Beijing,
China
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This is China! Too big to see it all in two weeks. Click on the above updates to see what we've visited in Beijing. Beware, they are long! Or click here to skip to the pictures.
July 22 Update - Beijing, China --Written by Laura
Our first day in Bejing turned out to
be a great day. God definitely took care of
us. After breakfast we took the hotel shuttle to downtown and
then
walked to Tinamen square. Since I had no idea how far things
were on
the map, I had no idea this would take us 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The
other thing I didn't grasp was the weather. It was in the 90's
yesterday morning with I don't know how much humidity. They say
this is
delightful compared to Hong Kong, but I was trying hard to adjust
and
not complain. Yucko. Very very heavy sticky air, I've never
experienced anything like this before. I wonder what SE Asia
will be
like when we're carrying our backpacks. I'm hoping this will
become
more normal the longer we're here cause today was weird. I felt
the
sweat dripping down my legs most of the day, so strange. We drank
a lot
of water and never needed to use the bathroom (which I think
was a
blessing considering how the books describe the them).
The square is amazingly huge and I don't
think very interesting. Red
Square envoked much more of a feeling for me, this square was
just big.
Loudspeakers blared Chinese songs as hundereds of Chinese tourist
groups
walked around. We'll do the Forbidden City another day, so we
just
explored the square yesterday. The thing we also noticed was
complete
lack of Westerners. I could count on two hands all the Westerners
we
saw the whole day out yesterday. We were expecting tons of backpackers
but saw hardly none. I've since learned that since Westerns aren't
allowed in the $10 and less rooms, most backpackers can't afford
to come
to Beijing. So we were stared at by most who walked by us. I
found it
quite amusing to be such a source of entertainment for so many
just as
I'm walking down the street. We started to feel like movie stars.
A
women had us stand with her kids while she took photographs (not
one but
two) of us with them. So weird!
Then we got lucky. No one really speaks
English here and so to our
surprise two young Chinese women stopped us and asked us where
were
from. The response of California made them ahh in delight. The
four of
us started talking, we were both so happy to chat with some Chinese,
and
soon they were helping us learn Chinese phrases. "I don't
want any" was
the one I wanted to learn first, lots of people trying us postcards
and
maps. As we talked the people around us would stop and stare,
we got
quite a crowd, and some would come right up and stand in our
circle as
if to participate, but said nothing. We chatted for about 20
min, then
we found out they were university art students and had an exhibition
going on today and would we like to come see it. We eagerly agreed
and
for the rest of the morning and early afternoon they were our
personal
tour guides. We saw their exhibits, learned about classical Chinese
painting and bought some beautiful paintings made by one of the
women.
Then we went to a traditional homestyle cooking restaurant and
had a
fantastic meal. It was so nice to have someone talk for you.
What was
so strange to us is how special we are treated here. We ate in
one of
the oldest shop & restaurant areas, along commercial street
where the emperor & his staff
shopped, so its quite busy with tourists. The restaurant we ate
in were
so honored that we Westerns were there, they gave us special
expensive
tea and charged us nothing. I thought since China had been open
to
tourists for the last 20 years this kind of thing would be gone,
but its
not. Everyone was very gracious and kind.
Rose and Cassie - Beijing Art Students
Aaron & Laura on Commercial Street
(Click here to skip to next set of pictures)
We then figured out the subway and it
took it back so we didn't have to
repeat the walk back to the hotel. After a long nap we went out
and met some expats who live in the city. We saw the other side
of life in Beijing, the expat side. There's 150K expats living
in Bejing, much larger than anything I experienced in Poland.
Chatting with the expats, I suddenly
felt all the fear about this trip intensely. I didn't know what
I was going to do. I think the familiar aspect of chatting with
Westerners triggered my realization about how far away from home
I was. All I wanted to do was to get back on the plane and come
home. We went to an American jazz bar/restaurant. I got to talk
with a lot of people who have lived in China for a while and
many other parts of Asia. They talked about some of the dangers
as well as the great stuff. This restaurant was amazing, it felt
like I was in downtown Palo Alto, down to every detail. The only
difference was the Asian staff and the Chinese characters on
the exit sign. I had cajun pork with mashed potatoes and gravy!
The chairs, floor, wooden decoration, pictures, and
jaz club were just like being in the States. Except for the fact
we never go to jazz clubs in the states! :-) We chatted and listened
to the music. When we had arrived, the US Ambasador to China
was just leaving. The people you are exposed to in such a small
community are amazing! Suddenly you're part of this elite group,
I felt this in
Warsaw too. The price for an entree was about 150 yuan, the huge
lunch we paid for the four of us that afternoon was 200 yuan.
Only the nouveau riche Chinese and expats could afford this exclusive
place. But it was wonderful to have such a taste of home. You'd
think I was gone for 5 months instead of 2 days the way I'm relishing
thigs like home.
So we had a great day with many gifts
handed to us. Now I'm just fighting to stay in the present in
my head, I'm starting to worry/plan (mostly worry) about the
rest of the trip. Vietnam is starting to scare me. I'm afraid
I won't be able to adjust to the lack of western
amenities. And I heard that Ho Chi Men city is very dangerous
and we have to be very careful for scams. I guess if I did Moscow
then I can do this, I now remember that it was very dangerous
when I was there. Isn't it funny, I go on this trip for adventure
but now all I want is for things to be easy. I'm not sure but
we also might be going through
culture shock too. Don't know what the 'symptoms' are.
July 25 Update - Beijing --Written by Laura
Its funny how many odd American movies you can watch on Asian HBO. We also had a money meeting, believe it or not. Over the last couple days we've taken a day off, hung out in our hotel room and then did some sightseeing. We saw the Lama Temple and the Temple of Confucius. The Lama Temple was the Disneyland of Buddhist temples, there were people everywhere, and it wasn't very reverent. And there was lots of official statements about Tibet, but that is another story. It was very beautiful despite the hot sun, humid weather, and pushy Chinese tourists.
Architecture of the Lama Temple
Yesterday we did the Forbidden City,
it was truely amazing. We rented an audio
cassette tour of the city, Roger Moore was the narrator, it was
great! Many areas are falling apart, but the size of it is just
amazing. It was really fantastic to walk in these areas where
the emporers walked and lived for many many years. We also saw
a display of pottery and bronze items, some of which were 3,330
years old. That blew my mind,
its the oldest things I've ever seen.
Laura and Aaron in the Forbidden City
(Skip to the next set of pictures)
Another interesting thing was that since
there were few Westerners there
(we probably saw 25 the whole day and it was packed with tourists)
many
stopped us to ask us to have their picture taken with them. They
would
also practice their English and welcome us to China and to Bejing.
It
was very touching. Some could only say hello and goodbye, but
others
would try to ask us what we were visiting and where we were from.
Today we're going to take a pedi-cab
(a very small bicycle cart) tour of
the Hunongs, the old housing districts of Beijing (many from
the 1500's
& older) which they have been tearing down to make room for
new growth of the city.
Soon they will be gone and we hear this is very interesting to
see.
Tomorrow we go to the great wall, through the help of Lonely
Planet,
we've figured out a way to see a section that hopefully won't
be packed
so full of tourists.
July 27 Update, Beijing, China -- Written by Laura
Well, I've survived a few more days in Beijing. Actually, sometimes its not been that bad, but sometimes I think I'm quite a trooper. I just wouldn't recommend this place as a great place for a relaxing vacation. Its interesting & fun, but not all the time. And its certainly not easy. We've decided that 4 days would be plenty to catch all the sites, but we've needed the extra time to get acclimated and slow down after our mad rush to prepare for the trip.
All the emails we've been getting have really been nice. It makes us feel connected to home and to all of you. I'm so glad that we brought a laptop, even though we probably won't be able to use it at all in some places.
Ok, so what have we been up to for the
last couple of days. We took the
tour of the Hutong via bicycle cab and it was great. This poor
petite
Chinese man rode our two fat asses up and down the hills of these
Hutongs. At some points he had to hop off and push us and the
bike.
Very embarrassing. Finally Aaron hopped off and helped push.
We felt
so sorry for the guy, we kept giving him bottles of water. The
Hutong
means alley and they are these alleys that started being built
about 700
years ago. They were built by statesmen and merchants then later
by
common people. They build their four houses in a rectangle with
a
courtyard in the middle and once you build many of these, it
creates
these small alleys that we rode through. They wound all over
the place
and one could get lost very easily. I doubt they have running
water, or
indoor plumbing inside them even now, so many people live and
eat
outside on the alleys. The pamphlet said that about 1/3 of the
Beijing
population lives in various Hutongs. Over the years instead of
one
compound being owned by a single family, now many families share
a
compound. They were very nicely kept and really fascinating to
see a
view into everyday family life in Beijing. I took a great photo
of
Aaron driving the bicycle cab and our driver sitting in it, check
it out.
Aaron earning his ride on the pedicab
There are 9 million bikes in Beijing
and almost everyone travels by bike or by foot here.
As a result, there's so many things done on the side of
the street. We've seen people getting a haircut as well as lots
of
'outdoor bike shops'. A guy has spare tires, tools and whatnot
on his
bike with him. He stops on a corner, spreads the stuff out and
is then
open for business.
Then on Wed we went and saw the Great
Wall. Of course we chose the
hottest day possible to do this (103 F) and we went to the least
touristed area
so we had to really hike to get to the top. We took a taxi early
that
morning to get to the hotel that offered the bus to this site,
its
called Simetai. There's many spots to visit the wall, but the
Lonely
Planet said this was the least touristed and least renovated.
China is a lot like Poland in that you
can't count on anything. We had
called two days in advance and put our names on a list for this
tour
(they only took Aaron's first name down). When we arrived there
were a
few who had also called but whoever answered the phone decided
not to
write down their names, so they didn't get to go, the tour was
fully
booked. So we got lucky we made it. While waiting for the bus
we met
an English couple who was, guess what, traveling around the world
for a
year! We sat next to them for the three hour bus ride to the
wall and
had a great time chatting. They had also just started, they stopped
in
Japan first and had seen more of China than we had. Their next
stop is
Vietnam as well so we exchanged email addresses and will probably
meet
up with them again. I actually got along quite well with the
woman,
Gail, and we chatted the whole way home as well, including the
hour we
waited for the missing person before we left back for Beijing.
She was
lots of fun, can you believe she and I chatted for 7 hours and
never ran
out of things to say. :-) Of course you can! Aaron thanked her
profusely since it meant he got a break from chatting. :-)
So how was the wall you ask? I'm afraid
I nearly suffered heat stroke
getting to the top, so that took some of the excitement away.
Aaron
loved it, but he didn't have as hard of a time hiking up as I
did.
There were many people who had nearly collapsed from the heat
along side
the way and the Chinese locals were very nicely tending to them,
fanning
them and giving them cold water. It was quite a steep hike and
it was
very very hot and humid. As we stood in line for the cable car
to take
us part of the way up, the sweat was just dripping down my body,
almost
as if I was in the shower. Of course all I hear is that Vietnam
is just
as hot but more humid. I can't even imagine what that will feel
like,
maybe like actually being in a shower. Also there has been this
thick
white clould/fog -like stuff hanging in the air for a few days,
so the
visabilty was bad. It was cool to be there and I'm glad I did
it,
but for me it wasn't the most amazing thing. I'm not sure what
I was
expecting. It is pretty incredible. I guess all the vendors at
your
heels trying to sell you postcards, books, ice creams (they have
large
refrigerators up there selling lots of cold stuff) kind of took
the
ancient feel away from me. The wall is so remote, I can't imagine
the
work it would take to staff it with soldiers all the time. I
realized
once we were on our way down that we forgot to take a picture
of us up
there! Due to the poor visability, none of the digital pictures
turned out.
The bus was full of Westerners, so I
got to speak German some and
learned from others about Vietnam and Laos. Everyone loves Vietnam.
I
hear the street vendors are horrible, but at the same time very
nice.
Everyone also says that Laos is beautiful. Many have been to
Cambodia,
but I just don't think we're going to go. We are thinking seriously
about going to Laos, maybe from Malaysia as a side trip. So we
made
some friends and got some info and had a nice time. The best
part was
the shower once we got into our air conditioned room last night.
I
don't think after my hottest dirtiest day of gardening, have
I ever
enjoyed a shower as much as last night.
Now we're going to catch a Chinese acrobatics
show at the theater tonight.
Oh I almost forgot. I have now used a squat toilet in China!
It
wasn't that big of a deal, but I didn't like the fact that there
were no
dividers between me and the woman using the second hole. Most
Western
women seem to prefer going to a secluded area outside instead
of paying
a yuan to use the public squat toilets. They said its cleaner
and
smells better. I have to agree with them. However, that will
only work
in the countryside.
July 30th Update Beijing, China --Written by Laura
The Chinese acrobatics show was really a lot of fun. Neither of us had seen Cirque de Solei so we don't have anything to compare it to, but we both thought it was a fantastic and well done show. The things they could balance and do was just amazing. Highly recomended for when you're next in town.
Well we're almost on to Vietnam. Now that we've figured out the city, found a great local restaurant close to the hotel (great lunches average $4 total) and gotten some basic Chinese down, we're leaving! We've got our $15 per night room in Hanoi reserved and they are picking us up at the airport, which we're grateful for. But now that we're on anti-malaria medicine, who needs a room?! Since I've been here longer, I realize that we were going through culture shock when we first arrived and I think I'm much more adjusted to Asia now. I'm looking forward to exploring Hanoi, everyone says the Vietnamese are extremely nice and friendly. Don't expect any web updates in the month of August, we may not be able to dial in with our laptops and only have access to our email at Cyber Cafes. Wish us luck!