m not a girly girl, but I do have a weakness for shoes and bags. If you stopped to give more than a glance to something, the vendors were literally grabbing you to look at what they had to offer and pulling you to their displays. More than a bit overwhelming.

But, right across the street, the Temple of Heaven - what may have been our favorite place in Beijing. Dancing, singing, playing instruments or just cards– seems like everyone not working is here in the park on this beautiful day. We fit right in and gained their approval, and attention, when we joined the crowd with our own card game. Everyone is having a good time.

Until, that is, we start getting “muscled” out of our seats by some old folks playing on our kindness as we make way for them to clamber over the bench railings. Now Robin and I are crunched onto a small section next to a few septuagenarians, who have cleverly taken over most of the space. Hey, we’re not asking them to move – considering all they must have seen over the last few decades.

And again with the pictures – we really should start charging. But this time they were trying to be a bit more subtle, just casually sitting down next to us on the benches while a guy across the way pointed the camera in our direction. But we caught them and turned the tables, making them gather round while we took pictures of them, too. They were very friendly though, and everyone was laughing. Good fun, but we do get the feeling that they think we’re somehow humorous (even when Tom’s not wearing his funny hat!).
Next stop: Peking duck. We’ve been looking forward to this for ages. We debated between two places, one recommended by Lonely Planet, the other recommendation from these fantastic little cards that Tom picked up (which we are keeping for anyone else heading to Beijing). We decided to go with the Lonely Planet recommendation just because we thought it would be easier to find than the one in the hutong—which we’ve come to learn can be tricky to navigate. Turns out the food was great, but the atmosphere left something to the imagination. Or not, as it was so bright and we were shuttled in and out so fast there wasn’t much imagination to it. But again, the duck was yummy. Should have been a bit suspect because of the giant duck dressed in a Chinese robe in the front.

The best thing about the location of the restaurant was that it was located just off this very large, very cosmopolitan plaza. Also just off this same plaza was this crazy Beijing market—teaming with people (wait a minute, everything here is teaming with people). The food vendors were the highlight—check out the photos. You can’t tell from the still shots, but those little scorpions—still moving.

The Scorpions

Temple of Heaven

The Singers

Market

Great Wall, Beijing, May 12, 2010

We signed up for a tour hiking a 6 mile section of the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai. The van came to pick us up at 7 am, but that was not a problem since we’ve been waking early. We were soon to be even more fully awake and alert…

We get packed into a small van made for small people—which we are not. We’re maybe halfway there, cruising along at about 50 or 60 mph, and everybody is relaxed and enjoying the ride. We can see a really old man on the side of the road up ahead, and he’s shuffling along more than walking. Seems like he looks our way and sees us coming, but as we approach he starts crossing the road. Our driver honks, but the old man just keeps going, so the driver slams on the brakes and gets the van going sideways down the road as he swerves to miss the guy. He does, by inches, but manages to throw everybody around inside the van.

Close one – no way to start the day, running over an old guy…

Unload at Jinshanling, and with no warm up, hit the stairs just to get to the top of the wall. That would turn out to be the easy part of the day. The 6 mile ‘hike” was essentially 6 miles of stairs. But, it was beautiful when you could take a few minutes to catch your breath and look out over the mountains. Photos don’t do it justice. Local farm women follow you for what seem like ages, making themselves helpful by taking photos of you, and offering a steady hand when you are climbing up and down somewhat treacherous sections of the wall. In return, you buy outrageously overpriced souvenirs. The lady that seemed to latch on to us was very nice, and wanted to talk in English. At 41, this very small, agile woman has two children and spends at least 3 days a week making this trek of about 4 miles each way on the wall—obviously in incredible shape. I wondered about the 2 children until I realized that she is Mongolian, not Chinese.

Though physically challenging, we finished the hike without incident, except for what would end up being really, really sore legs. And a bit of annoyance at this Frenchman who said we were “so American” when I had an energy bar and he kept asking if we had potatoes in our bag. According to him, Americans eat potatoes all the time. Go figure.

May 13, 2010 – Beijing

We have a whole new respect for our friends who fly to Asia for business. The jet lag is incredible. Struggling to stay awake until 8:30 and wide awake before 5 a.m.

A quick note to thank Bobbi (Robin’s sister) for posting our blog entries. Apparently blogspot.com, along with Facebook, is banned in China, so we are emailing our posts to her.

On Tuesday we ventured out to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Took a cab which dropped us off on a side street just a block from the square, where we had our first “art student” approach us. We had read on Lonely Planet and the US State Department’s sites that one of the common scams here was to be approached by art students, speaking very good English, and then be invited to their studio where you are highly pressured to purchase something. This guy was standing there as we got out of the cab and immediately started talking to us and giving us directions to the Forbidden City, and “gasp”—we just happened to be going by his studio if we would like to stop in!

After fending him off, which we are getting really good at, we finally found our way to the Square. Unbelievable numbers of people everywhere—mostly Chinese tours with matching caps, vests or shirts and a guide with a flag.

As we were getting our bearings we were approached by a man, about our age I guess, who offered to be our guide. Professor Adam, as he said to call him, was a former Chinese history professor. That seemed like a handy skill set, considering where we were, plus his English was the best we had heard since arriving. We were sold, and it was certainly money well spent. (We have his number, if anybody is going to China in the near future…)

We walked around Tiananmen Square, with Prof. Adam providing a running commentary on the buildings and monuments, their history and significance, and we even talked some politics. (That was a bit surprising!) After making a loop of the square, we headed for the Forbidden City.

As we approached the entrance, three off-duty guards approached me (Tom) wanting to take their picture with me. I agreed, no problem there. No sooner had they finished, though, when a young couple came up and wanted to do the same. Then two young girls wanted a photo, too. Hmm, OK, I thought, what’s another photo?

But Robin sensed a business opportunity. Next thing you know, she’s charging 5 yuan a pop for people to pose with us to take their picture. I was skeptical, but they started lining up and pretty soon she had enough to pay our entrance fee to the Forbidden City…

OK, so not really (about the getting them to pay part). It was a bit strange, but we’re taking pictures of them so I guess it’s fair. I can’t quite figure out why they singled us out for photos. There were other Westerners around (though not many, for sure).

Following Adam into the City, we were again amazed at the sheer number of people. We were rushed, or pushed by the crowd, to glance in each of the main buildings of the City until we were at the opposite end in the Imperial Garden. For anyone who may venture over to the City, the best places are off on the sides away from the main section. The entire place is pretty amazing, and built in just 14 years. Surprising what you can do when you have 1 million people working on something.

Our favorite place though was the Garden. We found a quiet spot where we could watch the crowd, had a beer and caught our breath. Of course we still seemed to be a popular tourist attraction ourselves—we thought one couple wanted us to take a picture of them and their toddler son, but no, they wanted a picture with us. So mom and son scrambled up onto the pavilion where we were sitting and posed. Wouldn’t be the last time.

The Forbidden City is spectacular and enormous. You don’t really see how big it is until you go to the park next to it to the north, walk up a hill and see it from above. All of the rooftops are made from a gold colored ceramic tile, used only by the emperor during his day, and it stands out among all of the gray of Beijing.

We tried to get a cab back to the hotel, but that was not to be. First guy couldn’t figure out where we needed to go and the second made us get out after somebody fussed at him. Well, to be clear he didn’t make us get out, he just pulled over and sat there until we got out on our own. So another long walk home and early to bed.

Just a couple of other quick notes: the restaurant we ate in by the hotel seemed to have all of the “nasty bits” of animals, but none of the meaty parts. Chicken heads, chicken feet, beef phallus (yes, that’s what it was)—where are the chicken legs or breasts? And there are public toilets everywhere (which deserve an entire post all to themselves) and we have finally figured out that in the hutongs, most homes, businesses and even restaurants don’t have toilets, so everyone uses the publics.

May 10, 2010 - Beijing

So, we find ourselves in a small courtyard-style house in the depths of one of Beijing’s hutongs watching a “kung fu” demonstration from, according to the guy who let us in, one of the oldest and most famous kung fu families in all of China. Actually, it seemed like more of a circus act – not that they didn’t know their stuff. After a bit, out comes a metal sphere the size of a billiard ball. It’s passed to the audience so we can all see how solid and heavy it is. The guy on stage does some moves to gather his chi, then takes this metal ball and somehow puts it in his mouth. How he got it in without losing teeth, I don’t know. Amazing. Lot’s of clapping, oohs and aahs.

Then he swallows it. Unbelievable, but he walks around showing us all how his mouth is now empty.

Damn, that’s gotta hurt. And he does start grimacing a bit, while the ring master goes on (and I gather this from tone, rather than any comprehension of Mandarin) about how hard this is and how we should all sympathize with this poor guy with a chunk of metal in his belly…all while a hat gets passed around to collect a few yuan.

Yuan in the hat seems to be the cure, because the guy decides he’s had that ball in his stomach quite long enough. A bit more gathering of chi, some pushing on the stomach, and lo! He spits the ball out 15 feet into a waiting metal tray.

Interesting first day in Beijing…

I (Robin) take full responsibility for making us late for our first flight. Late enough (and the flight left 10 minutes earlier than expected) that they were “boarding all rows” by the time we got there.

But made it to San Francisco without further incident. The flight from San Fran to Beijing was a pain. Traveler tips: don’t sit by the galley, especially in the aisle seat. And even though it was an “overnight” flight, when you are traveling with the sun, it doesn’t get dark.

The Beijing airport is impressive if nothing else. Our driver and interpreter were waiting for us and we made the 40 minute trip to the hotel. Paying extra for the interpreter is something we are questioning—though she was a delightful young woman, her English was intermediate at best.

She did, however, have some interesting insights to share. She noted that the gap between rich and poor in Beijing was significant. As we were driving through traffic, she mentioned that the authorities had taken actions to reduce traffic on the highways by prohibiting people from driving on certain days based on their license plate numbers. Apparently, some people just get around this by buying another car and driving the one that is allowed on any particular day. She also brought up the one child policy and said that, while it’s still in place, people with money just pay the fine if they want to have more children.

Got to the hotel without incident, which is in Xitao Hutong – hutongs are the old neighborhoods of the city with lots of tiny alleyways lined with courtyard houses, little shops and restaurants on the larger streets and lots of people on bikes. We walked around a bit in shell shocked state, grabbed a bite to eat (with the requisite confusion), then tried to play a round of cards just to make ourselves stay awake as long as possible to start the adjustment. Well, we barely saw 8:30 and crashed until around 5:45.

Some brief observations about Beijing hutongs: it is surprisingly quiet at night, there is a perpetual state of small-scale repair and construction, and there is always the smell of sewer gas lingering. And they have more public toilets than you can shake a stick at, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The next day we decided just to wander around the hutongs and check out a few things. Just a short walk from our hotel were the Bell and Drum Towers, which offer excellent views after a steep stair climb. At street level, you don’t really get a very good perspective on the size of the city and how spectacular its skyline is. But get up 15 or 20 meters and that all changes. The towers themselves are pretty cool, but the view was the best part.

Sure, we’re tourists, but we don’t really want to feel like tourists. So a rickshaw ride through the hutongs was probably not a good choice for our next activity. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, until you realize that no Chinese folks are riding the rickshaws, at least that we saw. We’re all for making a contribution to the local economy because of a general belief that it helps make folks happy to see tourists, who would otherwise surely be a nuisance. That said, we prefer the pace of walking and the locals don’t gawk at you as much when you’re walking. Thanks to our brief ride, however, we did get to see that pretty bizarre “kung fu” show.

NY Times: Chinglish

Robin and I really got a laugh out of some of the "English" signs in China. They call them "Chinglish" - check out the NY Times slide show. I'll be keeping an eye out for any other examples while we're there. - Tom

Little things

Whew. It's Monday, we leave at a crazy early hour on Saturday. I'm almost down to counting hours, not just days.

I'm finding myself thinking a lot about little things. The little things to pack, the cancel, to order. Still needing to download travel guides, get the last minute to-do lists for the boy--and yes, he'll always be "the boy" even though he is an adult. Putting the last minute music and audio books on my iPod. Wanting to go to all of my favorite restaurants before Friday. Do we download a couple of iTunes movies just for the comfort factor at night? And, what do we pick? Can I get one more CD on my iPod--how can I not put Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble on there?I have this image of being on the 27 hour train ride across the China countryside listening to that. And where do I find the time to do all of this!

But I'm also thinking about the little things about my everyday life. Lounging in bed Sunday morning listening to the dove cooing--realizing that it was the last time for two months that I was going to get to do that. Watching the Spurs in a second round playoff, knowing that I probably won't get to see them take the title again this year (ever the optimist!). Reading cooking magazines, listening to jazz CDs and taking a bath. Cooking. Sunday breakfast tacos. Even having our "Walton family" goodnight moments at the office (Goodnight, Marsha. Goodnight, Tim.) I'm already missing the dogs and having Bailey "ask" me for chew chips at night. Not really missing the cat yet. Sorry, Jackie.--Rob (starting the sign the posts, so you'll know if it's me or Tom)