Thoughts on China

When I first got to Chengdu (Sichuan province) last Wednesday (2007-10-24), I ate that evening in a local restaurant down the street and the customers were all fixated on the TV screen. There was a rocket, obviously getting ready for takeoff. I tried to find out what was going on, with questions like 那是什么 (Nà shì shénme? i.e., “That is what?”), but I didn’t get any responses. As I ate my meal, the rocket took off and it looked very similar to US space missions in the 1960’s, where they showed mission control and you heard their radio transmissions as you watched (after the rocket was out of sight) artist simulations of what was happening to the spacecraft.

Here is a picture of a rocket model that’s across the way from the Mix Hostel in Chengdu (the Chang’e 1 launched from Sichuan province, where I’m staying…

It was only this morning when I saw an English version of the China Daily paper that I got the answer. I guess I was watching a very big milestone in the Chinese space program - this was the launch of the Chang’e 1, their first unmanned spacecraft that is going to orbit the moon. The name is really cool, as it is the name of the beautiful wife in the mid-Autumn festival story that drinks a potion that her husband was awarded and floats away, to stay forever on the moon, acccompanied only by a jade rabbit and a wood chopper.

To me, the appropriateness of this name underscores the fact that the Chinese have 5000 years of continuous history. Thus, this story is still told every Autumn around the country as the Chinese eat their mooncakes. The American space program names were taken from the mythology of past civilizations that are no longer here, like the Greek Apollo and Roman Mercury. So, I think it’s cool that they can take a name from their everyday culture that also has the same impact from a standpoint of ancient mythology.

Well, I went to the Panda Research Center Friday (2007年10月26号). We had three vans going from the Mix Hostel. We left at 7:40 and got back at about 12:30. There isn’t really a lot to report, other than we saw a lot of pandas and I got my picture taken with both a panda (the baby that sat in your lap was Y1000, or $133, so I went with the two year old that was Y400 ($54). In addition, the picture with the red panda was only Y50 ($7).

Well, here is a link to the rest of the pictures, and here are a few pics:

Scott with Panda (nickname Bamboo monger)

Scott with Red Panda (nickname Apple monger)

A sign that was outside the panda nursery, I guess they figured we needed a reminder…hmmm Panda burgers do sound tasty!

OK, I guess this was the REAL bamboo monger…

More fun with the black and white bears…

Saturday in Chengdu

Well, today (Saturday, 2007年10月27号), I walked around Chengdu, literally. I took the bus to south Chengdu and walked back next to a river that circles the city, about eight miles or so. It was a nice walk, but I didn’t take any pictures and don’t have much to report about it.

Well, after a day spent getting from Jiuzhaigo to Chengdu and getting settled into the Mix Hostel, I went with 5 others from the hostel to see the 乐山大佛 (Lè Shān Dà Fó, or the Giant Buddha at LeShan for those who just want the English name, though I’ll use 乐山大佛 for the remainder of this post). We went in a van with a driver. This was arranged by the hostel at a price of Y550 for the van, or Y92 ($12.25) each for the trip, which was about 2½ hours each way. Taking a public bus, which you have to change to another bus and figure out costs nearly the same, so this was much easier.

In addition, the minivan had a DVD player installed in the passenger rearview mirror, so we watched “Wild Hogs” on the way to and “Mr. Brooks” on the way back from the Giant Buddha. Of course, given the state of things, the Mr. Brooks movie cut out near the end, before you found out what was going to happen and started another movie, “Disturbia”, which didn’t get to the end by the time we got to the hostel, so now we all have two movies we want to finish.

OK, enough about the trip there. First, here is a link to more pics…

So, 乐山大佛, 怎么样 zěnmeyàng? (How about the Giant Buddha?)

Well, as usual, there was the crowd…

But every time I think about complaining about their being a crowd, It always seems that everyone wishes everyone else weren’t there, which is natural, but…I just look in the mirror and realize that I’m one of the crowd and don’t have any more right to seeing this alone than anyone else…

Anyway, the 大佛 was, well, GIGANTIC!!! In the United States, we are so proud of things like Mount Rushmore, which was built in the 20th century using dynamite, etc. This Buddha isn’t just the head, the entire mountain was carved out for the seated Buddha, and it was completed in about ??? 80 years, from 700AD, using the technology available then.

So, what’s so amazing? This is definitely a case of pictures telling a thousand words…

The 大佛的头 (that rhymes, by the way, Dà Fó de tóu)  or Big Buddha’s head (with people in the background for size comparison)

The Buddha (two photos were stitched together for this shot)

People at the Da Fo’s feet

Scott finally understanding how an ant must feel (Da Fo’s toes)

In addition to the 大佛, which was Y70, I bought the other ticket for Y40. I didn’t know what it was for, and I had to walk quite a ways to get there, but it turns out that there is another temple that has a big Buddha in it, then a huge, steep staircase, with other temple structures built around the courtyard at the bottom. Here is a link to a photostitched view that is a lot of pixels, so will take a while to download, if you’re interested. In each of the side buildings, there is a Buddha carved out of the rock, similar, I suppose, to the types of sculptures at the Longmen Grottoes that I wanted to go to but skipped because 我没有时间了 (Wǒ méiyǒu shíjiānle。or, I didn’t have the time).

乐山大佛 is something that I really wanted to see and I’m glad I made the effort to get here. It is a spectacular site and makes you wonder at the industrious nature of those people who lived long ago…

All the pictures for Day 2 are here. This took place on Tuesday, 10/23/2007.Well, after getting a good night’s sleep, a nice hot shower and leisurely getting to the park after 9:00, as opposed to getting there at 7:00 and fighting the crowds just to get entry tickets (for only Y20, you can get an entry pass for your second day, so all you need is the Y90 bus ticket), I was in a much better frame of mind to enjoy the incredible park.

Basically, Jiuzhaigou is about 15 - 20 miles of class 4 and 5 rapids, punctuated with waterfalls that are about 100 yards wide and lakes that are a deep blue, made that way by the naturally occuring calcium in the water. This also preserves trees that fall into the lakes, making them look like surreal entities. Individually, these features make Jiuzhaigou pretty cool, but when they are put together (and the fall colors against the blue lakes are added in), it makes this area really cool!

When I got to the park and took the bus to the first stop (about 12 km or 7 miles into the park), the bus unloaded and went to the boardwalk, which was packed, as you can see…

I thought I was in for another day that was not the most enjoyable, as the crowd moved slowly, or was at a standstill for about 30 minutes. Finally, I got to one of the boardwalks that crossed the river, which was also crowded. But then an amazing thing happened. I had already been to the area further into the park, so I was just going to walk back to the entrance. What I found was that there was almost noone on the other side of the river!!!

So, it was really a great walk in a beautiful park and I ended up being very happy I went back for day 2. I walked about half way with a group of four Chinese ladies, who spoke decent English and we spent the time learning each others languages and taking each others’ pictures. They were going back to Chengdu that afternoon, so they took off to the bus at about 12:30. One of them was from Chengdu, and we all got together, along with her husband, for dinner at one of her favorite restaurants (yes, Allwyn, there are pics of the food!). But that’s another post.

In the meantime, I walked another 2� hours alone and enjoyed it immensely. I played around with the manual settings on the camera and found that I can get a better picture using them, though it’s not as fast as just setting it to automatic and snapping the picture.

Well, that’s all for this post. I’m behind a few days, so I’ll probably write shorter posts to catch up.

Update: OK, I added the pictures. To see more of them, click here. Also, I had a nice long nap this afternoon. I’m going to go back tomorrow and see if I have a different impression. But, here is the unedited first impression…..

Well, if I knew before I came what Jiuzhaigou was like, I wouldn’t have come, at least not for two full days. I saw all I needed to see today, but the plane ticket I booked isn’t until the day after tomorrow. Sorry, I guess I should explain what I’m talking about…

First, let me say that I left the SD card in my room, so I’ll come back and put in some pictures later…

Jiuzhaigou is a Chinese National Park, located in the mountains of Northern Sichuan. Very similar to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, huge tacky tourist towns have been built right outside the gates. In the Smokey Mountains, it’s Cherokee, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Here, I don’t know what it’s called, but it filled up with tourists, tour buses, etc.

I did find a decent restaurant in town by talking with one of the tour bus drivers, who was a nice man who admits he would not go on a tour if and when he gets the money to go on vacation! He said all the ones in the the tourist area (as opposed to the town a couple of kilometers away) are overpriced and not that good.

Today, though, I got up early and got to the park a few minutes after 7:00AM, when it opens. I went through the standard hassles of the nonqueing mentality here, though it wasn’t so bad, since if everybody is cutting in line, nobody minds being cut in on, they just return the favor. So, I got the ticket and hopped on a bus inside the park (the only transportation there). I took it all the way to the end of the park, about 28kms (multiply by .6 to get about 17 miles). Very early, it was easy enough to get away from the madding crowds, but after less than an hour, enough busloads had descended on the park that it was impossible to get away.

Again, the scenery was spectacular, but there’s only so many people bumping into you, taking pictures, crowding on the bus, etc. before it loses its luster. Also, while the waterfalls and clear blue (really) lakes are something, there isn’t a huge variety in what you see, so after the fifth or sixth bus stop (and walk to the next one) I was tired, hungry and had had enough.

I caught the bus to what appeared to be the half way point in the park. It was well equipped with three or four different priced buffets. I had heard that the food at Jiuzhaigou was not very good and was overpriced. I got the Y60 ($8) ticket and was disappointed to find that there was not one item I wanted to take more than one taste of. It was awful!!!

Since I was tired anyway, I just took a bus to the exit and came back to the hostel in a taxi (only a $1 ride). I’ll fill in a couple more details later, but I basically have a day and a half to rest and recuperate in a nice, natural area. I paid the Y20 ($2.67) to make the ticket good for tomorrow, too, but I may go over to Huanglong tomorrow, since I’d still have to pay 90Y ($12) for the bus ticket for tomorrow.

You can see how awesome the waterfalls are when I get the pictures off of my camera.

See you…

Well, on the third day in Xi’an, I went with my hosts, Zhao Xi Hu and Wang Ya Ling, to a Daoist mountain about an hour’s drive from Xi’an. This was apparently the place where Lao Zi made medicine for longevity. It is a state park now and the walk up and down the mountain was very beautiful. We stopped at a couple of places to enjoy some of the fruits and nuts the local people were selling. These included kiwi fruit, walnuts and persimmons. It was very nice and relaxing and the food was delicious! Finally, we walked back down the mountain and visited the Daoist temple there.

After that, we went to one of the two restaurants in town and had a fantastic lunch, which included spicy peanuts, a chicken dish, a sliced beef dish, a spicy dofu dish, ma la mien (hot and numbing noodles) and a soup. These were local dishes that were very tasty!

There was another surprise after the late lunch. We went to a zoo of sorts where they had 12 pandas, as well as red pandas, crested ibises (they said there are only 1000 left and they had over 100 of them), etc.

On the way back to Xi’an, we stopped by a couple of building sites where Zhao Xi Hu wants to get a house. These neighborhoods are being built in traditional Chinese style and look very nice. The prices are comparable to American prices, though, as they want nearly $300,000 for a 2700 sq ft, 3 story house (that is completely bare, without any finishing (such as bathroom fixtures, etc.) at all. Also, the commute might be an issue, as it is about 40km from work in Xi’an. It was very interesting to see what is going on in the real estate world in China.

After checking out the building sites, we went to a tea house and had some oolong served in the traditional tea ceremony style. The proprietor is a friend of Wang Ya Ling’s and he took us on a tour of the second and third stories of his shop, where he has a fantastic collection of teapots, antique furniture and calligraphy. It was really nice to see a collection like this. I felt very privileged!

To end the evening, they dropped my off at the theater where they conduct a show of traditional dances and music. This was definitely a tourist type show, complete with the obnoxious tour bus types, but the costumes, dancing and music was really good and made up for the tourist trappings.

Finally, I got a taxi back to the hotel and went to sleep, since my flight was leaving at 9:40AM today.

The driver arrived late and sped me to the airport, but, as it turns out, the flight is delayed due to mechanical problems, so I took out my computer and wrote this. I’ll add pictures and post it when I get to a place that has an Internet connection.

Hi, again! Once again, I’ve had a long day full of cool things from a long time ago. I was once again accompanied by the same young lady from Hunnan. Today we went around in a taxi. She was invaluable when it came time to eat, since I would never have known what or how to order alone, but more on that later…

Before I begin, here’s a link to today’s pictures…

We started the day at the historical museum here in Xi’an, which is renowned throughout the world with good reason. They had displayed, in four collections (large rooms), an unbelievable array of intact tools, vessels, weapons, etc., from the paleolithic era through several thousand years of China’s history. We had an English speaking guide, who gave her name as “Lily”. She was very knowledgeable and we had a good conversation throughout the tour. It was Y120 ($16) for the personal guided tour and it was well worth it. Lily is interested in ancient European (e.g., Rome) civilization, as well, and discussed the parallels and influences of different cultures on the Chinese artifacts we were seeing.

After that interesting tour, we went to the Wild Goose pagoda. The present structure was built between 701 and 704, during the Tang dynasty. It was important in the introduction of Buddhism into China.

After the Wild Goose Pagoda, we went to the Muslim section of town where we went through the market and then to the old mosque, which is really a nice example of early Chinese architecture.

Then, it was time for lunch. We had steamed dumplings (vegetable and sheep (which is this town’s favorite type of meat, I’m finding)), which were delicious.

After lunch, we went to the Bell and Drum towers, which are about 3 stories each and have some interesting exhibits inside, as well as good views of main boulevards in Xi’an.

We then went to a calligraphy museum known as the Stone Forest (碑林, or bēilín). This also serves as a Confucius (孔夫子, or Kǒngfūzǐ) Miao (temple). What it is, is a collection of over 3000 (only 1/3 of them are on display, due to space constraints) stone tablets from hundreds to thousands of years old, which have had Chinese calligraphy chiseled into them. It is really an amazing collection and lets you see, in one place, all you’d need to develop a history of Chinese characters. I also had an English speaking guide here, who was excellent. I am at a stage where I recognize a number of the characters, but am just starting my learning. Once I become more proficient, I can see how it would be fascinating to spend a great deal of time there.

After the Stone Forest, we walked to the old city wall and walked along it for a stretch.

Finally, we had dinner, consisting of a hot dish of vegetables of some kind (it was good), along with a cold noodle dish that had a peanut butter and hot pepper sauce that was really good and reminded me a little of Thai food. We also had roast sheep kebobs which had a really good, spicy rub applied to them and a mutton soup. I don’t know what all parts of the sheep were in the soup, but I tried them. Some weren’t that great and others were passable. The broth was good. The peanut sauce noodles were my favorite dish.

Finally, we took a taxi back to the hotel at about 7PM, 11 hours after we had started. I’ll sleep well again tonight! Sorry this was more of a laundry list today, but we did so much that it would be a novel if I wrote a lot about each thing.

Update: I forgot to include a link to the rest of the Terra Cotta Warrior (兵马俑, or bīngmǎyǒng) pictures, so here it is…

Well, I don’t know how to write this post. I have received such nice treatment here by my friend’s friends, that I am almost embarrassed to discuss it. I am staying in a wonderful hotel and have had the best food so far (sorry, I didn’t take pictures). They sent a car to pick me up at the airport and we then had dinner together in a private room in the hotel. The courses included a Sichuan fish that was fantastic, and some local specialties, including very nice cold dishes. There was too much food to eat and it was all great! I wish I did bring my camera, as it was truly well presented as well as well prepared.

Well, I then went to sleep and woke up to go to the breakfast buffet. My new friends were there and I had too much to eat because I wanted to try some of everything! This included three types of “soup”, rice congee, a corn soup that would be what grits would be if made into a soup, a noodle soup with spices. I’m going again this morning, so I’ll see if I can take a couple of pictures this time.

Anyway, after breakfast, I went in the car and was accompanied by a very nice girl who is from Hunnan province and is going to school here. She doesn’t speak the best English, nor I the best Chinese, but we communicated OK. We went to the Terra Cotta Warriors (兵马俑, or bīngmǎyǒng, which means “soldiers and horses that are buried with the dead”). Needless to say, they are an impressive sight and it makes you think of how impressive it is that a civilization built a large portion of the Great Wall, had the skills to make this army so skillfully, and many other feats, all well over 2000 years ago! But, enough has been written about this that I can’t add much.

Our next stop was the tomb of the first emperor of China, Chin Shi Huang Di. He was the one that caused all of these wonders to be built. The tomb has not been excavated for a couple of reasons. First, from all the evidence, it appears that the tomb may still be intact, and they want a way to preserve it when it is opened, so the oxygen does not destroy what is found (as, for instance, the vegetable based paint on the terra cotta warriors faded within minutes of contact with oxygen). The second reason is that there were reportedly rivers of mercury buried there as part of a “map” of the world as it was then known. Needless to say, this is extremely toxic and also needs care in excavation. The tomb is a huge mound that was, at one time, almost four times as high. Even now, it is over 3km around. I guess the first emperor did everything on a grand scale. He had work on this tomb begun as soon as he became emperor at age 13. He died in his late 40’s and the tomb was completed two years after his death.

Finally, we went to a hot springs spa and bath for Tang dynasty emperors (they ruled from 618 AD - 906 AD), called Hua Qing Chi. After touring that, we took a cable car up 骊山 (líshān, or Black Horse Mountain). From the top of the cable car, we walked the rest of the way to the top. This was apparently the site of a famous story, which I’ll recount next time, as I have to take a shower and get ready for today’s activities!

By the way, here are some pictures of Beihai Park in Beijing, which I don’t think I linked to before…

and here are more pictures of Tai Shan…

The train ride…

I traveled from Beijing to Tai’an (the town where the mountain, Tai Shan, is located) in a class called hard sleeper. There are hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper classes. I have way too much baggage, but was able to stow it in an overhead bin that runs along the side of the train opposite the sleepers. In each hard sleeper berth, there are six bunk beds. Mine was the middle right one. A lady who worked as a journalist for a newspaper about coal production occupied the other middle berth. We exchanged business cards and I correctly figured out that her surname was Lin (since one of the characters in the Chinese Practical Reader I use to learn Chinese also has that name). We talked for a while. She knew just enough English and I knew just enough Chinese that we were able to communicate pretty well. After that, I read for a while and got some shuteye.

I had booked the train through the Lotus Hostel in Beijing. All they had were hard seats on Saturday, which is why I stayed through Monday. Anyway, I didn’t inquire as to the arrival time in Tai’an, which turned out to be about 2:00 AM! There were quite a few taxi drivers hustling business (which I was warned not to get rides from those who are soliciting, but I finally just thought that I wouldn’t mind paying a little bit extra just to get to a hotel and settle in). As it turned out, the driver who kept trying to help me with my bags drove me a decent distance to a hotel and only asked 5RMB (or 66 cents). I gave him 10, since he was honest and hard working.

I got checked into the hotel and went to sleep, readying myself for the climb a few hours later.

Tai Shan

I was thinking I’d climb the mountain and then stay overnight to see the sunrise, so I didn’t start out for the mountain until about 10:00 in the morning (yesterday, 2007-10-16). I got a taxi to the bottom of the mountain and started up. I only saw one other foreigner all day, (I’ll discuss that later), so I was treated specially. There are two things that seemed evident: 1) Everyone in China knows how to say “Hello!” and 2) most people want to have their picture taken with an American. I’ve read many people’s accounts where they say the “Hello!” becomes annoying; however, I find it more endearing. Chinese have to take English in school and most of them don’t ever see foreigners to be able to use it. I also didn’t mind having my picture taken so much. I had a few of them take a picture with my camera, too, to remember all the picture taking!

I didn’t find the climb near as strenuous as the Great Wall section, though I did have to take breaks to let my legs recover as the climb progressed. There were various temples along the way, which gave a natural break. There was a lot of incense sold and red banners put in places with locks, all of which, I believe, are done with the intention of creating good luck for the people doing these things. Most of the temples were Taoist, though Lao Tsu (the founder of Taoism) really was a philosopher and emphasized being at one with nature. The same is true of the Buddha, who never taught religion, but philosophy. The religion and “gods” associated with Taoism and Buddhism in China are more of an add on of local beliefs and customs. I, personally, really like both of the philosophies, but let others practice the religion.

Anyway, I ended up walking the last half of the mountain with another guy who was traveling alone. We took each others’ pictures at the various gates along the way. We reached the summit in the early afternoon. I drank a lot of water on the way up, as well as having a couple of prepackaged ice cream cones, a couple slices of watermelon, a sweet potato (which was really delicious!), as well as some fried dofu (tofu) and pork noodles at a restaurant at the summit. Many people take a cable car to the summit.

At about 4:00 or so, I realized that my schedule was to be in Xi’an the next day (today), so instead of staying overnight on the mountain, I took the cable car and then a bus down to the base and a taxi back to the hotel, where I had my bags put in storage. There, I arranged a flight for today and slept soundly last night. I’m writing this at about 8:00AM on Wednesday, 2007-10-17. I don’t know when I’ll be able to post it. I’m going to take my laptop to the Internet cafe and see if I can hookup to the Internet directly, so that I can put my pictures and this post up before I leave Tai’an.

Well, I’ve been in Beijing a few days longer than I had planned, but I have really enjoyed the time I spent here. In my blog, I’ve concentrated on the positive parts of my experience, since many people seem to not get past people spitting and the pollution (which, except for one day, didn’t seem to bad to me for a city of Beijing’s size).

The best parts of Beijing are the parks and the friendly people. There are so many people that there are plenty of people hired to pick up litter, making the parks not only very well landscaped, but also litter free. The people are always willing to help and always offer you some of whatever they’re eating.

The worst parts of Beijing are the many areas under construction (I wonder how much asbestos they use/have used in the buildings that are being torn apart creating clouds of dust?) and perhaps the bank, where you have to wait at least about 30 minutes to conduct a simple transaction (Tip: debit cards work here, so don’t get traveler’s cheques for Beijing), and finally the crowds of people wearing the same baseball caps following a shepard with a flag and a bullhorn that are ubiquitous at the famous tourist spots.

Well, my next stop is Taishan, a famous mountain in China. It is located south of Beijing in Shandong province. After the Great Wall, my legs are already complaining to me about my plan to scale more that 6600 steps. Well, we’ll see.

I’m not sure what hotel I’ll be staying at or for how long, since it may be tricky getting a sleeper out of Taishan. My next plans depend on how easy it is getting a train out of Taishan in a timely manner. The longer I have to stay, the more likely I’ll be skipping the Shaolin Temple and Longmen Grottoes.

So, if I haven’t updated this in a few days, it is because I’m somewhere on Mt. Taishan and I’ll try to make a full report when I get finished!