Nile Sprague Journal: China 2005

Nile Sprague Online Journal: China 2005

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Note: I am quite behind on my journals. I have been to Deqin, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, Dali, Kunming, and Jinghong since my last entry from Zhongdian. I will catch up soon, so please check back in a few days.

Jinghong, Yunnan Province, Southern China
May 27, 2005

I'm in Jinghong, in the southern part of Yunnan Province, near the Laos border. It is really hot here. I went traveling to escape the heat of Cambodia, where it is currently the hot season. It's not quite as hot here, but it's still really hot and humid - I don't want to move between 12 noon and 4pm. Right now it's 1:45pm, and I'm breaking a sweat just from typing.

I came here by bus from Kunming. In all, it took 15 hours. I took an overnight bus (with bunk beds) to Simao, where I was hoping to stay. I was dropped there at 5:30am when it was still dark and waited in the bus terminal until it got light around 6:15am. I then tried to find a hotel, but with my lack of Chinese language skills, it was very difficult. I found a hotel, but they wanted to rent me a room at an exorbitant rate - I wanted to stay in the dormitory, and they thought I wanted to rent all three beds, and I couldn't convince them that I wanted only one, so after an hour of struggling, I gave up and returned to the bus station to get a bus to Jinghong. Five and a half hours later I arrived in Jinghong, utterly exhausted.

A woman at the bus station used her hands to ask if I wanted somewhere to sleep, I nodded, and followed her about 200 meters away where I got a hotel with TV and toilet ensuite for 25 yuan, about $3, a night. I went to sleep at around 4pm and didn't rise until 8am the following day.

I looked into some trekking around the area, as there are lots of ethnic villages in the surrounding hills, but there are no other tourists to go with me because it is now getting into the hot season here, and tourism is low. The cost is too expensive for me to higher a guide on my own, but there is one trek I can do on my own. I inquired into the details at a local tourist cafe, and it doesn't sound very nice: the whole "trail" is now a dusty truck road with no shade; I can stay in people's homes in the villages along the way, but it is frequented by tourists and therefore somewhat spoiled; and the bus journey to get there is about six hours. It doesn't sound worth it, so I'm hoping to have the opportunity to do some good "minority village trekking" in Northern Laos.

I will rent a bicycle and explore some of the area around Jinghong, and perhaps get a bus to one or two of the smaller towns nearby and stay overnight. I'd like to get out of the "city" (Jinghong isn't that big, but it's got the city feel to it) for a few days. Then, in about one week I will head to Laos, which will be a complete change of scene from China.

Zhongdian, Yunnan Province, Southern China
May 14, 2005

Click here for my restaurant and hotel recommendations in Zhongdian

I left Kunming around 7pm on the 8th of May and took a 14 hour overnight bus to Zhongdian up in the mountains at 3200m. The bus was a sleeper with births - horizontal beds with sheets, thick blankets, and pillows - this was the first time I had seen this type of bus. In general, it was fine, but every now and then someone would fart or light up a cigarette and the smell and/or smoke would fill the bus. Luckily, I was next to a window, so I could open it a crack and breath some fresh air.

When I arrived in Kunming the following morning at 9am sharp, the sun was shining, and the mountains surrounding the town were capped with snow. It was beautiful. I walked for about an hour before I found the hotel recommended in the Lonely Planet, the Tibet Hotel (see recommendations below). It was a bit shabby (hot water only in the evenings between 6pm and 11pm, at which time it was freezing, and I didn't really want to take off my clothes to bathe), but inexpensive, and an attractive building with peaked rooves and traditional Tibetan decorations on the interior. The lobby was especially attractive. I stayed for two nights.

The next day I went to visit the Songzanlin Tibetan Buddhist Monestary north of the town, riding a bicycle the few kilometers. It was a nice ride, and it was interesting to see the monastery. On the way, I stopped to take a photo of the monastery from a distance, standing on a lookout. Nearby, there were several children and two women with two baby lambs dressed in very colorful costumes (the lambs with pink bows on their heads), which I assume was traditional Tibetan clothing, but done up a bit for tourists. They were asking for one yuan per person for photographs, which I gave them, and got some nice shots.

The monastery had mixes of Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism, the paintings on the walls depicting both. At first, I walked around on my own, not really understanding anything, but I enjoyed looking at the massive Buddhas (one was about 4 stories high and painted gold) and the paintings on the walls. After a bit, I ran into two French tourists with an English speaking guide leading them around. I asked if I could join and listen to the guide, and they happily agreed. It was nice to have a guide explaining the meaning of the different paintings and Buddha statues, adding a deeper level of understanding to my experience. At the end, I thanked them gratefully.

After I finished at the monastery, I rode my bike a bit further along the cobbled road, into the town around the monastery. The people I passed were all very nice, giving me big smiles, and saying "Nee How" (Chinese for Hello) or "Hello" as I passed, and giving me big smiles. It was very nice to see such warm people. The women were all dressed very colorfully, with bright pink scarves wrapped around their heads, traditional skirts, and many of them were wearing blue aprons. The men were dressed in modern pants and shirts.

I like Zhongdian very much, especially because of the hotel where I am staying (Kevin's Trekker Inn, see recommendations below). I could easily see spending a few days, a week, or even longer here. They are lots of things to explore around the town, and it's a nice place to refresh one's energy, enjoy good food, and relax for awhile. When I was in Zhongdian, there was a friendly, small group back-packer travelers, many on their way to Tibet. Zhongdian is a good place to find a group to join on the overland trip to Lhasa, Tibet.

The people in Zhongdian are both Tibetan and Chinese. Those in the villages surrounding the town are Tibetan, and wear brightly colored traditional clothing. They are generally very friendly, giving big smiles and warm greetings. The Old Town in Zhongdian is very nice, with 100 and 200 year old buildings, shingled rooves, and the largest prayer wheel in the world. It's very nice to walk around, exploring the cobbled streets, and a number of guesthouses and trendy bars have opened up within and near the Old Town in recent years. If your in the Old Town, check out the Cow Bar.

Recommendations in Zhongdian
I have not thoroughly researched the offerings in Zhongdian, so this is by no means a comprehensive report, I am simply offering recommendations based on my experiences. Please keep in mind that everything is subject to change, and observe the date when this was posted, so you have an idea of how old my recommendations are. All of the following are located on or near Tuanjie Road, within a few blocks of each other, near the south end of the New Town, and thus the north end of the Old Town.

Hotels

- Kevin's Trekker Inn (www.kevintrekkerinn.com) is quite nice in many ways. The owners, Kevin and Becky are a friendly young Chinese couple who speak good English and offer guide services. The toilets are clean and the showers always hot. Dorm beds are 20 yuan, double rooms are 50 yuan, and triples are 70 yuan. They have a big selection of DVDs, a pool table, Internet, and a very nice communal hang out area. I highly recommend a visit to this town.

- The Tibet Hotel is inexpensive (40 yuan for a double room or 15 yuan for a dorm bed, bicycles 15 yuan for 24 hours or 8 yuan for 12 hours), well located, and fairly quiet. It's likely that you will get the dorm room to yourself, as the place is not that busy. However, the restaurant is a bit expensive, the toilets are not that clean (they are the normal Chinese style rows of squat toilets (no privacy)), and you can only get hot water from 6pm to 11pm, so showers are a little difficult (at that time of day, nobody wants to take off their clothes and get wet.

Restaurants

- Xin's Eat is near the Tibet Hotel and the Snowland Restaurant (look for the sign saying Sichuan Style Cooking, Clean and Cheap, No MSG on Request). The food is very good and inexpensive, and they have a Chinese and English menu. The friendly owner, Maji, is very nice, speaks good English, and has done extensive traveling in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, and has a wealth of information in her head. You get free green tea with your meal. Vegetarian food is around 7 yuan, and meat dishes around 15 yuan, enough for one person to eat. A good breakfast with toast, one egg, and Nescafe coffee or Chinese tea for 10 yuan (2 yuan more with Ham).

- Noah Cafe is quite a nice restaurant and cafe targeting foreigners. They have a big menu, good food, and it's a nice, warm place to hang out. The vegetarian pizza was quite nice (20 yuan), with some pleasantly spicy chillies and a decent crust. The local goat cheese is very good (like a mild, home-made mozarella with a slightly goaty taste), in salads, hot pots, and other dishes. I have not explored the rest of the menu, but it looks nice, and there is good variety. The prices are a bit higher than Chinese restaurants, and I was disappointed that they did not offer a free beverage (tea or water) with the meal.

Travel

- The Snowland Restaurant and Cafe is meant to be a good place to arrange tours and travels. I spoke with two young backpackers who had arranged a very reasonably priced overland trip to Lhasa with the people at the Snowland Cafe. I was not impressed by the food, but I only ate there once. The atmosphere is nice, a good place to sit and read.

Bars

- The Cow Bar is in the old town near the large prayer wheel. The bar is in the downstairs of a hundred year old traditional Tibetan house. This is where the cows and other animals used to sleep, but it has been cleaned and spruced up a bit since those days. As the bar-tender said when I was there, it is "hard to find, cold, uncomfortable, and expensive," but it's quite charming in it's own way, has a pool table, great music, and Pher (one of the bar-tenders) is a very nice man and very interesting to talk to. It's definitely worth a visit.

China's New Religion
May 8, 2005

When I was in Beijing about two weeks ago, I was talking with a twenty-something Chinese-American woman. She grew up in the US, but has visited China almost every year, and now lives in Beijing, working as a writer. She told me that when communism came into China, religion was basically destroyed, and that Mao Tse Tung essentially took it's place, becoming "the new God". She went on to say that when Mao died, there was nothing to fill the void, and money became the new religion. I responded that this was somewhat sad, because Chinese culture seemed very spiritual, yet I could recognize the consumerism emerging in the culture, the shift towards commercialism. Money seems vitally important. Working hard and having a good job are the main priorities in life. Personally, I think a bit differently: I want to have a good quality of life, I want to work hard and make money, but it is more important to take the time to enjoy myself, and I don't want to spend all of my life working. Whatever people do, I hope it will make them happy.

What to buy
May 8, 2005

Some things in China are very cheap, and the quality is decent. Clothes, shoes, and DVDs are included in this. However, higher end things are very expensive. Computers (especially notebooks) and high end electronic devices are much more expensive in China than they are in the USA. But low-end electronic devices that are easy to copy and produce are very cheap, including computer accessories (mice, keyboards, web-cams, hard drives, etc.), electronic dictionaries, CD-players, etc.. There is a lot of variation in the quality, but if you know what to look for, there are some very good deals on decent quality equipment.

Visa Renewal
May 8, 2005

Today I went to get my visa renewed, and found out some interesting information that might be of help to other travelers. First, I had to go to the police station and complete 2 forms and give them a photograph of myself. They gave me one of the forms and directed me to go to the immigration office, about 20 minutes away by taxi. At the immigration office, they required a photo copy of my passport identification page (the one with my name and photograph) and my original Chinese visa, a photograph of me, and I had to complete another form. They said the visa would take 4 days to process.

The charge for the visa was 160 RMB (about US$20) for 30 days, and I could not get a visa for a shorter term. The visa started today, so it would have been most economical to renew my visa on the same day that it was set to expire (or maybe the day before, just to be safe).

They said that I could travel locally without my passport (I have a photocopy of my passport ID page and my Chinese visa), but that I could not take a plane anywhere.

Spitting, Smoking, Eating, and Hygiene in China
(posted May 5, 2005 from Kunming, Yunnan, China)

I have observed that people in China always set their bags on the table or a chair if it is possible, and for good reason. People spit big phlegm wads anywhere they please: in the street, on the sidewalk, sometimes indoors, but hardly ever in the trash. I'm used to having the floor reasonably clean and not worrying about where I set my bag, so it's taken some getting used to.

People who know me well would think that I am very comfortable here, because I am often congested and need to spit. I have long been teased about my disgusting habbit, but never really realized how gross it was. It's a bit much for me here, I get grossed out, and I'm changing my habbits. I'm sure my friends will be pleased.

On the train from Kunming to Shanghai, the man in the berth opposite mine had a lung problem. Every 10 or 15 minutes he would go into a loud, gross coughing fit, arching forward with the effort and never covering his mouth. At the end, he would inevitably cough up a big phlegm wad, and would dribble it into a cup that hopefully got thrown away, not tipped over on the floor. Honestly, I'm not sure what happened to it, and I don't want to think about it.

In the cities, people cough a lot, there seems to be a common lung problem, either from pollution, smoking, or both. Some people cover their mouths, but it is rare.

Smoking is very common. At first glance, one would think that all Chinese men smoke. This is actually not the case, as I have seen as I get to know more people, but a very large number of people smoke, and they will smoke anywhere: in restaurants, in department stores while shopping, at the Internet cafe (there is an ashtray next to every computer in the Internet cafe), in the toilet. Smoking is quite common among youth, and smoking is on the rise among young women, but it is generally frowned upon by older women.

Eating with Chinese people is not very hygienic. Generally, the group shares food, everyone serving themselves with their chopsticks, there are rarely serving utensils. If one person at the table is sick, they are sure to share it with someone else, if not everyone at the table.

When I ate the first time with a Chinese person, I was quite surprised: She did nearly everyone of the, "Don't do that, it's rude," type of things that we (children in the West) are scolded for by our parents. This included chewing with her mouth open, talking with her mouth full, and sucking air through her teeth. When she got somethinig in her mouth that she didn't want to eat, she just spat it out, right onto the table. I asked lots of questions about what was acceptable: if I could use my left hand, how to serve myself, etc. After answering my questions, she commented that eating in the West had so many rules, and it was so easy to be rude.

At first I was shocked and a little grossed out by the eating habbits, as I was not used to them, but it was also somewhat relieving, because I realized I didn't have to worry about being rude when I ate, because there was little chance I could be worse than my eating companion(s).

Pissing in the trash can
Train from Shanghai to Kunming
(excerpt from handwritten journal, May 2, 2005)

I'm on the train and I'm sharing my sleeper cabin with several people, including a man with a two year old girl. I just went to the toilet, and when I came out and went to the sinks to wash my hands, the man was holding the girl over the garbage cans next to the sinks, and she was pissing, some into the can, but mostly against the wall. The train attendant was standing a few feet away and didn't bat an eyelid.

The Internet, Kunming, Yunnan, China
May 5, 2005

The Internet cafes here are great! At first, they are quite hard to find, usually up some stairs, above retail businesses, and the signs are written only in Chinese. Sometimes you'll see the @ symbol, a good sign there is Internet access.

To get to the Internet cafe I am at now, I walked in a small dorway between two shops, up a flight of stairs, and I came to a large room filled with new computers, each with nice, 17 inch monitors. There must have been 80 computers in the room, and there was another floor upstairs, with just as many. All the computers are loaded with software and games, connected by a network for gameplay. Also, they come with headphones and a web cam for web chat.

The cost of the Internet is 2 RMB an hour, about USD$0.25 (in Shanghai it was 4 RMB an hour, at my hotel in Beijing 10 RMB an hour. Everything is more expensive in the big city). When you come in, you go to the front desk and give a deposit, 10 or 20 RMB. The person at the desk gets a plastic card with a memory chip and inserts it in a card reader in the computer, and puts money on to the card. Then, you take the card to your chosen computer, and insert the card into the card reader, and it automatically logs in, and keeps track of your usage.

I'm certainly very impressed by the technology here.

The users of the computers are not all using the Internet. Lots of them are playing networked games where they can hunt down and kill each other, or fight on the same teams, or go on fantasy adventures. Many people are also watching movies, probably DVDs they have purchased and brought to the net. And some are sleeping: when I was doing my email earlier today, the boy next to me kept nodding off, then waking up and playing more games, and falling asleep again.

Technology
(excerpt from handwritten journal. Posted May 5, 2005)

The taxi from the Shanghai train station to the hotel had a TV in the back of the passenger seat with a touch screen and information in English and Chinese about hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions in Shanghai

The busses in Beijing had LCD TVs on board, with news and advertisements. There were also video cameras in the busses so the driver could keep an eye on the passengers.

The Shanghai subway had large wide screen LCD displays suspended from the ceiling along the platform. The screens displayed the current time, the amount of time until the next train, and the train after that, as well as playing news clips. When I was watching, it showed clips from a recent basketball game.

There are video cameras nearly everywhere: in the halls of the dormitory, in busses, subways, inside of office buildings, department stores, and elevators. But, not inside the dormitory rooms or the toilets, as far as I can tell. Good.

In the stairwells of most apartment buildings, the lights are sound controlled. Stamp your feet or whistle, and the light turns on automatically, and then shuts off again after about 20 seconds.

Kunming, Yunnan, Southern China
May 4, 2005

I'm now in Kunming, Yunnan province, in Southern China. The weather is really nice. The sky was a beautiful bright blue today, with small white clouds drifting across it. The temperature was what I would call perfect: mild, comfortable in a t-shirt, but neither hot or cold, with a nice breeze blowing.

When I got to Kunming, Matthew helped me find a hotel. First, we met his girlfriend and went out to lunch. The meal consisted of roast duck, sauteed spinach with chilly, fresh cucumber in a red chilly sauce with cilantro on top, a bowl of egg and tomato soup, and steamed white rice. The whole meal cost 26 RMB, about $3, which I was more than happy to treat them to.

My hotel cost 30 RMB a night, about $3.25. It had a toilet, television, and two single beds. It was reasonably clean, and the beds were comfortable. After the long train journey, I was very pleased to have a proper shower, shave, and change my clothers. I felt so much better after all of this.

I made plans to meet Matthew later that night, and we exchanged emails and telephone numbers. I hung out in my hotel for a few hours, watching The Simpsons on my portable video player, doing my laundry, and sorting out the belongings in my backpack. Then I went to the Internet and spent about four hours writing emails, and the last half hour writing this piece to put into my journal. Then, Matthew sent me an SMS, saying he was waiting at his house, and I should send a message when I got back to my hotel. It was time for me to go, and I was thankful, after staring at the computer screen for four hours.

Train from Shanghai to Kunming: 43 hours

The train journey from Shanghai to Kunming was quite pleasant. It took 43 hours, but was pretty painless. Before the journey started I was scared, it sounded like an intolerably long amount of time, but it passed quite easily. I did lots of reading, finishing one book and starting another, and wrote a great deal in my journal.

I shared my cabin with six other people, some of whom gradually got off the train at different stops, with four remaining when we arrived in Kunming. I got a hard sleeper, which is actually quite soft and comfortable, and I recommend them. The bed was soft, had a clean white sheet, and came with a fluffy blanket and pillow. The bottom bunk is the best, because it has easy access (you don't have to climb to get into bed), and storage space below the bed, so my backpack was easily accessible. The middle bunk seems the worst, as it has no easy access storage space, but the top bunk was very cold, so close to the air conditioning. Each train car has a toilet, sinks, and a hot-water dispenser at one end. The hot water is very nice, making it easy to prepare instant noodles or tea.

In the other bottom bunk was a father and his two-year old daughter. Nobody in my cabin spoke English, but a very nice young Chinese man (Matthew) from the cabin next door spoke a bit, and was very happy to chat with me. He helped me ask a few questions of my fellow passengers, including the age of the young girl. She was very cute, sweet, and well behaved. She hardly cried the entire time we were on the train.

The train was very grubby and dirty by the end of the trip. Every now and then, an attendant would come through and mop the floors and flush out the squat toilet with a bucket of water, but garbage gradually accumulated in the cabins, and floors became sticky and grimy. I also felt quite grubby, the stubble on my face growing prickly, and the smell of my shirt thickening as it was saturated with my body odor.

As we left Shanghai, the tracks were lined with buildings under construction, new offices and new houses. They gradually petered out, becoming farther apart and smaller, the farther we went from Shanghai.

Soon, the houses became quite sparce, and most of the land was used for agriculture. I saw fields of wheat, rice and mustard, small plots of lima beans and cabbage, cypress and plum trees, and a wide variety of other crops I couldn't identify. Some of the fields looked like large-scale commercial farming operatinos, but most seemed to be small-scale family farms.

Initially the land was quite flat surrounding Shanghai, but soon I could see small mountains and gentle hills in the distance, and occasionally we would pass through a tunnel. The sun set as we were passing through a small city with some industrial looking buildings, factories, and incinerators (or nuclear power reactors? I'm not sure: they were large cement stacks with a gentle concave curve as they climbed into the sky). In the distance, the sun was setting behind a low mountain, disappearing behind streaked clouds and then reappearing as it descended.

When i woke, the train was surrounded on both sides by agricultural fields, mostly flooded rice fields, with occsional brick buildings dotted around. Some of the terrain was flat, but most of it was gentle hilss with some sharp, steep cliffs in spots. Terraces climbed the hill-sides, nearly every usable surface being used to grow somesort of plants.

We passed more construction sites, new houses being built, new train track being laid, new tunnels being dug. We passed through a number of tunnels on the second day, but most of the were short, taking only 10 or 15 seconds to pass. As I was writing in my journal, we went through a larger tunnel, taking about 45 seconds to pass.

The Great Wall at Huanghua, China
Posted May 1, 2005 from Shanghai

Part 2 (Click here for part 1)

I met Hong (pronounced "Ho") at 10 AM on Wednesday the 27th of April outside my hotel. She was driving her white, four-door VW sedan. It took us nearly one hour just to get out of Beijing city because of thick traffic, and then we drove for another two hours. At first the drive was fast, along large, flat, two-lane roads, but gradually the terrain changed, the roads got smaller, and we were soon surrounded by beautiful mountains covered in trees and bushes. Hong had never been to Huanghua before, so we stopped and ask for directions occasionally.

As we neared our destination, I could see the Great Wall along mountain tops surrounding us, and watch-towers on the peaks of the mountains. We knew we were close, but it was still unclear where to go - there were no signs, and it seemed we were heading to an isolated, less-visited part of the wall. And suddenly the road ended, and we had arrived. I could see glimpses the Great Wall on the mountains high above us, perhaps 1,000 meters, I couldn't tell, but very far away.

There was a small creek coming from the mountain with very cold, fresh water. The creek flowed into a series of pools which were teaming with fish that looked like large trout. A few kilometers back on the road, I had seen a sign that said "Dutch-Chinese Joint Project Salmonids Hatchery," and this must have been the hatchery.

Hong asked someone which way to go to climb to the Great Wall, and they pointed up the mountain in the direction of the stream, and said that it took about 2 hours to get to the top. There were cement stairs leading up a ways, and then a gentle winding dirt path following the river. After a snack, I walked along the path together with Hong for about a kilometer, and then she said she wanted to rest, and that I should continue on my own, and not worry about her. I said that I would be happy to wait, but she said she didn't want to climb all the way to the top of the mountain, and I should go on my own. I walked on alone, waving to her just before I disappeared behind a bend in the path.

The path continued up the river bed, mellow at first, but gradually getting steeper and steeper. As I walked I passed a group of four young Chinese, two men and two women. They had stoped to smoke cigarettes, an interesting contrast considering they were out for a healthy hike up a mountain. Soon the path started to get quite difficult. It was less of a path, and more of a dry creek bed, going straight up a ravine, leading up the mountain. Small pieces of marble filled the creekbed, slippery like gravel, but large, around ten centimeters each. I came to a split in the path, and I wasn't sure which way to go, so I chose to go the the right. I heard the voices of the other hikers coming up behind me.

I climbed for about 15 minutes as the path got smaller and more difficult. At times it was so vertical I had to use my hands to climb. I soon realized that I couldn't hear the voices anymore, and I got a little worried, but I pressed on. I figured, someone came this way before, look at the trail and all the garbage, it must be possible, I'll just press on, and eventually I'll get to the top of the mountain. The path got more and more difficult.

Then I came to a bit that made my stomach flip because it was so steep. I tried a few steps, but it was like rock climbing to follow the trail. I realized that it would be foolish to continue any further on my own, the trail was so difficult and dangerous, and I was scared. I turned back, and very slowly, worked my way back down the trail. It was harder to go down than up. After about 20 minutes, I came to the split in the trail, and took the left turn which I should have followed long ago. The trail was bigger, and a bit easier to follow, and there was more trash lining the sides. As I climbed, I started to hear the voices again, and soon I passed the group again, this time accompanied by two middle-aged Chinese women using walking sticks. They used sign language / body language to ask if I had taken the other path, and I said yes, and used body language to demonstrate how tired I was. I had a bit of a headache, and I was really regretting drinking the shots of Baijo (Chinese hard liquor) from the night before.

-- written from the top of the mountain --

I am now on the top of the Great Wall after climbing for about 2 hours. My hands are shaky, I've got a headache, my mouth and lips are dry, and I feel very dehydrated and pretty uncomfortable. Two middle-aged Chinese ladies sit next to me, speaking in Chinese as they rest and take in the view. They both have walking sticks, and are obviously very fit to have made it all the way up here. I am impressed. One offered me the last of her water. I was hesitant to accept, but extremely thirsty, so I was very grateful. She told me to finish off the bottle, using her hands to communicate.

There is a strong wind in the air which is very refreshing. The sun is hot, burning through the cloudless sky. I am surrounded by a 360 degree panorama of mountains covered in low yellow-green bushes and small trees. On several peaks I can see watch-towers and parts of the wall silhouetted against the sky. The mountains are beautifully lit by the sun, fading gradually into the distance. Layer upon layer of mountains gradually fade from green to pale gray.

Now the ladies have decided to start walking down, and I think I will go with them as I don't want to walk down alone, I'm a bit scared. The walk is a scramble of rocks, pretty much going straight down a stream bed, and therefore quite treacherous. The wall is also quite dangerous, crumbling in many spots, and the surface is often very steep, and in some parts virtually impassable. I walked as far as I could, following two Chinese men. Then we came to a part that was almost completely vertical and crumbling to pieces. There was a funky, wooden ladder lashed together with rope, leading up the wall. One man told me this was "the termination," and I agreed, it seemed impassable. I asked how they were going to get down (thinking that perhaps I could accompany them), and the other man said they would continue, climbing over the part that the first man had just called "the termination." In my mind I thought, "Crazy," but to them I said, "Difficult, good luck!" I turned and walked back down the wall, following the way I had come, but going very slowly, as going down is always more difficult than going up.

-- end of journal written from the top of the mountain --

I got to the bottom of the mountain much quicker than I went up, and I didn't get lost. The middle-aged Chinese women were ahead of me, but I soon caught up to them. I thought it would be nice to walk together, but I was moving faster and they insisted that I go first, so I passed them and continued down the mountain.

The part of the wall that I visited was funky and crumbling away, which was charming, and natural, but I would like to go back someday to a part that is in better condition so I can walk a greater distance along it without fear, and see what it is like in its full glory.

That evening I had a wonderful meal of fresh trout with Hong (of which I have taken many notes, and will publish in a future journal entry) and got back to Beijing at about 10 PM, utterly exhausted and very happy to flop down on my bed and fall into a deep sleep.

China, the first week
Beijing, China
Posted April 28th, 2005

Part 1

(Please forgive any spelling errors. They don't have Microsoft Word on this computer, so I can't spell check this journal entry.)

I arrived in Beijing a week ago, and tomorrow I head to Shanghai on the overnight train. At first, China was confusing and overwhelming. It's still difficult, but I'm starting to get a grip on it. I have walked so much during the time here, between 3 and 5 hours every day.

The first night I arrived at my hotel at 10PM, and shortly after I met up with a young English friend (Ben) who lives in Beijing (I met him in Cambodia 2 years ago). He and a group of friends were on their way to a fetish costume party. They were dressed as a SWAT agent, a fighter pilot, and a nurse from MASH. One girl was dressed in a skimpy short skirt and thick make-up, dragging behind her a "gimp" dressed in black pants and white shirt with a baliklava over his head and a collar with chain attached around his neck. They were well on their way to being drunk when they met me, and before even being introduced, the nurse gave me a shot of pepper vodka from a syringe (no needle). It was the start of a wild evening. The party was filled with foreigners and progressive Chinese youth, similarly dressed. There were Catholic nuns (men and women), Playboy bunnies, people in black leather, others dressed as furry animals, and many more bizzare costumes. I felt out of place in my plain jeans and Adidas shirt. At the party I enjoyed Absinthe for the first time in my life, which gave a nice warm feeling in my stomach, and lovely flavor of anise in my mouth. Shortly before dawn we went to a 24-hour chinese restaurant and enjoyed a variety of dumplings, buns, and steamed veggies, a tasty meal after partying all night.

I caught a taxi back to the neighborhood where my hotel was, near the Forbidden City. I was staying in a youth hostel, in an 8-bed dormitory. The taxi driver dropped me a few blocks from my hotel, and vaguely pointed in the right direction. He didn't speak any English, and I was somewhat lost, but I felt energized from the recent meal, and I had the business card for the hotel in my pocket, so I was confident I could find the hotel. However, the confidence was false, and I ended up walking around for about an hour and a half until I finally found the hotel, hidden in a back alley. The walk was very pleasant at first, the early morning light was beautiful, and watching the neighborhood waking up on my first day in China was very nice. However, after about half an hour of walking around, my energy and spirits started to drop. I asked several people, including three policemen, where my hotel was. Each time they would point off in the other direction (inevitably the direction from which I had come). And they were always correct, but they gave me incomplete directions. For example, one pointed the correct way, but did not mention that I had to turn right after 2 blocks, so I would end up walking past alley. I started at the north end of the Forbidden City, walked all the way to the south end, then back to the north end, then around a few times, and eventually found my hotel an hour and a half later.

When I got back to my hotel it was about 7:30 AM. I put earplugs in and a mask over my eyes, and settled down for a good day's sleep. I awoke at 3:30 that afternoon, and went for a walk and to find some food. I went to the night market near my hotel and got ripped off buying some fried dumplings (I paid 3 times the correct price), which were salty and I had trouble finishing. To round out my meal, I had a piece of grilled corn. That evening I went to another party, this time the birthday party for my English friend. It was a house party at the home of a young Scottish girl, with lots of Scottish and English people. I ended up sleeping in a spare bed at the house, going to bed around 3:00 AM. The following morning I had a headache, and we went out for breakfast at a place called The Den. They served a variety of Western breakfasts. My friends all ate English breakfasts with bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, mushrooms, and beans. I had eggs benedict. I felt much better after eating that meal, and returned to my hotel, and then went for another walk, this time walking the full perimiter of the Forbidden City, which took about an hour and a half. It was sunset, and the light was again beautiful. Families and young couples were walking along the moat which surrounds the Forbidden City, and hundreds of weeping willows lined the bank, their branches drooping over the water.

The next day I went to Jingshan park which has a hill built from the ruins of the old palace and the dirt dredged from the moat surrounding the Forbidden City. The hill overlooks the Forbidden City, with modern Beijing stretching into the distance behind. The old, yellow tiled rooves of the Forbidden City and the modern sky-scrapers of Beijing contrasted strongly with one another. The hill is covered with trees, and at the top are three Buddhist temples (on each of the three peaks of the hill), and at the base it is surrounded by gardens with beautiful flowers in bloom this time of year.

At the park a middle-aged Chinese woman said hello to me, and we were soon in conversation. Her name was Xiahong, but she said to call her "Ho". She was very friendly and spoke good English, and we walked around the park together, talking about what we did for work and play, and places we had traveled. After Jingshan park we went to Beihai park, which is just across the street to the West, and has a large lake with an island in the middle. The island had a Buddhist stuppa at the top of a hill built from volcanic rocks, and at the base the shore of the lake was lined with more weeping willow trees. Then we went to dinner together, eating traditional Beijing noodles. We shared two different style dishes, both with a fermented soy bean sauce. One had pices of tofu skin and baked tofu mixed in, and the other had small pieces of pork and fresh soy beans. It was delicious. After dinner we went to Shi Sha Hai bar street which runs around the perimiter of a lake, with a bridge in the middle. The lake is surrounded by trendy bars, many of them with live music and outdoor seating. The moon was full, and just rising over the horizon, and the multi-colored lights reflected in the water. It was beautiful. After a good walk, we chose a bar, and sat upstairs on the balcony for a drink. After talking for about an hour, Ho drove me back to my hotel in her car. During the evening we had talked about the Great Wall, and she offered to take me there in her car. We exchanged email addresses, and she gave me her telephone number so I could get in touch with her.

When I got back to the hotel I started chatting with Yael, a mid-twenties Swiss woman traveling alone in China. We were outside the hotel and I was sipping some Jack Daniels from a hip-flask when a young Chinese man came up to us. Yael greeted him in a friendly way, she had met him earlier that day. I offered some whiskey, the man took it, sniffed it, but didn't drink any, and gave it back to me. He didn't speak any English, but tried to speak to us in Chinese. Yael tried to understand, using her phrase book, but we couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. After about 15 minutes of trying to understand one another, he just grabbed my arm and pulled me to follow him. We followed him inside, up to the top floor of the hotel, and he took us to his room. He had posters of Bruce Lee on the wall, a large television, a refrigerator, and a small bed. He pointed to Bruce Lee, and made thumbs up, and then extended his index finger upwards, indicating "Number-1". He showed us a few Kung Fu moves, and then put a Bruce Lee movie on. He got out a bottle of Chinese hard liquor called Baijo, a tray of tomatos, two bottles of ice-tea, and two champagne glasses. He poured shots for Yael and I, but he didn't have a glass for himself, so he used a metal saucepan with two handles. He said, "Campay," Chinese for cheers, and we clinked our glasses against his saucepan, and he upended the saucepan, obscuring his face. We had four rounds of shots before we had to tell him to stop. He offered us oranges, and at one point took my flask and filled it with Baijo, mixing it with the Jack Daniels (!). Soon we were pretty tipsy. We "talked" for about an hour, asking him questions about his family (he had a two-year old child living in Shanghai, but was not married), and his job, using Yael's phrase book to translate. Eventually we told him (using sign language) we had to go to bed, and he insisted on giving us the rest of his oranges. I took one, saying "Shi Shia" (Chinese for "thank you"), but he insisted, putting another one into my jacket pocket, and giving Yael three more. Every time I have seen him since, we greet with big smiles, and he gives me thumbs up.

Note: The exchange rate is roughly 8 RMB to $1 USD.

The following day I didn't do much. I went with Yael to buy tickets for the train to Shanghai. The ticket office was not far away from my hotel, so we walked most of the way, which took a long time. At the ticket office, they said that it was too soon to buy train tickets: you can only buy them four days in advance. They said that I could come back at 7 PM that evening to buy tickets. We made an a plan to meet at 6:30 PM and to buy the tickets together, and Yael went to the police station to try to extend her visa. I wanted to buy SIM card for my telephone and a pair of pants (I'm used to traveling in hot places, so I only had one pair of pants, and was ill-prepared for the cool weather of Beijing).

I went to a large shopping mall, and was completely overwhelmed. I went all the way to the top of the 8 story monstrosity. The variety of goods, the large number of people, and the size of the shopping mall was too much for me. I don't really like shopping in the first place (except for computers and cameras), and to be so overwhelmed made it much worse. I tried to buy a pair of cargo pants. The woman wanted 480 RMB, roughly $60 USD. I was blown away: I could buy the same pants in Cambodia for about $5 USD. So, I offered her the equivalent of $5 USD, to which she responded 200 RMB. We negotiated for awhile, and she dropped the price to 100 RMB. I offered 60 RMB, but immediatly realized I had bargained too high, the pants weren't worth that much. I turned and walked away, and they called after me several times, ready to agree to the price, but I knew it was too much, so I kept going. I left the shopping center and walked out onto the street, thinking in my mind, "What the fuck am I doing in China? I've gotta get out of here."

I saw a pair of khaki's on sale for 59 RMB, and partially out of frustration and partially necessity, I decided to buy them. I tried to bargain, but they wouldn't negotiate, so I bought them anyway. I was impressed with the service I received at the store. A salesperson measured my waste, chose the correct size, then measured my leg, and took the pants to be hemmed, all included in the 59 RMB price. 10 minutes later I walked out of the store with a new pair of pants.

Next I bought a SIM card for my telephone. At the China Mobile office they showed me a list of numbers for 80 RMB, and another for 60 RMB. I couldn't see any difference in the numbers, they were all long and difficult to remember, so I chose a number off the cheaper list, and asked if they would sell it for 50 RMB. To my suprise, she agreed to discount the number. I spent another 50 RMB on minutes for the card, and I was up and running with my own Chinese SIM card. I immediately sent SMS messages to my English friend Ben and Ho, the Chinese woman. I caught a bus back to my hotel (the busses are very confusing here), and felt much better by the time I got back to my room. I felt like I was finally getting a grip, even if very small, on this new country and culture.

That evening I met Yael and we went back to the ticket office and succesfully bought our tickets for the train. Then we parted ways, and I went to visit my English friend Ben at his apartment. I walked to the subway line, rode the subway, and then walked to his apartment, which took a total of about an hour in the end. His apartment was a nice two bedroom on the fourth story which he shared with a young man from Newzealand. We drank beer, ate bacon sandwiches, and talked until about 3 in the morning. At that point the subway was closed, so I slept on the couch. I awoke the next day at 12 noon as the Newzealander was leaving (Ben had already left for work at 7:30 that morning). He left me in the house, saying I could stay as long as I liked, and to help myself to whatever I wanted. I washed the dishes and tidied up the living room, wanting to be a good guest, and then headed back to my hotel. Ho called me and asked if I wanted to meet her. I said yes, but I needed some time to go to my hotel and get my stuff together.

I met Ho around 4 PM and she drove us to the Summer Palace outside of Beijing. It was a beautiful, large park with several lakes, and weeping willow lined walkways snaking around the water and intersecting with one-another. In the middle of the park was a hill covered with cypress trees and Buddhist temples at the top. The temples were closed, so I couldn't go inside. The park was beautiful, lots of trees, flowers in bloom, and the large lakes. The wind was high and the lakes were choppy, looking like an ocean. Some men were swimming in one part of the lake, which looked very cold. We stayed until after sunset, and then drove back into town. We went to a Japanese restaurant and had Japanese noodles with a small slice of pork and half an egg, cold tofu with ginger, and a western style salad. We made a plan to go to the part of the Great Wall called Jaincou (or Huanghuan) the following day. We went to a super market to buy pic-nic items for our lunch, and then Ho took me back to my hotel.

When I got back to my room, three new guests had arrived: two early twenties Norweigan girls, and a 20 year old man from Newzealand. They were drinking beer, and chatting in a lively, funny conversation. I joined in, and eventually offered the rest of the Baijo-Jack Daniels blend, which the man accepted, but the girls declined. We stayed up until about 1 AM, something I would regret the next day.

The next day I woke with the sour taste of alcohol in my mouth, and a headache. I was scheduled to meet Ho in a few hours to head to the Great Wall, where I was in for a long, dangerous walk up the mountain...

(continued in part 2)

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