That's what Richard Nixon apparently said when he saw the Great Wall. Well done Dick.
There was no need to worry about whether the Great Wall would be any good - it was fantastic. A small group of us walked between Jinshanling and Simatai, a beautiful quiet stretch of wall, on a perfect clear day. The wall is in varying states of repair, from the completely deteriorated to the recently rebuilt. What keeps a lot of the tourists away is the difficulty in walking this stretch - I was quite happy that ten kilometres would be an easy walk, but stupidly forgot that it's ten kilometres up and down the whole way, sometimes up and down seventy degree slopes of slippery rocks, where the steps have crumbled away. Before too long I was utterly knackered - what also didn't help was wearing a thirty litre day pack containing far too much crap I didn't need, which added a load of extra weight. Never doing that again, and take note Rob who's doing a sponsored Great Wall walk later this month.
After a couple of kilometres I was very nearly ready to give up and take a shortcut back to Simatai to wait at the minibus for the others with my tail between my legs - I'm so glad I didn't. I had the help of a local guide, a very sweet lady, who was despite being considerably shorter than me, as strong as an ox. She literally hauled me up some of the slopes.
The Chinese on the wall took the biscuit - we'd be puffing and panting and they'd be mooching up a slope towards you in the opposite direction, smoking a fag. For the Chinese, apparently any time is a good time to smoke a fag.
Finally, I am still not certain whether it is possible to see the Great Wall from space, but I have been reliably informed that it is possible to see Walthamstow Market from space, so I'm sure you can.
Now I'm in Shanghai, and staying at Simon and Charlotte's place. Shanghai is absolutely massive. I went up into the Pearl radio and TV tower yesterday and saw high-rises and skyscrapers stretching away to the horizon, or at least what looked like it could have been the horizon through the smog. It is huge. Shanghai is more Western in feel than Beijing, there's a little more English used to make things a tad easier, and the place feels a bit less quaint or museum-like than Beijing did in parts. I've been exploring on foot and using the subway.
I finally got to see Star Wars Episode III yesterday, fortunately in English - thank goodness George, you finally redeemed yourself and didn't give Jar Jar Binks a line.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Challenging food
What a strange time to be in Beijing - yesterday was the sixteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Passing by Tiananmen Square, hundreds of tourists packed the square, many probably unaware of the relevance of the date, but with more police and army than usual in case of demonstrations, and with no mention of the anniversary in the media.
Caroline is in Beijing for work, and we've been out seeing the sights. On Friday night we went out for some hip Beijing dining in the Houhai area, a sprawl of bars and restaurants surrounding a lake north of Tiananmen Square. Boats meander and candles float on the lake while, after getting through dozens of people offering massages and cigarettes, you walk along a busy, buzzing avenue packed with locals, ex-pats and tourists, trying to get a seat in any one of the packed-out eateries.
The Chinese enjoy eating offal - it's just when you see some menus you realise that the only part of a duck you can't eat is the quack, as they say. We checked out several menus, and some of the food on offer was, for a westerner, or at least me, challenging. Examples include duck jaw, barbecued duck tongue, goose intestines, barbecued bunch of chicken feet, beef muscle bunch and dog in jelly. Described in very clinical terms, and in often confusing Chinglish, this wasn't helping my appetite. I'm not criticising, I've got no right - while I can't see myself going for goose intestines, at least people make full use of animals here, and know what they're eating, when in the UK we get identically shaped lumps of reformed, mechanically recovered meat in cardboard boxes. I did find it strange that dog was on the menu when pet dalmations and terriers were playing with their owners around the lake.
I was told that the Chinese aren't too friendly, and aside from being grunted at by a few locals, so far I've not generally found it to be the case. Speak Chinese, or at least make the effort, smile, and you get a smile back. It is now compulsory to learn English in Chinese schools, so students and school kids approach you with anything from a hello-how-are-you to a long chat about what you do, where you're from and what they do - usually the people that approach you, as was the case in India, have a 'line' - they want you to buy their calligraphy or use them as a tour guide - but I've spoken with a couple of students and doctors who are just curious and friendly.
'Tourist attractions' are frustrating places. I went to the Forbidden City but didn't go in because it was hot and crowded, and I got into a foul mood and lost interest. Today, the Temple of Heaven was covered in scaffolding and it was raining - and there were crowds of tourists and touts offering fake watches and umbrellas. Major tourist attractions are like nightclubs to me - I pay to get in, and almost as soon as I get in I'm pissed off and itching to get back out - the Taj Mahal was exactly the same. Tomorrow I'm walking the Great Wall of China between Jinshanling and Simatai, so I'm hoping for sunshine and fewer people.
Old grumpy guts signing out!
Caroline is in Beijing for work, and we've been out seeing the sights. On Friday night we went out for some hip Beijing dining in the Houhai area, a sprawl of bars and restaurants surrounding a lake north of Tiananmen Square. Boats meander and candles float on the lake while, after getting through dozens of people offering massages and cigarettes, you walk along a busy, buzzing avenue packed with locals, ex-pats and tourists, trying to get a seat in any one of the packed-out eateries.
The Chinese enjoy eating offal - it's just when you see some menus you realise that the only part of a duck you can't eat is the quack, as they say. We checked out several menus, and some of the food on offer was, for a westerner, or at least me, challenging. Examples include duck jaw, barbecued duck tongue, goose intestines, barbecued bunch of chicken feet, beef muscle bunch and dog in jelly. Described in very clinical terms, and in often confusing Chinglish, this wasn't helping my appetite. I'm not criticising, I've got no right - while I can't see myself going for goose intestines, at least people make full use of animals here, and know what they're eating, when in the UK we get identically shaped lumps of reformed, mechanically recovered meat in cardboard boxes. I did find it strange that dog was on the menu when pet dalmations and terriers were playing with their owners around the lake.
I was told that the Chinese aren't too friendly, and aside from being grunted at by a few locals, so far I've not generally found it to be the case. Speak Chinese, or at least make the effort, smile, and you get a smile back. It is now compulsory to learn English in Chinese schools, so students and school kids approach you with anything from a hello-how-are-you to a long chat about what you do, where you're from and what they do - usually the people that approach you, as was the case in India, have a 'line' - they want you to buy their calligraphy or use them as a tour guide - but I've spoken with a couple of students and doctors who are just curious and friendly.
'Tourist attractions' are frustrating places. I went to the Forbidden City but didn't go in because it was hot and crowded, and I got into a foul mood and lost interest. Today, the Temple of Heaven was covered in scaffolding and it was raining - and there were crowds of tourists and touts offering fake watches and umbrellas. Major tourist attractions are like nightclubs to me - I pay to get in, and almost as soon as I get in I'm pissed off and itching to get back out - the Taj Mahal was exactly the same. Tomorrow I'm walking the Great Wall of China between Jinshanling and Simatai, so I'm hoping for sunshine and fewer people.
Old grumpy guts signing out!
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Learning Chinese
Repeat after me... "Ching gay wor yee-pying shwee". That is the way you say "Please give me a bottle of water". Useful if you're sweating your bits off walking around Tiananmen Square like I was today. Mandarin is becoming slowly less scary the more I'm using it, and the better I get with intonations, the less Chinese people are looking at me like I've just put a really hot bit of food in my mouth and I'm just trying to cool it down.
Beijing just got a whole lot better since I moved to the Far East International Youth Hostel, a very pleasant place in a HuTong area south of Tiananmen Square. It's clean, chilled-out, and the staff are lovely. The place has a bit more atmosphere than the Taiwan Hotel, my first stop, and the canned music there was starting to give me the willies.
Tiananmen Square is famous in the West for pretty much one thing, and it was odd to walk around the place today and see tourists from all over mingling with soldiers in a very relaxed atmosphere. I walked down the road I was fairly sure the student stood in front of the tank, and felt an odd sense of, for the want of a better word, history. The tanks aren't there now, China has moved on a fair way, but some images are burned into your memory, and standing in the place was an interesting experience.
So it's Beijing for a few more days, then I'm off down to Shanghai. Still to do, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall... I had to pinch myself today in Tiananmen Square, I couldn't quite believe I was here!
Beijing just got a whole lot better since I moved to the Far East International Youth Hostel, a very pleasant place in a HuTong area south of Tiananmen Square. It's clean, chilled-out, and the staff are lovely. The place has a bit more atmosphere than the Taiwan Hotel, my first stop, and the canned music there was starting to give me the willies.
Tiananmen Square is famous in the West for pretty much one thing, and it was odd to walk around the place today and see tourists from all over mingling with soldiers in a very relaxed atmosphere. I walked down the road I was fairly sure the student stood in front of the tank, and felt an odd sense of, for the want of a better word, history. The tanks aren't there now, China has moved on a fair way, but some images are burned into your memory, and standing in the place was an interesting experience.
So it's Beijing for a few more days, then I'm off down to Shanghai. Still to do, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall... I had to pinch myself today in Tiananmen Square, I couldn't quite believe I was here!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Different world
What was that I said about getting the hang of things travelling-wise? Pah. Spoke too soon. I still feel like an idiot tourist stumbling his way through a different culture hoping his clumsy English foppery and winning smile will get him through. China so far is attempting to humour me but it can only do so much, and it certainly doesn't understand my attempts at speaking Mandarin.
Hong Kong was great fun, but after a while, you notice how Westernised it really is. All the signs carry English translations of the Cantonese, most people speak English, and all kinds of food, all kinds of everything, are available. Hong Kong sometimes seems like one giant shopping mall, there are so many malls. As for the MTR, the Hong Kong Metro - it's brilliantly intuitive, simple, efficient and clean, kind of like London Underground might be in thirty-odd years. Ex-pats float around the place with something of an air of detached superiority, and go to ex-pat bars where they listen to cheesy Western music, and the older men mix with childlike Filipino girls with unfeasibly short skirts.
I had a great time in Hong Kong, but it was all down to Iris, my buddy from the India Aidcamp back in February. We went to some great places to eat, had a some great nights out, saw Hong Kong from the Peak, and her sister even had me round for dinner with the family. Iris is sadly not taking bookings for further tours.
Now, I'm in Beijing, after a twenty-four hour train ride from Hong Kong, and it seems like a different world. I got into Beijing without a place to stay, a foolish thing to do, but have found a hotel, though it's pricy, and am moving on to a youth hostel tomorrow. I'll be following Janet's recommendations, trying out more Mandarin, and probably getting ripped off by taxi drivers who can see me coming a mile off.
See Flickr for more pics as I post them...
Hong Kong was great fun, but after a while, you notice how Westernised it really is. All the signs carry English translations of the Cantonese, most people speak English, and all kinds of food, all kinds of everything, are available. Hong Kong sometimes seems like one giant shopping mall, there are so many malls. As for the MTR, the Hong Kong Metro - it's brilliantly intuitive, simple, efficient and clean, kind of like London Underground might be in thirty-odd years. Ex-pats float around the place with something of an air of detached superiority, and go to ex-pat bars where they listen to cheesy Western music, and the older men mix with childlike Filipino girls with unfeasibly short skirts.
I had a great time in Hong Kong, but it was all down to Iris, my buddy from the India Aidcamp back in February. We went to some great places to eat, had a some great nights out, saw Hong Kong from the Peak, and her sister even had me round for dinner with the family. Iris is sadly not taking bookings for further tours.
Now, I'm in Beijing, after a twenty-four hour train ride from Hong Kong, and it seems like a different world. I got into Beijing without a place to stay, a foolish thing to do, but have found a hotel, though it's pricy, and am moving on to a youth hostel tomorrow. I'll be following Janet's recommendations, trying out more Mandarin, and probably getting ripped off by taxi drivers who can see me coming a mile off.
See Flickr for more pics as I post them...
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