License to idyll

I’ve spent several days riding a sturdy mountain bike through the idyllic countryside, where peasants work their tiny plots of land along the Lijiang River among the karst peaks.

The beautiful experience was hard work, as the concrete road changed to gravel, then dirt, then a bumpy stone path through a village, and finally to a dike between the paddies. The peasants knew where I was going, and pointed me out of their fields.

Most people I passed along the river shouted “hello bamboo” at me. The locals think that all visitors’ greatest desire is to ride on a bamboo raft. Not for an exorbitant 150 RMB ($20)! At least Chinese tourists pay the same price. One of the best things about China is the absence of dual pricing. Both foreigners and Chinese tourists are rich in the eyes of the impoverished locals, and are equally ripped off.

Cool karsts

The villages I rode through, while not destitute, were poor. A lot of money is going into Yangshuo and the surrounding tourist sites. That money isn’t doing much, if any, good for the people in the countryside.

As nice as Yangshuo is, my nine day PSB enforced holiday has been too long, and I am ready to move on.

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"Long hair" woman

Before heading to the big city of Shanghai, I figured I would get away from it all by heading for the Longji Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces. So I took a bus two hours to another world. A much poorer world populated by the Zhuang and several other minority people, some wearing traditional costumes. The women of the Zhuang grow their hair down to their feet, which they wrap around their heads in a sort of hat of hair.

The terraces were disorienting, and I couldn’t figure out where I was. There was a near village, which I thought I was going to, but the bus took me to the far village. It was lovely, with wooden houses set among the amazing terraced hills. A woman led me 30 minutes into the hills to a small village were her hotel was. It was of the flimsy plywood variety that anyone who hiked in Nepal know well. I had the whole place to myself. I had the whole village, consisting of five plywood hotels, to myself too, until a noisy group of Chinese tourists arrived. Once the karaoke died down it was a peaceful place. Until the owners started shouting at each other and slamming furniture around. Were they fighting? I don’t think so. It was just a typical Chinese conversation.

The next day I wanted to walk to the other village, which the people at the hotel couldn’t understand. Why would I want to walk when I could take a bus? So they took me to the road instead of the trail. Along the way there were good views of the terraces, but unfortunately at this time of year they are dry and brown.

Village on the dragon's backbone

I walked on the road for two hours, which wasn’t fun because of the honking busses and trucks. The scenery wasn’t good either. The valley was nice, but the new road was like an open sore cut across the hills. Eventually I flagged down a bus to the crossroads, then a car up to the village.

It was a beautiful place, but it was absolutely packed with groups of Chinese tourists. Despite the beauty, it was an artificial place, consisting entirely of plywood hotels and restaurants. As is usual in places like this, a short walk away from the main sites left me in complete solitude. During my explorations I met an American man making a documentary. He picked the wrong time of year, because his subject was brown and shrouded in haze.

It occurred to me that I didn’t have to spend the night in the city of Guilin while I waited for my train to leave the next night, so I headed back to Yangshuo for the third time, where I could eat good food, get a good Chinese massage, drink beer, and dance the night away with the Chinese tourists. It was better than sitting alone in an expensive hotel room in Guilin.

My train to Shanghai leaves tonight at 3:00 am.

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Is this China?

I wasn’t surprised by Shanghai at first. Initially, it seemed like another huge cookie cutter Chinese city. Huge cities are difficult for travelers like me. They are expensive, and it’s difficult to find anything in them. I wanted to leave as soon as I stepped out of the train station.

But I quickly noticed interesting things about the city. Like its size. Simply calling it “huge” doesn’t do it justice. And its different, like nowhere else in China. Walking the streets and looking at the buildings, it’s readily apparent that Shanghai is a European creation. Strangely, it feels like Chicago, and the Bund is Lakeshore Drive. This would make Shanghai an easy and interesting city to live in, but not a particularly exciting place to visit.

The future of China

What does one do in a city where one does not speak the language (Shanghainese) or have any friends? Go to museums. So I visited the world class Shanghai museum, which was excellent, and wandered the narrow, un-Chinese streets.

I was in for a Shanghai surprise, though. As I walked down Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s neon shopping street full of pushy guys grabbing me and trying to sell watches, shoes, bags, massages, or anything else, who should I see but one of my Chinese students from Thailand! It really is a small world.

I met the only honest person on Nanjing Road, a Chinese woman visiting Shanghai by herself for the first time. The city was new and confusing for both of us, so we spent the day sightseeing, which involved hours of walking. Luckily she could ask directions, but would not understand if the reply was in Shanghainese. Lili had to catch a train home that night, putting an end to our budding friendship.

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Xi'an's bell tower

Xi’an was the first capital of a unified China. The unifying was done by China’s first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, from whom the country takes its name. Qin Shi Huang aspired to create the ultimate police state, where his subjects followed him unquestioningly. According the philosophy he ruled by, legalism, he was not just above the law, he was the law. Thus, no free thought could be tolerated. Neighborhood committees watched each other, books were burnt, and scholars were buried alive. He established the idea of an unquestionable central government, which served as a model for Mao Zedong’s ruthless methods and still haunts China to this day.

As capital of China and start of the Silk Road, Xi’an was one of the greatest cities in the world 2000 years ago. Today, like many Chinese cities, Xi’an is clean, modern, and pleasant with no trace of history. Even the ancient walls are new. However, scattered about are some interesting sites: the world class Shaanxi History Museum, the Forest of Steles Museum with its enormous “books” carved into huge slabs of stone, including what must be the world’s heaviest tourist brochure, and the narrow streets, shops, and delicious snacks of the Muslim Quarter with its Great Mosque, built in Chinese style. Then there’s the attraction that makes Xi’an the #2 destination in China, and a must see: the army of Terra Cotta Warriors guarding the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. The Warriors really are remarkable, because of the amazing detail, and the sheer numbers of them, but many travelers walk away disappointed because they expected too much.

Better in person

It goes without saying that the sites were swarming with tourists, both Chinese and foreign. But the tourists get shuttled from site to site then back to their hotels, leaving the city to the Chinese. Walking the streets is a very Chinese experience, and some people looked at me as if they never saw a foreigner before as I ambled about in the cold.

Like most orderly Chinese cities, it’s difficult to find food if you don’t know where to go. There are no vendors on the streets, and the cheap noodle restaurants are confined to the side streets and alleys. I never found the noodle shops in Xi’an, but across from my hostel were stands selling delicious Muslim snacks: meat on a stick, bread, and sandwiches. I put a meal together every night for 10 RMB (about a dollar), and it was some of the best food I had in China.

Now I’ll be taking my last train trip in China, to Beijing. As much as I have enjoyed China, three months is a long time to be on the road. I look forward to seeing Beijing, but I am also counting down the days until I fly home.

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The Forbidden City

Beijing, the political and cultural capital of the People’s Republic of China, is the perfect place to spend my last week. Most people start in Beijing, but I’m glad I didn’t, because I would have been comparing everywhere I went to it, and nowhere else compares.

Like its counterparts, Beijing is big, modern, and pleasant. But it doesn’t feel sterilized, because if you leave the wide, busy boulevards and head down a hutong, or alley, you enter another world, the China I imagined. People crowd throught the busy little streets packed with vendors selling food and trinkets, and shops and restaurants line the sides. It won’t be difficult to eat in Beijing.

All the excitement in the hutong would make Beijing an interesting place to live, but there’s lot’s to keep tourists busy too. Since I only had an afternoon today, I started with some minor sites around Tiananmen Square. If Shanghai was Chicago, Beijing is Washington D.C., and Tiananmen Square is the Mall.

Chinese dragon

First I went to Mao Zedong’s mausoleum. I was prepared to find the site of the embalmed Great Helmsman disturbing, but we passed through so fast it was hard to see him, and what I did catch a glimpse of looked like wax. As we passed through the first room where people were leaving flowers, a woman started shouting. The guards promptly removed her to the next room, where the shouting continued. The people laughed uncomfortably.

Next I went to the Great Hall of the People, which would be the equivalent of the Capital Building, but built in bland Soviet style. But the body that meets here, the National People’s Congress, is more of a rubber stamp than a legislative body. It was interesting to see the room they show on Chinese TV where the cadres sit and agree with what their leaders say.

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For Emperors only

There is so much to see in Beijing I have been running around in the freezing cold trying to see everything: the Forbidden City, some of the temple parks, and the Lama Temple.

The Lama Temple was interesting because it’s the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. While the statuary, including the 30 m standing Maitreya Buddha (Buddha of the future), which a plaque from Guinness confusing proclaims may or may not be in the Guinness Book of World Records, are Tibetan, the architecture is thoroughly Chinese. That’s because the place was converted into a lamasery from a palace in 1722 in honor of a visit from the Dalai Lama. The complex is in good shape; a plaque proclaims it survived the “so-called Cultural Revolution unscathed due to the intervention of Zhou Enlai,” who also saved the Potalla Palace in Lhasa. The temple was active, as well as being a tourist attraction, but there were no Tibetans. Those making offerings were all pretty, young Chinese women.

"Great" doesn't do it justice

I’m constantly amazed at the ignorance foreign visitor have about China. To fully appreciate China, which often appears to be a modern, bland metropolis, some knowledge of its history, culture, and language is required, and I don’t have enough of any of those. But most people have absolutely none. As I passed Tiananmen Square, some American women asked me what the big red building with Chairman Mao’s picture on it was.

The majesty of the Forbidden city was diminished only by the fact that it is all outside, requiring me to spend hours in the freezing cold. Afterwards I visited the temple parks behind the complex, so I spent the entire day outside. Thankfully my hostel has a heater.

Another day I walked to the Temple of Heaven, another full day in the cold. The temple was more interesting for watching people exercising, playing mahjong, and playing instruments, rather than for its dilapidated buildings.

Great climb

An aspect of Beijing that I find fascinating is that it’s so Chinese. It’s the capital of a huge country becoming a global power, so I know there are many foreigners here, but outside of the tourist sites I never see them. Even when I ride the subway, I am the only foreigner.

The highlight of Beijing, and perhaps all of China, was the Great Wall. There are several Wall sites around Beijing, some swarming with so many tourists you can’t move. I chose a site far from the city with extremely steep climbs, making it unpopular. That, coupled with the freezing weather meant a deserted Wall in a spectacular mountain setting. The Wall was built along the tops of hills and mountains, so it was remarkable to behold it snaking into the distance. This section had narrow walls, unlike the huge walls you see in pictures, and many sections were in ruins, adding to the charm. But the 10 km hike was strenuous, and a couple sections were rather terrifying, with 100 m climbs practically straight up narrow little steps and nothing to hold on to. Fearing heights, and imagining tumbling backwards into oblivion, I scurried up on all fours. Despite the scary parts, it was a rewarding and exhausting day.

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Last view of the Great Wall

That’s what this trip has been all about. And I’ve seen some amazing sights. Natural wonders, like the Tiger Leaping Gorge and the karst pinnacles of Yangshuo. I’ve seen man made wonders, like the Great Wall and the Potalla Palace. But I haven’t come any closer to understanding China, or the Chinese. That would require good knowledge of the Chinese language, because most Chinese people don’t speak English. Even in Beijing, the capital, merchants don’t know English numbers. It’s hard to make friends when you can’t talk to them.

I’ve been looking forward to going home since Kunming. After all, that was the end of the heart of my trip: Chengdu to Kunming the long way. Everything else was a bonus, but after two months I was tired of packing and unpacking and being sick all the time. But now that it’s time to go I feel strange, like my work in China is not done. But I have to go home, it’s been so long. And I’m ready to go home. But I know that someday I will return to China.

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