Notes on our China visit August 2005
The flight over was interesting because we flew over Alaska and could see the top of Mt. McKinley, then we flew over Russia (the Kamchatka Peninsula), then straight down over Japan to Narita. Our planned afternoon shopping in Japan busted since we had to take a later flight out of DFW due to a Typhoon in Japan. By the time we got to the hotel in Narita city, we were soaking wet and very tired and the shops were closing. The next morning we left on JAL and flew straight down the mainland of Japan. Had a nice view of Fuji out the window, then flew straight over South Korea—another great view. Then we landed in Beijing and from then on, the air pollution was so bad we didn’t have any great views for quite a while.
All the way over I was worried about our arrangements. After all, I had booked this trip through a Chinese travel agency, online, and I kept thinking, “What if that agency was just a scam? What if they just took our money and there are no actual arrangements waiting for us? There we would be with no reservations for anything and not speaking Chinese. What in the world would we do!!!” When we exited the arrival hall at Beijing and there was a man with our name on a sign, I was so happy and relieved that I nearly hugged him. And to our delight, everything went smoothly and exactly as planned.
The Beijing airport was a bit of a surprise—kind of old and ratty and dingy. Not what we expected for the capital. They are undergoing massive renovations to polish up for the 2008 Olympics, but they don’t seem to have started at the airport. Beijing is overwhelming in its size and population. Huge, huge, huge. Everywhere you look, in all directions, you see medium-to-high rise apartment buildings. The thing is, though, they aren’t attractive buildings—they look shabby. Most of the apartments have glassed-in balconies and they are full of clothes drying and crammed with assorted possessions. They reminded me of projects like Bed-Stuy in New York. Even the newer buildings looked slummy.
The other thing that really stood out to me in Beijing was how completely confused I was geographically. I had studied the map of the city, noted the landmarks and hotel location and expected to be fairly oriented most of the time. However, I never could figure out where I was in relation to either the Summer Palace or the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven (three noticeable landmarks). That was also true in Xi’an (outside the city wall), Kunming, and Guilin. In Lijiang I could orient myself somewhat. It wasn’t till we got to Shanghai that I really could tell where in the city I was, at any given time. I guess the river and the Bund help there—and some fairly straight freeways.
Another thing about all the cities is the traffic and the almost kamikaze way they drive. The roads are clogged with vehicles—cars and trucks and buses and motorcycles and scooters and bikes and they are all trying to occupy the same space at the same time. Many times there would be more than two people on a scooter. Sometimes it looked like whole families, or even that the scooter was used as a taxi. It was bad everywhere, but in Beijing it went from bad to unbelievable. Our driver had the skill of a micro surgeon—many times there was less than an inch between us and other vehicles and he never batted an eye. We were continually cringing in the backseat and trying not to cry out.
In addition to the traffic, there are just hordes of people—everywhere. There are peddlers on the streets, beggars, and in some cities (Xi’an and Kunming particularly) there were old, bent, misshapen people lying on the sidewalk as if they were waiting to die.
We started our sojourn in Beijing at the Summer Palace which is really large and very beautiful. By the time we finished, we were tired and overwhelmed and ready to head for the hotel. It was rush hour (like when wasn’t it rush hour?) and it took a long time to get to the hotel. We drove past Tiananmen Square and I thought that I knew where we were—but within a couple of minutes I was totally lost.
Although we were told that the hotel desk staff spoke English, that turned out not to be true. Once our guide got us checked in and departed, we decided to seek out the in-house restaurant for dinner. The trouble began when we realized that we didn’t know where the restaurant was and the staff couldn’t understand our question. There was a restaurant in the lobby that was closed (it was the breakfast restaurant). We felt fairly sure there was another place to eat based on the picture in the elevator, but there wasn’t any info in English in our room. When we realized that the staff couldn’t help us, we decided to venture out to see if there was something nearby. As it turned out, our hotel was in a non-tourist area and the surrounding neighborhood didn’t have restaurants or shops. It seemed to be a fairly poor area (as is most of the city, I think) and we were very uncomfortable immediately. So back we trudged thinking that we would wait half and hour to see if the lobby restaurant was going to open, and if not, eat the crackers that we brought from home. After waiting the half hour, we got in the elevator and, although no one else was in there, the button for the second floor had been pushed. When the doors opened, presto, there was the restaurant and the hostess waiting to seat us! God watches out for the innocents.
The next morning we spent in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The guide did not offer to take us inside Mao’s tomb (thank God) so we did not have to look at his body in the glass coffin. One interesting thing about the Square—there are vendors every few steps selling postcards, picture books, etc. Brian mentioned (after it was too late to find the guy again) that one of them was selling stamp albums. That’s when we knew that it would be ok to buy stamps as requested by my brother. The weather was very hot and very muggy and the Forbidden City is unbelievably large and I was wiped out by the time we walked through (or in my case hobbled). Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven for lunch and a look-see. The main temple is the building on which the Chinese exhibit at Epcot is modeled (large, round with a blue tile roof). That building was being renovated and we couldn’t go in, but we did visit several other sites in the park as well as having our lunch.
The lunch was our introduction to the pattern that lunches would take for the rest of the trip. Breakfast and lunch were included on all but a couple of the days. The lunches were prearranged at Chinese restaurants and the menu was preset. That was ok, because each meal was multi-course—and I mean multi. They would bring tea and rice and soup and plates of different vegetables, then dishes of pork, beef and chicken, and usually some fruit as desert. There was always 5 times as much food as we could eat –even if I had liked Chinese food! The guide and the driver would eat by themselves and we would just wait for them at the table. About the food, before I forget. Things are unbelievably cheap in China, including the meals. Two full dinners with 2 Cokes usually cost us about $4 or $5 total.
After lunch and the rest of the Temple, we went to the silk factory—the official government store. We learned later that the guides were required to take us to at least one “official factory” where we were encouraged to shop because only there were we certain of getting the real McCoy and not a fake. We were really tired by the time we finished and very glad to end the day. The next day we went to the Great Wall with stops at the government pearl factory (the first of three pearl factories we had to visit) and cloisonné factory. These factories were both interesting and reasonable in prices so we really didn’t mind.
We had Peking duck for lunch, and then went to a tea house for a lesson on teas and another sales pitch. We were supposed to go to a Llama monastery, but asked to go to a market instead. We went to Silk Street – huge indoor market that we had heard about it on TV the night before. This was our first chance to haggle and we had a ball. Afterwards we were taken to a performance of the Chinese Acrobats (we chose that over the Beijing opera) which we really enjoyed.
One of the interesting things about Beijing is the hutongs. Throughout the whole city, interspersed between the modern buildings, are the ancient neighborhoods of one-story courtyard houses on tiny winding alleys. Some of them are fairly well kept and affluent, but most are horribly poor slums. They are all fascinating and supposedly one of the tourist attractions. We did not go into any although we could see in them as we passed and I’m really sorry that we didn’t tour one. Our hotel room window looked down into one very poor one.
I mentioned TV. The Chinese, in every city we visited, have a multitude of stations to choose from. In most places we were able to find at least one station doing some English broadcasting. We got CNN International one place and BBC somewhere else. The stories were often redundant and we channel surfed a lot because some of the Chinese shows were fun even without English. One thing that we noticed was that every night, during the whole trip, there were always several channels showing anti-Japanese WWII movies or programs. We learned from various guides that the Chinese really, truly, totally hate the Japanese to this day. For instance most cities have only one or two guides that speak Japanese. They make the Japanese tourists have English only guides and they charge them more for the same tours than they charge everyone else. They were very open about their desire to discourage Japanese tourists.
One other general observation—we saw a lot of Caucasians, but few would make eye contact or greet us. We finally realized that these were the Europeans. The Aussies and Kiwis were a little friendlier and, while we only met six Americans along the way, we enjoyed comparing hotel and destination notes with them.
We left Beijing the next morning for Xi’an on one of the Chinese Airlines. I can’t remember which because we were on China Eastern, China Southern, and Shanghai Air at different times. Xi’an has an intact city wall - maybe the only one left in China, and within the downtown portion of the city—inside the walls—it is very easy to know where you are and to follow the map. Outside the walls is another story, because Xi’an is a very large industrial city. The air pollution was bad here also. Our guide in Xi’an was the chattiest guide we had about life under communism. She is the one who told us that she had always wanted to be a librarian, but that only the children of high government officials could aspire to that position. She also talked about the effects of collectivism in the factories. She said that most people were hard workers until they realized that the lazy people got paid exactly the same as the hard workers. When that happened, she said, more and more workers became lazy, too, and pretty soon nobody was producing anything. That’s when the government wisely decided to go to a free market approach. We asked her about party membership and she said that it isn’t required but in some professions it is needed in order to advance. Her brother joined the military and in that career he needs to be a party member so he joined, but is the only member of her family who did.
Interestingly, both she and our Beijing guide made it a point to ask us about our religious beliefs. All of the guides that took us into the temples gave us a thorough run down about Buddhist and Taoist history, but none of the guides themselves are believers in any religion. One of them explained it by telling us that “religion is handed down from the parents to the children” and her parents went through the Cultural Revolution. As all of our guides were in their 20’s, this would appear to explain both their lack of faith as well as their curiosity about ours.
Our first day in Xi’an was spent learning about the Tang Dynasty by visiting the Art Museum, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and then we climbed up on the city wall. That night we were taken to a performance of the Tang Dynasty Show—sort of like a Chinese Folkloric. Our hotel was located smack in the middle of the inner city and we were able to walk out at night in an affluent shopping area. The next morning we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. They are just as amazing as you have heard. Our obligatory government store was the Terra Cotta Warriors reproduction factory. While we weren’t interested in making any purchase, we did learn how they were made and how to recognize what type of warrior each one was by their hair style. We also climbed up the bell tower which sits in the crossroads of downtown. The last thing we saw was the Great Mosque, the largest mosque in China. Xi’an sits at the start of the Silk Road and the Moslem quarter originated back in the Marco Polo days. To get to the Mosque you walk down a series of narrow winding alleys lined with peddlers then enter the gates to a structure that is both Chinese and Moslem. There are a series of beautiful and peaceful courtyards with gardens and pavilions before you get to the prayer room (which we could look into but not enter). In one of the side buildings in one of the courtyards you could hear the students reciting the Koran in Arabic.
The abject poverty of China really hit us in Xi’an for that is where we encountered our first old women lying, (dying?) on the sidewalk as people walked by. I am still disturbed over my failure to “do something”. It goes against my nature not to try to help; yet I felt very intimidated by the thought of calling attention to myself in what is a police state (even though we never saw any signs or evidence of a police state). We just followed the guide as she ignored them. The beggars were a little easier to ignore, but the pitiful beings lying out to die really bothered me. The other sad thing we encountered for the first, but not the last, time in Xi’an were the old women who collect the used plastic water and soda bottles for income. They shyly come up holding out a plastic bag to beg for our cast off trash and there are many “xie xie’s” said in thanks. It is hard to think about and remember that kind of poverty. At the same time, haggling in the markets is absolutely expected and a great source of amusement for the peddlers, but arguing over a buck or less just felt cheesy although we had just as much fun as they did. It reminded us of Mexico only with better goods and the Chinese physically grab you more than the Mexicans do.
When we left Xi’an we had our only problem with transportation. We were scheduled to fly to Kunming then transfer to the flight to Lijiang, with no guide in the Kunming Airport to ensure that we made the connection. After all, we are experienced travelers and why shouldn't we be able to get ourselves where we need to be.
We had a comfortable layover time, but got nervous when the plane departing Xi’an started down the runway then turned right back to the terminal. They parked out away from the gates and made some announcement in Chinese. When the rest of the passengers started groaning and got up, so did we. Everyone got off the plane and was bused back to the terminal. We figured we would stay with the crowd or we wouldn’t know what to do next. That’s when we realized that if we missed the connecting flight in Kunming we were screwed because there wouldn’t be any handy dandy guide to meet us, translate, get us re-booked and find a hotel. I think that is the moment when we realized just how fragile our support system was. Yes, we had a little phrase book, but it was pretty useless, and it was very, very hard to find people who spoke English well enough to be understood or to understand us.
As we waited in the terminal the airlines brought out box lunches. You ate what you got and you did it with chopsticks or else! After a while, an announcement was made, but although we had no idea of what was being said, everyone stood up and headed for the door. So did we. The funny thing was that as soon as we got airborne (after only a short delay) they immediately served lunch again, then gave us all China Eastern flight bags to make up for the inconvenience. Can’t you see American Airlines doing that! At any rate we made the connection and had no more misadventures after that. That is unless you count the German lady who rolled her luggage trolley up to us and asked if we spoke English. When we told her that we did, she actually asked us if we would watch her stuff while she left the airport to run across the street to the bank to change some money! Brian though “Bader-Meinhoff” while I was thinking drugs.
Lijiang was our next stop—a very charming and quaint little city located at 7000 ft above sea level in far southwestern China. We stayed in the ancient town where vehicles aren’t allowed on the street. The streets are narrow winding lanes by streams and are lined by shops and restaurants. The whole place has a Tibetan feel to it due to the fact that the native group that settled here (the Naxi) were originally Tibetan nomads. We took a trip up a chair lift to a meadow that was at 9000 ft. on a mountain that is 19,000 ft and is very lovely as it floats above the clouds. One funny experience that we had in Lijiang occurred when we went to our prearranged lunch. As soon as we were served, all the waitresses brought out food to two other tables. They all sat down at one and the cooks came out and sat at the other. Guess we got there at lunch break time. We were fascinated watching them all eat from common dishes and pots—just dipping their chopsticks in and eating then re-dipping.
It was in Lijiang where we first encountered two interesting American ladies. We ran into them again a couple of times in Kunming. One of them worked for a land irrigation agency in Southern California and had traveled all over the world for irrigation meetings.
Our next stop was in Kunming, a large and very ordinary city. We went in order to visit the Stone Forest which is incredible and well worth putting up with the very lousy hotel where we stayed. We also visited the Provincial Museum to see the exhibit about the “War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression” and the city market. We particularly liked this market since it was aimed at the citizenry, not tourists.
Our guide in Kunming was one of our two very extraordinary ones (the other was in Shanghai). We ran into him that night in a little café. He was there with his cousins who were visiting from out of town. He came over to speak to us and invited us to join them for the rest of the evening as they were on their way to a dance performance. We declined, but really treasured the invitation.
I mentioned the bad hotel. There was one thing about it that we did find charming. The carpet in the elevator had the day of the week on it—a real boon to folks like us who couldn’t keep track of the days!
After Kunming we went to Guilin. You may not recognize the name of this town, but you would recognize the scenery. This is where those “dragon teeth-like” mountains float in the mist by the Li River. Guilin is a very beautiful city, without air pollution due to its being a tourist rather than industrial town. There is also an Air Force base nearby as well as a military college I think. Following our cruise on the river we had the chance to visit the travel agency office and meet the woman who had booked our trip. This was a very special surprise treat because we had been corresponding with each other for so long. Pictures were taken and they gave us gimme caps from the company. Who knew China did that, too!
We had one additional day in Guilin but our guide either didn’t like us or (as Brian thinks) was a burn-out. She made no effort to do anything more than a basic tour of the city attractions. Brian is probably right since we didn’t find people who acted like they didn’t like us anywhere else. In fact, just the opposite. We experienced great friendliness everywhere we went. Well except in Beijing where we were generally ignored by everyone except our guide and driver.
We finished our trip in Shanghai which was one of the three cities we liked immensely (the others being Lijiang and Guilin). It is very international in architectural style and is the most modern and affluent city we saw. Shanghai might have more in common with Hong Kong than with Beijing I think. It was the only city where we ventured out in taxis at night on our own. Of course our wonderful guide had made suggestions about where we might like to go (the “fake” market and Nanjing Road) and had written down the places in Chinese so we could show the drivers. Since I was fairly oriented there, I could tell that the drivers weren’t going out of their way to jack up the prices. In fact, they get paid by the klick and not by time so they hurry to drop you off. The taxis also have unobtrusive buttons that the driver can hit to make the roof top sign flicker. This alerts police that he is in trouble and needs help. Pretty clever, huh?
In Shanghai we had a chance to visit a public Pre-K school serving 3,4, and 5 year olds. We saw their English class (taught by an American from Notre Dame) as they learned “I’m a little teapot short and stout”. Then we watched the piano lessons. All kids learn English and a musical instrument. We were given a mini-recital. The 6 kids played “Twinkle, twinkle little star” individually (one by one) on a violin, cello, and piano, then something Chinese on three different Chinese instruments. Following the performance they lined up and high-fived us!
That about sums up the cities, but I’d like to add a few more generic observations.
—First, although there is much that is foreign, I was surprised by the similarities between our countries. They drive on the same side of the road, wear western clothes, have the same vegetation, and the same grades and school years for example. In addition the guys are crazy about American basketball and wanted to discuss various players and teams. They even knew Duke players! I felt like singing “It’s a Small World After All”. They also play American tunes on the radio and for muzac. We kept hearing Christmas Carol tunes. Not sure what that was all about, but it was funny, and frequent. They even have a Chinese version of Star Search or American Idol and play game shows on TV.
—Another interesting thing is the large number of people doing what are obviously “make-work” jobs. We saw this everywhere, but it wasn’t till Shanghai that we got a glimmer of an explanation. Seems that people who need welfare are given make work so that they can “earn” their public assistance. Hmmmm, maybe we should try that.
—My last comment has to be about the primitive nature of their toilet system. The hotels were fine, but everywhere else the situation was awful. You couldn’t count on finding western style toilets (as opposed to the hole in the floor) and even if there were commodes, they often were missing the seat. Toilet paper was scarce. Sometimes there was none, sometimes there was a roll by the entrance and you grabbed a wad as you went in. The rolls were tiny and many times we ran out in our hotel rooms. We carried Kleenex everywhere. You also see babies with no diapers, or pants. We learned that their method of potty training is very different than what we do, but their babies get trained by a much younger age. For that matter the Chinese don’t use napkins and when we were given them at all they were little bitty squares. The bathrooms were dirty and smelly and this poor sanitation (along with their eating after each other) struck us as funny when you see the people wearing those face masks to guard against germs.
On the whole, this trip ranks as one of the most interesting and yet at the same time the least expensive trip we have ever taken. The China Highlights Tour company did an incredible job.
