China in a Nutshell

A very flexible Chinese man at Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing

Sara's Top 4:
Hiking the Great Wall
Biking in Yangshuo
Shanghai
Cruising the Yangtze

David's Top 4
Hiking the Great Wall
Shows in Yangshuo and Beijing
Eating Peking Duck
Exploring the neighborhoods of Shanghai

I have been putting off writing this China in a Nutshell post for quite awhile.  In China we saw and experienced one reality, heard about another from locals, and then saw an entirely different one being presented by the media.  A few weeks ago my sister sent me a link to a broadcast of This American Life about Americans living in China. I listened to it last week and it finally gave me the motivation to sort through my thoughts and write this post. 

~Sara

Impressions:  China is complicated.  We were surrounded by beautiful scenery, interesting culture, and some wonderful people.  It would have been easy to just chalk China up as a fantastic place to visit.  Yet we knew that we were in a country with serious civil rights issues including no government transparency, no freedom of speech, censorship, and a strict one-child policy, just to name a few.  But if we focused only on those negatives, we would have missed much of the beauty that China has to offer.  The real China has large doses of both the beauty and the repression.

People:  We had nice talks with a few locals who were very eager to tell us their views on life in China.  We also met some Belgians who had worked in Shanghai for three years.  We heard some really interesting things that gave us a bit of insight. 

A Chinese man in his 50's:

• China is 100 years behind the US.
• The Chinese government is a feudal system.
• It will be at least 20 years before the one-child policy is loosened for anyone living in cities.
• Our President is an emperor and he lives in the new Forbidden City (referring to Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Communist Party of China and official residence of the President).
• It is an open secret who our next President will be.

A Chinese woman in her 20's:

• It is difficult to be accepted at a university due to a lack of space and the education system needs to be improved.  
• Housing is extremely expensive and this is causing a real problem for young people who want to buy houses.
• China is 40 years behind the US.

A Belgian couple in their 50's who lived in Shanghai for 3 years:

• Young people who graduate from universities in Shanghai must have jobs immediately after graduating or they will sent back to the villages where they are from.
• A woman at my office was pregnant with her second child and was forced to have an abortion.  Our employer gave her a two-week paid vacation for the procedure, but she was very upset.

The Chinese people as a general rule are very nice and friendly, but there certainly is a language barrier that often makes in depth communication difficult.  We also found missing some of the social norms that we take for granted back home.  Littering is rampant.  Cutting in line, taboo at home, is accepted in China.  We often found ourselves physically blocking others from cutting in front.  We also found people a little "pushy" getting off subways, even before arriving at a station.  Another especially dangerous example of this phenomenon is the driving in China.  Chinese drivers in Shanghai and Beijing routinely run red lights, and we absolutely could not count on a car to yield to pedestrians.  We did not find out an explanation for these observations, but with such a large population, perhaps people find it necessary to be a little "assertive" in order to get ahead.

Food:  Delicious!  After the amazing food in Hong Kong, we weren't expecting to enjoy the food in China as much as we did. The vegetables were fresh and varied in every dish and the seasonings and sauces were excellent.  The high point was a fabulous Peking duck dinner with a friend of David's from law school who lives in Beijing.  Other highlights were braised aubergine (eggplant), dumplings, and stir fry dishes. The food is also cheap (Peking duck excepted) -- think typical meals between $2 and $10 for two people.

Some crazy things we saw:  It isn't as if we haven't seen crazy things everywhere we have visited, but we just seemed to seem them a lot more often in China.  Below are a few that we won't forget:

• Everyone spits (and smokes) everywhere in China.  The worst we saw was a woman spitting directly on the floor inside the Yichang airport.  Yuck!  As if the spitting wasn't enough, just before the spit comes a few seconds of a throat-clearing, hacking noise.  As soon as we would hear the noise, we would both quickly look around in all directions to make sure we weren't about to be spit upon accidentally.
• In our opinion, the baby bottoms in China are all missing a critical piece: the crotch!  Some of the babies wear diapers that stick out the crotchless section, but most have nothing covering their bottoms.  The reason for this is simple: parents frequently take their children to the bathroom in public by holding them over a gutter and encouraging them to go.  Not wearing a diaper and having crotchless pants certainly makes the job easy!
• Grown men wearing silk pajamas out on the streets was a common sight in China and another one that we will probably never get used to!
• Visiting China is a good way to feel like a celebrity!  Many times on most days we would look around to find camera lens pointed right at us.  At a lookout at the Longji rice terraces we had a group of Chinese men turned (their backs to the view) with cameras mounted on tripods and long lenses trained on us.  It took a bit of getting used to, but it wasn't long before we just used this as a chance to start singing "Papparazzi."
  
  

Censorship in China

We had never really experienced censorship before, but as soon as we arrived in China, we ran headfirst into China's internet firewall.  We lifted the laptop lid and typed in http://reedsaroundtheworld.blogspot.com.  Nothing.  Facebook?  Same thing.  All of a sudden censorship was real to us.  The Chinese government was in control of the content that we could see on the internet, including our blog, social media, and certain news websites.

Wi-fi in China -- four bars, no Facebook!

 
Censorship wasn't limited to the internet either.  On our last day in Beijing we were walking across Tiananmen Square.  In front of us was a guy carrying a small pamphlet in his hand.  A police officer walked up to him, and without a word, took it from him and tore it up.  We couldn't read what it said but can only assume that the paper included some sort of "undesirable" message.  We have even heard stories of Lonely Planet guidebooks being taken, but from what we saw, tourists were mostly ignored.

We anticipated the internet censorship, so before we arrived I subscribed to a VPN that would allow us to get around the firewall.  Basically it works by connecting to a server outside the country (in our case Germany), and routing all of the internet through that server.  The connection is encrypted so it is kind of like a "tunnel" to the outside world.  I think that it will be very hard for China to keep up its internet policies in the long term (Google's CEO recently said the same thing).  It will be difficult to stay in front of new technology even if the people don't demand a change first.

-David

All Aboard!

Leg 1: Beijing to Ulaan Baatar; 1,356 km/843 miles; 29 hours, 15 minutes



Arriving at Beijing Railway Station



Our train, the Trans-Mongolian

The trip from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar flew by!  As soon as we hopped on our car and found our cabin we knew that we were in for a treat.  After our Indian train experiences, this was 5-star luxury! 

Sara relaxes in our cabin

We shared our 4-berth cabin with only one other traveler, a Swiss girl who is staying in Mongolia for a couple of weeks.  We passed the time chatting, looking at the ever-changing countryside from our huge picture window, reading, and hanging out in the dining car.

Lunch in the dining car with fellow travellers Ginette and Anita

It was amazing how quickly the scenery changed from the green mountains north of Beijing, through the arid Gobi Desert, and finally into the rolling grasslands of the Mongolian steppe.  Once we reached the Mongolian border, I think that we saw more horses than trees from the train window!

Mountains of China, north of Beijing, passing by our window

The Gobi Desert in China before reaching the Mongolian border

The train left the station at 8:05 a.m. on Saturday and arrived at 1:20 p.m. on Sunday.  Late Saturday evening we reached the China-Mongolia border.  The border crossing took five hours!  Not only did customs officials check passports and search the train from end to end, but the train actually disappeared from the platform for over an hour so that the railroad could change all of the wheels (bogies).  China uses a standard-gauge track, whereas Russia and Mongolia use a wider gauge.  Apparently the Russians decided to use a wider gauge to make foreign invasion more difficult!

In front of our train as we wait to cross the China-Mongolia border

We were having so much fun on the train that we were a little sad to see the outskirts of Ulaan Baatar appear on the horizon.  It’s okay though, because we have four more legs to go on our way to St. Petersburg.

The outskirts of Ulaan Baatar outside our window

Hitting the Wall

The Great Wall Marathon happened just a few weeks before we visited.  "Hitting the wall" must have a little additional meaning for that tough course.  The course markings were still visible here and there.

Course markers for the Great Wall Marathon

And we're off!

This morning begins an epic train journey across Asia from Beijing to St. Petersburg.  We have a lot of ground to cover over the next three weeks -- 4,735 miles (7,621 km) to be exact.

Our journey begins this morning with a 36 hour leg on the Tran-Mongolian from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar.  After a few nights in Ulaan Baatar and out on the Mongolian steppe we join with the Trans-Siberian to Moscow and St. Petersburg.  We have a lot of ground to cover with quite a few stops planned along the way.  These next three weeks are going to be adventure!

Can you believe this?

Eleven women on one bike -- amazing!

Eleven women on a bike at Chaoyang Theatre in Beijing

That's almost twice as many as these folks in Cambodia!  The acrobatics show at Chaoyang Theatre was amazing.  The theatrical aspects were not quite as impressive as Cirque du Soliel, but the acrobatics were every bit as good.  If this show is any indication, the Chinese gymnasts could be tough to beat in London this summer!

Beijing

In Beijing there is so much to do.  Too much to do really.  We arrived worn out after three long days of hiking, so we knew that we couldn't see it all.  We made a list of priorities: the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven Park -- and we stuck to them.  We also planned to go to an acrobatics show (an anniversary gift to Sara from David) and to enjoy an evening in the hutongs, small neighborhoods with narrow alleyways that dot the city. 


Sara's favorite spot in Beijing was Temple of Heaven Park.  In her words "a haven for hobbies."  The majority of the locals in the park were 60 and older and they were all engaged in some sort of fun activity.  Tai Chi, playing cards, dancing, paddle ball, hacky sack, and singing just to name a few!

David joining in the fun and playing paddle ball in the park.  He did really well - those tennis skills coming handy!

David found Tiananmen Square most interesting because it provides a transparent glimpse into the Chinese police state.  Our first attempt to visit the square was thwarted by police and soldiers who were quickly and efficiently emptying the square without explanation.  We think that it had something to do with Vladimir Putin's visit for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.  In any event, no one but marching troops were allowed near the square.  We went back the next day and were able to walk around the square, but the police presence was ubiquitous.  There were uniformed and plain-clothed officers everywhere.  We definitely watched what we said.  Most Chinese citizens were searched as they neared the square.  Tourists -- at least those that appeared not to be Chinese -- were waved on through.  We saw one man walking along in front of us carrying a piece of paper.  An officer walked up to him, snatched it from his hand, and tore it up in front of him.  We can only imagine what would have happened were he wearing a "Free Tibet" t-shirt.  Before we had read about it and heard about it, but now we have seen it with out own eyes.  The oppression in China is real.  Just visit Tiananmen Square.

Tian' Anmen Square Great Hall of the People

Following the Yuan

We certainly didn't plan it this way, but it turns out that we have been following the Chinese yuan notes around China.

The picture on the 20 yuan note was taken in Yangshuo.

The picture on the 10 Yuan note was taken along the Yangtze River

The 100 Yuan note shows the Great Hall of the People.  Excuse the terrible picture -- there is about 400 meters of thick Beijing smog between the camera and the building.

The Great Wall of China

Hiking on the second day in the Gubeikou section of the Wall.  Sara is now a "hiking pole hiker" until she can go a few months without spraining an ankle!

Wow!  The Great Wall is enormous.  You really have to see it to believe it.  We only covered a tiny bit of it, 20 miles, over three days of hiking.  Along the way we enjoyed a sunrise, a sunset, and three picnics.  We probably saw fewer than 20 other people during our three days on the Wall, so it felt like we had it all to ourselves.  It was perfect!

On our first day we hiked mostly along a wild and unrestored section of the Wall starting at Jiankou.  At the end of the day we reached the huge restored section at Mutiyanu, so we had a taste of both the Wall as it used to be and the Wall as it is today.  That first night we stayed at a local farmer's guesthouse and ate way too many noodles!

We spent our second day hiking the Gubeikou section of the Wall.  It was especially interesting because there is a portion of the Wall that is closed because it borders a Chinese military base.  We had to leave the top of the Wall and walk through some corn fields to get around the closed portion.  We could hear a bunch of firing from the range on the base and at one point some soldiers patrolling the top of the wall yelled something to us.  As David pointed out, "it's been 600 years since the Wall was built and the Chinese are still patrolling it!"  We spent our second night in Jinshanling and walked back up to the Wall to catch a nice sunset after dinner.

On the third day we were up at 4:15 a.m. for sunrise.  It was spectacular!  Thank goodness, or we would have been disappointed after getting up so early.  After a picnic breakfast we enjoyed perhaps the most spectacular views of the whole trip as we hiked to the western edge of the Simatai section of the Wall.

We think that it was a good decision to spend three days on the Wall, giving us enough time to explore it in depth.  We loved spending the majority of our time on the totally authentic, unrestored sections.  Our guide from Great Wall Hiking was with us the whole time.  He taught us a bunch, kept us from getting lost, and added a lot to our trip.  It is hard to describe the incredible views and scenery of the Great Wall.  Definitely a Wonder of the World!

Our first day was very foggy.  It gave a mysterious feeling to the wall!

Climbing down a steep section on the third day

Sunrise at the Great Wall

Sunrise over the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall

Sunrise over the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall

Fast as a Bullet

Our trip from Shanghai to Beijing was a cool new experience for both of us.  We took the bullet train, topping out at over 300 km per hour (almost 190 mph)!  At precisely 2:00 p.m., the train doors closed and we were off.  Less than five hours later we were in Beijing and had covered 1,265km/786 miles.  Quite a trip!

David in front of the train after arriving in Beijing

A speedometer in our car on the train

Goodbye Shanghai

Shanghai is a really great city!  There is enough to see, do, and eat that it would be impossible to get bored, but there isn’t so much to do that you feel the need to rush around and see it all.  At least that’s how it felt to us.  We loved walking around different neighborhoods in the city.  Some of our favorites were the East Nanjing Pedestrian Street, which was right next to our hotel; People’s Park; Old Town; and the French Concession.