In English: Our time in China

Since all of our posts have been in German, here is a summary of our time in China IN ENGLISH, a typed version of a long letter I wrote (handwritten, that is, it took me a good six hours!) to some very good friends of ours towards the end of our time in China. A bit late, I know, but we do have lots of non-German speakers reading occasionally who’ve had to piece together what we are doing via pics…

These past six weeks have been incredibly interesting but equally strenuous. Having chosen to travel from Beijing to Hong Kong, roughly along the East coast, it meant that we were almost always in cities with a population of at least the same size as Switzerland, more often far more. I wouldn’t want to miss a day of it all, but towards the end I was really starting to feel the need for fresh air, wanted to see the sun directly (not through smoggy haze) and -most importantly- missed the blue sky!!

That said I have gone through all four stages of culture shock I read about in one of my travel books: 1) Euphoria – everything is new/fascinating, 2) Hostility – the novelty of the new wears off, differences start to irritate, 3) adjustment – beginning to feel more comfortable in new lifestyle, and 4) adaptation – occurs when one loses the “you and us” or “them and us”-feeling.

The first of the phases hit me/us the moment we got to Beijing, and lasted for a good two weeks. In Beijing, the smog didn’t seem as awful as we had read (though we almost never saw the sun) and -thrilled that we had made it to China- we went about discovering the capital. We stayed with Marcus, a German engineer who had been living in Beijing for two years working as a Kindergarten teacher, teaching 2-year olds English (one lesson/day!!). Quite fluent in Mandarin and living in a part of town where mostly Chinese people live, he was able to give us a first insight into the “real” China, away from tourists and English menus. We ate the most delicious food at local hole-in-the-wall places, and enjoyed Beijing duck on more than one occasion, all the while discussing Chinese culture and customs.

Beijing struck me as being the most “Chinese” of all the big cities and has so much to offer culturally. We visited the Forbidden City, strolled around the Summer Palace, witnessed the flag-raising ceremony on Tiananmen Square at dawn, and saw many temples (which -sadly- kind of all looked the same to me…) After a full week in Beijing we took a train southwest to the city of Xi’an to see the Terracotta Army. Having been enormosly impressed by the Great Wall (which we saw on a day-trip from Beijing) the stone warriors took second place, but it was certainly worth visiting. It is hard to imagine the size of an emperor’s ego who has something like that built. In Xi’an we also enjoyed a first Chinese muslim market, sampling delicious street food while feeling like we had just jumped into another world. At the hostel in Xi’an we ended up meeting and getting to know three other couples (one each from New Zealand, Scotland, and Sweden), and decided to cruise down the Yangtze river together. I have probably mentioned the cruise in a postcard I sent you, our very memorable time on a Chinese “luxury” liner, an experience all the way, not one I would want to relive. By the time we got off the boat, phase 2 was hitting hard. Having gone 14 days straight of daily sightseeing, new food, new everything, we had planned to take the 3 days/2 nights on the “luxury vessel” to relax and rest. We did not know however, that R&R on a Chinese boat is simply impossible. People seemed to be constantly stressing about, screaming from deck to deck, and -this most likely kicked off the phase- throwing their trash in the river. I was told later by a French guy living in Kunming that the Chinese throw their trash on the street because there are so many people employed to sweep the streets, which there are.This does not however justify throwing trash in a river… especially when there were more than enough trash bins on the boat. Instead, I saw (on two occasions) a full-grown man urinating in the trash bin, in broad daylight!! The constant spitting was easy to get used to, chalking it up to cultural differences… I have not managed the same with the bin-peeing. Throughout the whole tour we had overcast weather, and living in a box for three days probably didn’t help either. The day trip we took on a smaller boat to see the “Little Three Gorges” was wonderful (ie the scenery was special), but during the whole trip (three hours in total), the tour guide was yelling into the microphone. Incredibly valuable information for anyone who understood her, to us her monologue was something that came close to torture. Trying to escape to the open deck was worthless, as it was broadcast up there as well! Following two hours of what we were told was a history lesson and a lesson in local folk tales she spent an hour selling souvenirs. I am not exaggerating: This woman (who at this point deserved to be completely hoarse) picked up each and every souvenir they were selling and spent the following 5-10 minutes explaining/lauding etc. Each keyring got a multi-minute lecture, every picture of every book was held up to show. It was simply surreal. People loved it though: I saw one woman get up after every explanation, ask for money from her husband (who didn’t seem to be as pleased to be spending his wages on souvenirs) and then run back to the souvenir-counter asking for that item. In the end she had a big bag full of trash, an unhapy husband at her side, and was beaming, completely satisfied.

In general I get the feeling that many Chinese are very much into what they have material/stuff-wise, and what job they have. Maybe because so many generations before them have had little to nothing? Most people don’t have any vacation at all, so the people on our cruise were from the ever-growing middle class, on one of their two one-week vacations (those who do get vacations get a week around October 1, their national holiday, and one other week). We figured that maybe they wanted to document (as best possible) their vacation to be able to prove to others what they had so far in life… who knows. The cruise left us quite drained and tired. We got stuck in a city called Wuhan for a few (rainy) days, having been unable to get train tickets, and by the time we left Wuhan, I wasn’t feeling all too well. En route to Shanghai, which we were traveling to with our friends Chris and Marta (the New Zealanders) we made two stops: First we spent a day in Suzhou biking around town (in most big cities there are seperate bike lanes, which is great), going to various gardens (the city is famous for gardens) and tasting teas at a local tea-shop. We also spent a day in Nanjing visiting the Nanjing Memorial, which left us all a bit depressed. And then Shanghai. The first five days all I saw was the room and the bathroom of our hostel. On our third day there -determined to not waste time in that interesting city- I insisted we go to one of the art museums, only to find myself having to make a run for the bathroom on every floor, which was a desaster. Having decided to not take antibiotics (I want to save those for India) but to wait out my first case of food poisoning, we went to a local electronics market, bought a cheap little portable DVD player and then -for the equivalent of maybe $20- bought a huge stack of DVDs. All of a sudden, all was bearable 🙂

Following almost a week of DVDs I was finally stable enough to go out, so we enjoyed a few days getting to know Shanghai. The European influence was rather obvious and in many districts Shanghai felt very un-Chinese, but we had fun strolling along the “Bund” and seeing the amazing skyline. After weeks of eating Chinese food only we gave in and had a first pizza, and (since I was exhausted from the toilet ordeal) went to a local massage parlor, where we found the deal of a lifetime. For RMB 100 (the deal/special applied if you went between noon and 6 pm) we got first a one-hour foot massage, followed by a one-hour full body massage. “Died and gone to heaven’, our motto of that day. Our 30-day visa coming to an end, we decided to head straight to Hong Kong from Shanghai. Trains being about 1/3 the price of flights and having splurged on the DVD-player we chose the train ride and arrived in Hong Kong -having left China now officially, but still in it- 20 hours later.

All in all we’ve spent 98 hours in trains… it’s a big country! Most of the time we have traveled on so-called “hard sleepers”, which is the 2nd of four possible comfort levels. “Soft sleeper”, the top comfort, means one is is an enclosed compartment with two bunks, four passengers total. One can sit up in bed in this class. “Hard sleeper” means two triple-bunks to a compartment which is open. It is impossible to sit up in bed, but the mattress is no harder than in soft sleeper, and since people are very polite and this comfort class seems to not attract people who smell, that is the one we always took. For very hard-core travelers there is also the option of doing “soft seat” or “hard seat”, but since we have mostly traveled through the night and the quality of my sleep isn’t the same when I am sitting (none of the seats have armrests…), we’ve mostly gone for sleeper. We did however chose “hard seat” once, for a 13-hour ride, just to have tried it. The fact that it really was, as they claim, a hard seat (my behind started hurting after about 4 hours, but it was doable) with no armrests and half the width of a seat on any train in Europe would have been ok, but the seats were all at an incredibly exact 90 degree angle, which made me feel as if I was being made to lean forward. It was by far the most interesting train ride we enjoyed, as there were far more people than there were seats, which meant that I practically had someone sitting on my lap. Most migrant workers travel in that class, and it was interesting to listen to their heated conversations while trying to avoid being hit by their spit. Traveling “hard seat” was the only time we saw people spit in the trains…

In Hong Kong, it seemed to us as if we had left China completely. Living with a guy we met via couchsurfing, Sebastien, who lived right next to the in-part of town, Soho (on Hong Kong Island) we spent a few days surrounded by ex-pats, European restaurants and bars, and designer shops. Sebastien, who works as a pilot, isn’t too fond of Chinese food, so we enjoyed a good plate of Pasta (which we had not had since Phil made his signature Pasta on Kauai) and he showed us his favorite bars. One morning we hiked up to Victoria Peak, saving the money we would have spent on the cable car and instead investing it in water upon arrival. The weather in HK was quite warm, and it was very humid, so we were completely drenched in sweat after the ascent. The following afternoon we took the “Star Ferry” from Hong Kong Island over to Kowloon to have “high tea” at the Peninsula, something I had enjoyed years ago (I must have been about 11) in London on a special city-trip with mom. Having found my hiking boots to be slightly inappropriate I was wearing a new pair of silver flip flops, what I thought was perfect attire for such weather. Upon arrival at the Peninsula however I was discreetly and politely informed by a waiter, that the Peninsula afternoon dress code required me to wear closed-toe shoes. So very British… Since I had set my mind on tea, Phil and I hiked up the next road, found a mall (in every Chinese city there seem to be so many malls), and I bought myself a pair of plastic “Crocs”. The original model (it is a shoe made completely of plastic) is quite an eyesore (and people usually chose a bright, loud color like hot pink…) but I found a new model that looked like a ballerina-shoe and purchased a pair… in brown. About half an hour later, back in line waiting to be seated for high tea, I saw the sign re: dress code:”… no open-toe shoes such as sandals or flip-flops, no plastic shoes” — obviously they meant “Crocs”!! Luckily, the waiter seating us did not know about my new model of “plastic shoe” and we were able to enjoy a selection of tea, scones, sandwiches, and chocolates. A rare treat! One of the main reasons why we had chosen to go to Hong Kong was to get new visas for the Chinese mainland, which ended up being unexpectedly easy: A filled-out form, two passport pictures and money, and we were able to pick it up four days later. Almost too easy really, considering we had had to provide a complete itinerary, including hotel reservations, when we applied in CH (before the Olympics).

Since Sebastien was working during the last two days of our stay we moved from plush Soho over to Kowloon and took a room in a guest house in “ChungKing Mansions”. Chungqing Mansions is a huge complex, rather run-down, in which the first two floors are solely occupied by small, slightly questionable cell phone stores owned by Indians or Africans. A constant flow of people (mainly men), Indian food being sold in the corridors, people selling phone cards, it was a world unto itself. Oddly enough, we had not seen a single African during our time in China, and maybe only a handful of Indians. Not even on Hong Kong Island, but here there was a huge building packed to the brim; a wonderful contrast! Many men were dressed in long robes, muslim caps on (there was a mosque around the corner), which added to the exotic feel.We were told that if you went up via one of the main staircases (it was quite a labyrinth) you could get anything from birth certificates to new passports. Never tried it, but I doubt that is simply a rumor. On our last evening we went to the Culture Centre to see a production by the Netherlands Danse Theater. Three pieces of very, very modern ballet (which prompted a heated discussion between Phil and myself over what constitutes “art” in danse), one of which was set to music by Phil Glass, a composer I really like. I was mesmerized and loved it, though the venue itself was a bit of a disappointment. The centre is quite an old building, and while we had great seats and saw the whole stage, their sound system was abysmal (I hope I am spelling that correctly…). I had expected more from a venue in Hong Kong, but maybe we are just too well-off in CH. We also took a ferry over to one of the surrounding islands, Lantau, where we hiked around and visited a monastery that was famous for its big bronze Buddha sitting atop a little hill.

Following an evening of modern dance, new visas in hand, we headed back out into China. Headed to Guilin we were unable to get same-day train tickets, so we got stuck in a city called Shenzhen for a night. Just outside of Hong Kong but officially mainland China this city was/is known for its malls , and becase it is one of the wealthiest cities in China. At the same time it has one of the highest crime rates and a huge amount of people working/living there illegally. While walking back to our hotel after dinner, I suddenly looked back to find a pickpocket’s hand in my bag. Caught in time he got nothing. During our one night in Shenzhen we allowed ourselves the luxury of a hotel room, which was pure fun since we had gotten so used to hostels. A three-star establishment (worthy of more in my oppinion) our room was wonderful, though a bit odd. The whole bathroom was made to be something like an aquarium, ie all in glass, so one could take a shower while watching TV. I wondered how the interior decorator had justified that one. Next day (Shenzhen had nothing to offer really) we took a train to Guilin, where we wanted to take a one-day boat ride down the Li river. At this point, we were both pretty fed up with cities: Apart from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong they have all felt rather dreary and haven’t been pretty at all. Interesting to see, but no place to while away. Museums in China haven’t been up to world standard (information always seems to be oddly tainted and left unquestioned) and as I mentioned, the temples start to look somewhat similar. Due to the Cultural Revolution a lot of cultural artifacts have been lost or destroyed, and the Chinese have an odd way of restoring things. Rather rebuilding something and lighting it up at night with millions of different colorful light bulbs than preserving it in the state it is in. In Guilin we took the boat ride down the river and enjoyed the beautiful Karst scenery, treasuring a few hours of peace and quiet. Getting closer and closer to Yunnan, the province we have heard so many wonderful things about, we spent the following days heading straight there. First to Kunming (all of a sudden -even though it was a city- the air seemed fresher) and then on to Dali, in the heart of the Yunnan province.

Finally – after six weeks- we have arrived in a place I could spend months in! This is what I imagined, when I thought about China, and here I am finding to phase 4. Dali is a town (population of under a million – heavenly!) at an elevation of about 2000m, very popular among travelers. The town is bustling with local markets (selling anything from living frogs to an interesting goat cheese which is a specialty here) and little shops selling Batik/tie-dye clothes (a local product). We spent a day in town, but have now found a little paradise up in Cangshan mountain, the mountain behind the town. Here, at an altitude of 3000m (we hiked up with daypacks, leaving all of our stuff at the hostel) we found the “Higher Land Inn”, a hostel that reminds me of a little hippie commune. Set around a garden are little houses with rooms in them (a total of seven rooms) and a lodge. While they do have electricity (and we were able to shower with hot water) there is no heating, so we have been quite cold lots of the time. Due to recent bad weather and rain, most travelers were probably not feeling like coming up here, so we have had the place completely to ourselves. The Inn is run by a girl (whose name I always mispronounce) whose family lives in Dali, and does a superb job, it is just wonderful! In the mornings we get porridge (I have re-discovered porridge while traveling… here they make it with bananas and raisins, and it is just the perfect way to start a long day), along with bread and honey and Yunnan coffee for Phil. The Chinese -odd as they are- have paved/cobblestoned not only the way up the mountain, but have done the same with each and every path along the mountain ridge, making the walking easy. Additionally, seeing the biz opportunity, they charge RMB 30/person to go up and re-named it the “Cloud Tourist Path”. Imagine someone charging money to go hike up any old little mountain in Switzerland!! We were told that there was a way around the entrance fee if we walked on an unmarked trail, but it must have been washed away by the rain as we were unable to find it. When we walked up the man guarding the other trail entrance (the official cobblestoned one), we saw him leave his post sitting at a wooden table, and go into a nearby hut. Grabbing the opportunity, we tried to run past him up the trail, but he must have sensed something as he came running up behind us screaming “hello, hello”. I was determined to keep walking, but Phil thought it rude and ended up turning around and paying him the equivalent of about $10. To have the privilege of walking up a mountain, not to go into a National Park or anything… sometimes they drive me mad!!! Afternoons we spent walking around, visiting a temple (a Daoist one, thogh I couldn’t determine what made it Daoist) that is run by a couple of “business men” who pass themselves off as Buddhist monks (we were warned by some locals not to give them any donations) and enjoying delicious sandwich lunches at the only other cafe on the mountain, which is run by a really friendly guy who not only makes a fantastic sandwich but also a great fresh chocolate-cashew cake and delicous banana smoothies. Evenings we have spent in the lodge, cold even though we have been wearing all our gear (thermo-underwear etc.), reading hundreds of old editions of English “National Geographics”, writing letters, and reading. Phil has been enjoying Jules Verne “20’000 Leagues under the Sea”, while I recently finished a short novel called “Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress”, by Daj Sijie, a Chinese filmmaker who now lives in France. It is about two boys who -during the Cultural Revolution- are sent to the countryside to be re-educated by peasants (which is something the writer survived himself) and disvover world literature. It’s been wonderful to have extra time for reading and most hostels sport little libraries where one can leave/exchange books already read. Next up for me is “Jane Eyre”, which I am really looking forward to. For dinner on both nights we ordered the “Family dinner”, which meant we got a plethora of local dishes, mostly vegetarian, which were simply amazing. Curries, tofu-dishes, vegetables cooked to perfection (I like them still a little crunchy). The girl, and the old man who shows up dring the day to cut firewood and who we have seen climb 8m high trees only to hang up there and cut away (he has got to be at least 50, though it is really hard to tell) dine with us, a lovely little dinner party (though mostly silent, except for occasional words between the two of them or the two of us). Also up here, they have some geese, a cat who has the oddest meow we have ever heard, a rabbit (called “Doa-fu”, sounds something like “Tofu”), and two sweet little dogs called “Do-doh” and “Do-doah”, same name to our ears, but there is a slight “a” at the end of the smaller ones name. I am usually a big-dog person, but it has been wonderful with these little ones, since they love sitting in my lap while I read or write. Another nice way of keeping warm (we tried to enourage them to lie on the floor so we could warm our feet, bt they didn’t think that was a great idea…).

Anyhow, tomorrow we head back down to Dali (I could stay up here for weeks) and then go to a town called Shaxi. The local minority, the Bai, are really friendly (I read that they value friendship as much as kinship) and Shaxi is supposedly one of the untouched towns. It is not mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide, which is a good sign. Dali itself is a bit overrun by tourists/backpackers, in particular those who like the fact that the Bai grow hemp. The Bai use most of it for clothes, and chew the seeds, though they do smoke it as well in long metal tubes. The government -probably because of the cultural background of this custom- tolerates it, which is quite unusual since they do implement the death penalty in other drug-related crimes, as they do with corruption (on one single day I read of three people having been sentenced to death…). I didn’t try smoking here (I just don’t like smoke in any way, shape or form) but did enjoy the Amsterdam-like feeling in one of the many coffee shops while enjoying a smoothie. At the moment we are planning to go from the Bai-village Shaxi on to Lijang, and then to Shangri-La, farther and farther into Yunnan. We have heard of a 3-day trek up into what is called the “Tiger Leaping Gorge”, which is something we would like to do. After that, we will be back in Dali (I am secretly hoping to spend a few more days up here, but it depends on how we like the other parts of Yunnan) before we head to the boarder town of Ruili, where we will hire a guide to take us across the boarder into Myanmar (Burma). Burma was not a country we had planned to visit, but while in Wuhan (after the Yangtze cruise) we met a man called Wolfgang (a German) and ended up spending a while afternoon talking to him. Wolfgang, about 50 years old and a teacher, usually works in Germany, but has it all worked out. His employer pays him 80% of his full salary during three years while he is working full-time, and then (to compensate) he can take a whole 12 months off, while his employer continues to pay him 80%. How great is that?? In any case he told us about a year he had recently spent working at a Burmese monastery in Mandalay, where he helped establish the vocational school for boys. Education in Burma -which is governed by military regime- is obtained via monasteries. This particular monastery is supported by a German organisation, and since we are interested in doing some volunteer work, he suggested we go there. The monastery, under these monks, is trying to be as worldly as possible, so besides teaching English in school they also have computer labs. Phil has been excited ever since, and has been going on about teaching them to use Linux, wondering what they have already, etc. I hope to do some English-teaching, but we’ll have to see whether it works out. We got a 30-day visa while in Kunming and are looking forward to the spontaneous adventure. It seems that very few travelers are going there, which is great for us. Anyhow, have finished x cups of Chai Tea while writing this and need to get some fresh air before dinner, so will close here.